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Our Labs
Our Labs can be described in many ways, however they are first and foremost our pets and companions.
Each of them have their own traits and personality that set them apart from each other and yet
all possess the many fine attributes and characteristics that well bred Labradors are known for.
Our Labs have enriched our lives in many ways. They are always a source of happiness and
compassion and interaction with them makes even the worst day better. We believe that there are
many lessons that we have learned from our labs and that they have many lessons for us to learn
The majority of our Labradors would be classified by us as the 'English' type. The word 'English'
has come to refer to a Labrador with a square or 'blocky' head, a well muscled body with thick
bone in both the front and rear legs, and a soft kind expression. The term 'English' is used
because many of the most influential Labradors that defined the breed as we know it today came
from England. We feel that all of our males fit this description and many of our females have
strong 'English' characteristics as well.
We own and produce all three American Kennel Club recognized colors of Labrador Retrievers;
yellow, black, and chocolate. Two of these colors have variations in the them; chocolate and yellow.
Some of our chocolates are a deep dark chocolate color and while others are a lighter shade of
chocolate with some having an almost reddish brown tint to their coats. Our yellows cover
the entire spectrum from a light yellow almost white to a dark yellow or fox red variation
of yellow.
Our Labs range in size from the smallest at roughly 60 pounds to our biggest at 110 pounds.
The majority of our labs fall between the 75 - 85 pound range. Regardless of their height or
weight all of our Labs have a calm, laid back temperament.
Our Labs are the result of a commitment of over 20 years in raising and breeding quality
Labrador Retrievers. Our labs today have descended from some of our first Labradors and
represent an achieved goal of breeding the best possible Labrador that we can.
Our goal is to produce a sound healthy Labrador that will excel first and foremost as a
companion and secondly will be able to compete in the many areas that Labrador Retrievers
have mastered, i.e. hunting, service work, and therapy work to name just a few.
We have used some of the top sires in the country to produce some of our litters and
constantly strive to produce sound Labrador retrievers better than what we currently
have that will excel first as a companion and then be able to fulfill the many versatile
roles that a well bred Labrador retriever has mastered.
The purchase price for one our puppies depends on the litter with prices starting at $800.00,
please email or call with any questions. We accept deposits ($150.00) on puppies from
before the litter is whelped up until they are seven weeks of age and ready for their
new home. This deposit will hold a puppy for you to pick from in the litter. Picks in a
litter are determined by receipt of a deposit. We are happy to show you puppies and
their parents as soon as a litter is old enough to be viewed, usually after one to
two weeks of age. Before making any appointment we ask that you and the members of
your household are ready to committ to all of the responsibilities involved with
being a responsible and caring dog owner.
Our History
We started raising Labradors in 1983 with the acquisition of our first lab, Amber. She was
pure bred, however when she came to live with us no papers or paperwork was ever presented and
we were just happy to have her. Amber was bred from excellent hunting stock and had the look
typical of many field labs in that she was on the taller slide, very slender, and had a
longer muzzle and narrow head. She was a true multi purpose Labrador as she was an excellent
pet and companion and had no equal in the public gamelands of Ohio where she could find any
pheasant in any weather. Amber is pictured below.
It wasn't until the next year that we purchased our first Labrador eligible to be registered
with the American Kennel Club, Rumajas King Buckingham, aka Buck. It was with the arrival of
Buck that we decided to create a kennel name that we would register our Labradors with. Rumajas
was chosen as a kennel name to represent a family effort of the three children of
the Krivak family. The kennel name was formed by taking the first two letters of my name Russ,
my brother Matt, and sister Jamie and adding an 's' at the end.
Buck was the ultimate expression of the term 'English lab' as his father was imported f
rom Great Britain. He had a massive square head, stocky body and massive bone, and a well
mannered even going temperament. Buck had an excellent pedigree containing many of the best
dogs that the Sandylands Labrador Kennel ever produced combined with excellent dogs in the
United States. Despite his strong conformation pedigree and background Buck made an
excellent hunter and complimented Amber quite well providing more strength in going under
and through brush while she provide finesse and speed. Buck would be our foundation stud
dog for the first eight years of our breeding program.
For the next three years Amber and Buck would be our companions often roaming the 20
acres that we owned and the surrounding areas as well. We would hunt pheasants with them
every fall at Spencer Wildlife preserve and would often reach our limit on birds. We would
go hunting long after they were done stocking the fields and this is where Amber and Buck's
hunting skills would shine. Over this course of time Amber and Buck had several all yellow litters. Despite that fact that they resembled Labradors in every way they were not eligible to be registered with the American Kennel Club. All of Amber and Buck's puppies grew up to be excellent companions and in many cases excellent hunters. With the desire to own and produce black Labradors we would acquire, Rumajas Lady Bay, Bay in 1987. Bay was registered with the American Kennel Club and when she matured she would be bred with Buck to produce several excellent litters together.
Bay
(pictured to the left) was a black female sired out of Am. Ch. Heatherwood's Midnight Echo
who had an excellent temperament combined with a solid pedigree. Together with Buck she
produced several great litters over the years of black and yellow puppies. It was at this
point that Rumajas Labradors was formed and would provide the foundation for Amber Sky Labradors.
