Ridgeline Labradors
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Field-bred Labradors from the Bitterroot Valley.

We're the Kesslers — Matt, Jodi and our daughter Hannah — outside Corvallis, Montana. We breed one or two litters a year of black, yellow and chocolate Labs from hunt test and field trial lines, for people who hunt and for families who will train. Every health result on this site carries its OFA number.

See the 2026 litterHow to get a puppy

Call hours Mon–Thu, 6–8 pm Mountain · (406) 555-0147

  • AKCBreeder of Merit
  • since 2009
  • 21 litters
  • 1 of 6available
Skye, a yellow Labrador, leaping into the water among dry reeds

Where things stand

Hazel and Bodie's six puppies are seven weeks old today. Five are reserved; matching calls are tomorrow, October 8, and they go home from October 14. One yellow male, Smith, is open to an approved home with a field plan.

Our next litter is Rye × Tucker, expected in April 2027. Five approved families hold deposits; we're taking two more. After that we'll close the list rather than promise puppies we can't count on.

Last updated October 7, 2026.

Hazel × Bodie, born August 19, 2026

1 of 6 available

This litter and the next

The black and yellow puppies of Hazel and Bodie's litter sitting together on the grass
Litter

Hazel × Bodie

Born August 19, 2026 · 3 black, 3 yellow

1 of 6 available

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Rye, the planned litter's dam, charging through the shallows of a lake
Litter

Rye × Tucker

Planned · expected spring 2027

5 deposits held · 2 places open

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This year's parents

What you can check before you call us

Every result, with its number

OFA hips, elbows, eyes and heart, the full DNA panel and a CHIC number for every adult — including Hazel's DM carrier status and Rye's EIC carrier status.

Our health program

One price, said out loud

$2,800 for every puppy. $500 deposit after approval, credited to the price. A 30-month hip, elbow and eye guarantee in writing.

Price & terms

Raised in the house, started on birds

Whelped in Jodi's office off the kitchen. Wings at six weeks, water at the pond's edge, car rides, kids, a vet visit — and no gunfire near puppies, ever.

How we raise them

We take them back. Always.

Any Ridgeline dog, at any age, for any reason. It has happened four times in seventeen years, and every one of those dogs is in a good home today.

The contract

From the litter diary

  1. October 7, 2026

    Day 49: weights, and matching is tomorrow

    Everyone weighed in this morning between 8 lb 12 oz (Willow) and 11 lb even (Boulder). All six are on four soaked meals a day and Hazel only checks in at night now.

    Matching calls start tomorrow, Thursday, from 9 am. We'll call each family in deposit order and talk through the evaluation sheet before we say which pup we'd put with you — you can say no, and nobody loses their place for it.

  2. October 5, 2026

    Week 7: evaluations and microchips

    Day 47 is evaluation day. Our friend Dave, an AKC hunt test judge who has never met these puppies, ran each one through the same test in a room they'd never been in: following, restraint, retrieving a paper ball, the wing on a string, a dropped pan, an opening umbrella. We video it and send each family their pup's clip after matching.

    Microchips went in the same afternoon. Nobody cried except Teton, who objects to everything on principle.

  3. Boulder, wet from his first swim at the pond's edge, crouched on the grass

    September 30, 2026

    Week 6: first shots, first wings, first pond

    First DAPPv vaccine and the week-6 deworming this morning. In the afternoon, frozen pheasant wings in the puppy yard: Teton and Willow stole them, Boulder carried one around for ten minutes, Smith slept on his.

    It was 74°F, so we walked them down to the shallow edge of the pond. Boulder swam first. No gunfire anywhere near them — that waits until they love birds, at five or six months, with your trainer.

From people who hunt with our dogs

Kodiak picked up 41 ducks and 6 geese for us last season, his first full one, and he's still the softest dog in the house. Matt told us he'd be slow to grow up. He was. Worth it.
Kodiak, a chocolate Ridgeline male from the 2025 litter, in tall prairie grass under a blue skyJake & Erin, Devils Lake, ND — Kodiak, 2025 litter (Hazel × Tucker)
We sent Jodi a list of questions before we even applied. She answered all nineteen, including the ones about the hernia she'd found at Bruno's eight-week check. He's had no trouble since.
Bruno, a chocolate Ridgeline male from the 2025 litter, looking out across the yard in his collarMegan & Luis, Missoula, MT — Bruno, 2025 litter (Hazel × Tucker)
Gus does pheasants with me from October to January and bumpers in the stock pond the rest of the year. The training plan they sent home got us through the first six months.
Gus, a yellow Ridgeline male from the 2025 litter, splashing through water with a bumperWade, Mitchell, SD — Gus, 2025 litter (Hazel × Tucker)

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