LRR's Philosophy

For the past several years, the Labrador Retriever has been the most popular breed of dog in America. Because of this fact, there is an ever increasing (and astonishing) number of homeless and abandoned Labrador Retrievers in our area. Labrador Retrievers are loving loyal dogs who make wonderful family pets. They can also be emotionally and physically "high maintenance" pets, just like many other dog breeds. Many people purchase Labs not realizing their daily need for exercise and human interaction. These are the Labs that may eventually be abandoned at local shelters or surrendered to rescue organizations.

In 1993, LRR was created to fill a need for a purebred Labrador Retriever rescue organization in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Although there are other rescue organizations in our area, we believe our rescue is unique in the amount of care we provide to our Labs and adopters. Our organizers were involved with other rescue groups in the area before they decided to start LRR. Because of this experience, they were able to use their knowledge of rescue techniques and incorporate them into this organization. In doing so, they developed their own unique philosophies concerning the rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming of Labs. One unique feature of LRR is that we do not hold public adoption events. We believe that the decision to bring a dog into your life should not be a hasty one and should not be decided at a public event. Dogs become stressed at these events and it is difficult to see the true personality of the dog in these situations. As an organization, we strongly believe that matching our Labs with the perfect owners is of utmost importance, so we take the extra time to thoroughly evaluate both our Labs and potential adopters. We evaluate our Labs both physically and emotionally so that we can provide to potential adopters information, both good and bad, concerning the Lab's character.