About Tip-Top Labradors
Tip-Top Labradors was started by Michelle Babb in 2009. Her father brought home a yellow Labrador retriever named Duke in 2007. Michelle fell in love with the breed! In fact, her whole family did. In 2009, she started looking into labs she could find locally and that is when she came across an ad for silver labs. She went out and looked at pups from local breeders and absolutely fell in love with the color. She ended up bringing home the sweetest silver female, named Scarlett. Michelle was an experienced pet owner who had always adopted and rescued her dogs. She truly believed that all dogs were made equal. Unfortunately, she quickly found that this was not the case. She started having many problems with Scarlett ranging from ear infections, hair loss, allergies and hip problems. This started her on a quest into researching labs, problems they are prone to and how the breed could be improved. She continues to learn so many things about Labrador retrievers, including the genetic diseases that they are predisposed to, hip, elbow, heart and eye problems, health and nutrition. She started researching the pedigrees from many different lines of labs and learned to differentiate between a quality pedigree and a substandard pedigree. She has so much love and respect for for this breed, it has become her passion to make every effort possible, to improve it with each breeding that takes place at Tip-Top. In 2018, Michelle married the love of her life and it just so happens that he shares a passion for labs and puppies as well. Tip-Top is now shared between Michelle and David Heathcock. We both strive to produce high quality Labrador retrievers for family pets, hunt and show prospect, and service dogs. Here at Tip-Top we produce every color of lab including: Black, yellow, chocolate, silver, charcoal, champagne and fox red.
All of our dogs that are in our breeding program are AKC registered Labrador Retrievers. We select our dogs based on their pedigrees, confirmation, temperament, trainability and health. We put a lot of effort into researching pedigrees to find dogs that perfectly align with the values we have in our program. All of our dogs undergo complete genetic testing for every disease known to Labrador retrievers. We also evaluate and certify through the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) each dogs hips, elbows, patella’s, teeth and heart hearts. Some of our dogs also possess titles through AKC for hunt and obedience.
Our promise to you – is to ensure we stay up to date on the latest research and genetics of the Labrador breed. We strive to provide healthy and happy puppies. Each of our puppies start off with early neurological stimulation at the age of 3 days. They are handled every day, exposed to different textures, sounds, and sights. Benefits to this include: improved cardio vascular performance, strong adrenal glands, increased tolerance to stress and increased resistance to disease. Each of our puppies will come with their dew claws removed by our vet, dewormed at 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks old, age appropriate vaccinations, microchipped, AKC registration paperwork, a health and hip guarantee, and a puppy care package. Although Michelle is a nurse and is able to care for and recognized when things are not right, our puppies will always be seen and cleared by a licensed veterinarian.
