How it works
How it works
Most families take three to nine months from first message to puppy. We're slow on purpose: we'd rather lose an impatient buyer than place a field-bred Lab in a home that finds out in month three it wanted a different dog.
The nine steps
1. Read
This site first — especially Health, Price & terms, and 'Is a field Lab right for you?'. Most of what we'd say on the phone is here.
2. Questionnaire
About ten minutes. We read every one ourselves and answer within a week, including when it's a no.
Start it3. Phone call
30 to 45 minutes about how you hunt or want to, your home, your days, and the dogs you've had. Bring questions.
4. Visit or video call
Come and meet our adults, not just puppies — Saturdays, by appointment. More than a day's drive away? We do a video call.
5. Approval
By email, with your place on the list for a named litter. Families who aren't matched keep their place for the next one.
6. Deposit
$500, only after approval, credited to the price. We send the contract with the receipt, so you read it weeks ahead.
7. The litter
Birth announcement the same day, a weekly diary and photos, visits from week 4.
8. Matching at 7 weeks
After the day-47 evaluation we suggest the puppy for your home and explain why. You say yes, or wait a litter without losing your place.
9. Go-home day and after
At 8 weeks, here or at Missoula airport. A call after the first week, the owners' group, the June reunion, and us for life.
The questions people ask about the process
Who chooses the puppy?
We do, with you. After the day-47 evaluation we suggest the puppy we think fits your home and your hunting, and explain why. You can say no and keep your place. Deposit order decides who talks to us first, not who gets 'pick'.
Can I ask for a color or sex?
Yes, on the questionnaire. We'll do our best, but a litter decides its own colors, and the right temperament matters more. Families who can only take one color sometimes wait a litter.
How long is the wait?
For 2027: five approved families hold deposits for Rye × Tucker, and we expect six to eight puppies. Two more places are open. Applications after that go on the list for 2028.
Visiting
Adults any time by appointment. Puppies from week 4, on Saturdays, one family at a time: shoes off or boot covers, hands washed, no visits the same day as another kennel or a dog park.
What the questionnaire asks
Who lives with you, your home and yard and its fence, how long a dog would be alone, who looks after it when you can't, your dog history including any you've rehomed, what you want to do with the dog, your timeline and preferences.
If we say no
We tell you why, and usually what breed or kind of Lab might suit you better. About one application in four is a no.
How to know it's really us
This is our only website. Our phone number is (406) 555-0147 and our email ends in @ridgelinelabradors.com — nothing else is us.
We never ship a puppy you haven't met, by air cargo or by ground transport. We never take gift cards, crypto, Zelle or a wire to anyone but us, and we never ask for 'crate', 'insurance' or 'customs' fees. If someone shows you our photos with a different phone number, the photos are stolen; please tell us.