After we acquired Bay we committed ourselves to becoming more knowledgeable about the breed and
sought out advice from other breeders to begin to develop our own distinctive line of Labradors.
We would learn and understand the importance of evaluating a pedigree through examination
of the dogs it contained and what Labrador kennels produced them. We became students of
genetics and learned the importance of health screenings on hips, elbows, heart, and eyes.
We would perform these health screenings on Buck and Bay with both of the passing. We would
begin to develop an eye for desireable traits in Labradors and begin to discern those traits
in our puppies.
As a result of research and planning we decided to purchased three Labrador puppies in the fall
of 1990, a black female, Ashley (Rumajas Lady Ashley), a chocolate female, Terra
(Rumajas Lady Terra), and a yellow female, Brooke (Rumajas Lady Brooke). Our goal was to have
these three puppies become the future and part of the foundation of our Labrador kennel.
All
three of these puppies came from exceptional pedigrees and from breeders who had done an
excellent job in producing wonderful Labradors. Each of these puppies would mature into
a beautiful 'English' type Labrador with a calm gentle temperament. Each of them were
physically sound and passed their hip screening through the Orthopedic Foundation for
Animals and their eye screening through the Canine Eye Registration Foundation. We were on
track in achieving our goal as these three puppies matured into adults however we had a
set back as our only stud dog, Buck began to have problems producing litters. It would be
this event that would lead us to look into using an outside stud dog and it was this
process that would change everything.
We inquired with other breeders in the area concerning a stud dog and did not want to wait
for a puppy to grow up. Our search took us into Medina to Crowhaven Farms where we met a
long time lab breeder Sarah Steiner who had finished several Labradors to their American
Kennel Club Bench Championships and was actively involved with labs in field trials as well.
We would use one of her stud dogs, Balcroft Crow Haven Reprise, Brodie for a litter and
when Ashley was ready to be bred we had planned to do the same. Instead of breeding Ashley
Sarah convinced us to enter her into the show ring in pursuit of her American Kennel Club
Championship. In doing this we became co-owners with her and her partner, Dr. Kris Kofron
of Valleywood Labradors in Columbus and we in turn became co-owners with them on Brodie
(Balcroft Crow Haven Reprise pictured below). Ashley then began her show career and
accumulated many prestigious wins on her way to earning her conformation title. Ashley
is pictured above winning Best of Opposite Sex at the Miami Valley Labrador Retriever Specialty.
During Ashley's campainging Brodie and Terra would be bred and would produce several litters
together which we kept our first ever puppy out of, Jake (Rumajas King Jake). Jake was not
the pick of the litter rather he was the last puppy left in the litter and managed to
stay around long enough to convince us that he need to stay. He would become an important
part of our chocolate line as he would grow into a massive dog weighing 115 pound with
tremendous bone and a broad square head. Terra and Ashley were both doing well however
Brook would be retired as she was unable to produce a litter. Everything appeared to be
going well until Ashley's yearly CERF exam where she was diagnosed with corneal dystrophy
and the decision was made to have her spayed. This was a major setback as our new foundation
was reduced to Brodie and Terra as both Buck and Bay had at that time become to old to breed.
The decision was made to find pet homes for Ashley and Brook and to press on and continue in
using Brodie and Terra as our foundation Labradors to build from and to seek out and secure
other Labradors that had the same potential. Over the years we would find a handful of
dogs that met our criteria, Jeb (Gaines Mill Jeb) and Naomi (Cupid's Touch of Daylyn) would
be brought in to help in solidifying and broadening our foundation from which we would grow
from. Naomi (pictured below right) was a black female that was chocolate factored who had
an excellent pedigree. She would produce several outstanding litters with our own Jake
(Rumajas King Jake) and several titled outside stud dogs as well.
Jeb
(Gaines Mill Jeb pictured below left) was an excellent yellow stud for us. He was a stocky,
well defined Labrador that was an excellent mover with an excellent topline. He had a great
temperament and reproduced himself very well in may of his puppies. Jeb sired many litters
over the years he was with us, but none would be as important as the one he sire with Terra.
From that litter we would keep three black Labradors that would be able to produce all
three colors, Johnny (Rumajas Amber Sky John Henry) Chelsea (Rumajas Amber Sky Chelsea), and
Ellie (Rumajas Amber Sky Elliot). Both Ellie and Chelsea have contributed very well to our
program and have provide us with excellent Labradors and are both retired into pet homes.
Johnny has been an excellent stud and is still with us to this day producing beautiful sound
puppies.
We always
strive to produce better than what we have and we will continue with this goal. Many of our
current dogs can trace their ancestry back to at least one of the dogs mentioned in our history
while others do not. Please click on the links in the right hand margin of this page to look
at our current dogs, almost all of which we have bred and in some case have bred three to four
generations behind them over the last 20 plus years.
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Amber Sky Labradors Photo Gallery - click on a picture for more information on that dog.
The Boys
Chuck
Finn
Hank
Johnny
Luke
Ollie
Pete
Rudy
Sonny
Star
Woody
The Girls
Annie
Angel
Carla
Cassie
Cherry
Chloe
Coco
Foxy
Grace
Java
Jayla
Jersey
Jessa
Jill
Leah
Lumpy
Matilda
Pebbles
Pippy
Polly
Pudge
Reba
Robin
Rosie
Starlette
Star
Tessa
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