Welcome to Little Touch of Heaven Labradors!

Welcome to Little Touch of Heaven Labradors, an up and coming, small family run breeding program located in the coastal town of Apalachicola in the panhandle of Florida. Here at LTH Labs we are working to breed quality AKC registered Labrador Retrievers of traditional and dilute colors: black, chocolate, yellow, silver (dilute chocolate), charcoal (dilute black), and champagne (dilute yellow). Labradors are a loyal, loving, and eager-to-please kind of dog with a natural retriever instinct giving them the potential to do many jobs. We believe that the Labrador is second to none when it comes to duck hunting, pheasant hunting, squirrel hunting, dove hunting, shed collecting, blood trailing and simply being a faithful companion. Their beautiful coat, loving eyes, and temperament are unbeatable. At LTH Labs, our goal is to produce a “dual purpose” Labrador because in most situations a Labrador is a hunting companion about 10% of the time and a companion the rest of the time! Therefore, our breeding program is aimed at carefully maintaining the hunting and retrieving heritage of Labradors by acquiring Labradors from proven hunting backgrounds while also focusing on their nature, trainability, intelligence, and health. Our goal is to, in turn, pass these characteristics on to future offspring through carefully planned breedings. So whether you are looking for an energetic, go get ‘um retriever, a constant companion, or both, our “all around” quality Labrador puppies will quickly become members of your family for years to come.

To maintain a quality breeding program, we are in the process of working to gain the AKC recommended health clearances for all of our breeding Labradors, including Hip/Elbow OFA certification, PRA/PRCD, EIC, and CNM. To ensure the health of our puppies, all puppies will be vet health certified, vaccinated and wormed. We also offer a written health and 26 month hip guarantee on all of our Labrador puppies.

About Us

Bryce and Karen have been married for 27 years and have two sons, Zach and wife Katie, and Seth and fiancé Payton, who are all a big part of LTH Labs. Karen is a middle school teacher and Bryce owns a construction company located here in Franklin County. The Ward’s love of Labradors began with their first black Lab, Sasha, purchased in 1986 during their first few months of marriage. Sasha was one of the most intelligent retrievers ever and set the standard high for future Ward-owned Labradors! In 2010 we lost our 11 year old Labrador, Pepper (also a black female), and after a “lab-less” year decided it was time to find another companion for our youngest son, Seth. Casey, also a black female, joined our family in June of 2011 and proved herself to be just as intelligent and driven to retrieve as our original Sasha! Casey comes from a line of field trial labs and is an energetic, skilled retriever who loves to retrieve in the water more than life itself. This beautiful and energetic black gal encouraged a lifetime of love for Labs to turn into a new hobby, breeding Labradors. We are proud to announce that Casey was the mother of LTH Labs’ first litter of puppies. We enjoyed the puppies immensely and kept Sailor from her litter. Casey is now living in Orlando with a large family of duck hunters where she is fulfilling her lifelong dream of retrieving from daylight ‘til dark! We miss her but believe matching a high energy dog with a high energy family makes everyone happy! We have carefully researched breeding/raising Labradors and with the help of several great seasoned breeders, have added several females and one male to our breeding program. We look forward to having more puppies in the future as our gals mature and are ready to breed.

The Future

We enjoyed our first litter of puppies at Little Touch of Heaven Labradors and look forward to many litters in the future. We are currently working with our dogs daily to assess their retrieving ability, intelligence, and temperament to help guide our breeding selections. In addition, we are ready to begin the task of achieving AKC Canine Good Citizen and AKC Junior Hunter titles on several of our dogs this spring. Keep checking back for progress reports as we work to achieve titles.