Specializing in Labradors with proper conformation, sound temperament, & a passion for retrieving.
(254) 444-7640
A LOOK INSIDE CACTUS ROSE LABRADORS
OUR FAMILY
The faces behind the scenes
Welcome to Cactus Rose Labradors! I am Olivia Laxson, and my husband, Kaden, and I are the faces behind Cactus Rose Labradors. We are a young couple that has been together since high school, so we were able to get an early start at building a life we love together. We have just relocated to a beautiful patch of land in Gainesville, TX. We are blessed with a beautiful daughter, Laynee, that is three years old, a son, Rylan, that is two years old, and another son, Bowen, that turned one November 2023. We are excited to be completing our family with the anticipated arrival of another sweet baby boy in May 2024! We enjoy spending our time doing anything that involves our dogs and the great outdoors. Anyone who knows us knows that you will often find us wearing crocs, covered in dog hair, and soaking up time together as a family.
While our days often start very early in the morning and end late in the evening, we wouldn't have it any other way. We spend most of our time with our dogs, maintaining our home and property/dog facility, and raising our babies. We have decided to plant a wonderful garden this spring and are making dreams a reality by starting a small family homestead, thus allowing us to be as self sufficient in sourcing our food as possible. We strive to make every day better than the day before, and we are so blessed to have the life that we do.
OUR PROGRAM
What we value most
At Cactus Rose Labradors, we are very dedicated to bettering the Labrador Retriever breed. We strive to produce the best puppies possible, and in order to do so, you need strict breeding ethics and quality dogs from quality lineage. Below are some of our main focuses as breeders.
OUR CURRENT DYNAMIC
What's it like around the house?
Because our dogs live in our home, we know each and every one of our dogs as you know your own household pets. We do not have a kennel facility as these are our pets first and foremost! As we adjust our pack I will try to keep this updated, but here is a bit about what day to day is like with these guys, and where they tend to fit in!
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At any given point in time in our home, Moon can be found on the couch. She is pretty much a furry throw pillow at this point...unless she hears a food wrapper! Any time I (Olivia) go to a different room, Moon is not far behind. Usually Poppy and Flick will be together and paling around. They both like to go take a swim outside and play with their many toys laying around. Flick also prefers to follow me around. Boozie is still here visiting, and she is either on the couch with Moon, or next to her half sister, Bella. Boozie also loves to follow Laynee and Rylan around. Wishes can usually be found either laying in front of wherever Kaden or I are seated, or following me. Her and Moon are so ridiculous about this that they even sleep on the bath mat while I shower if I will let them! Flick, Moon, and Wishes are my girls for sure. Allie likes to be in the living room playing with toys and seeing what all is going on. If nothing peaks her interest, she joins the other girls in following me around. Poppy sometimes joins too, but she mainly likes to see what the kids are up to. Bella is the newest girl to the crew, and she prefers to sleep either on the couch or on one of the dog beds during the day. She really enjoys playing with the other girls, but is really calm and laid back day to day inside. Reggie has chosen my husband since day one. They pretty much go everywhere together. On the off chance Kaden is gone and Reggie isn't with him, he will always be found carrying a comfort stuffed animal. Anytime Reggie has his favorite Clifford stuffed animal, without fail you'll soon see Allie coming to torment him and try to play. A tug of war over Clifford between Allie and Reggie is a regular occurrence! Goose is Kaden's other shadow. He prefers to be anywhere his person is at, and if Kaden is up and around outside, Goose tends to enjoy napping under the kitchen table right under the AC vent. Rolo doesn't really have a typical spot that he prefers to be during the day. He is happy lounging around or following us around, it just depends on what the household is up to!
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Over all we have a pretty chilled out crew! If you head on over to each dog's individual page, you'll be able to learn more about him/her individually. The purpose of this section is to give some insight on how everyone typically reacts to each other and in the house day to day. The goal is to make you feel like you already know us and our crew!
OUR STORY
Becoming who we are today
Cactus Rose Labradors was first started in 2019, soon after my husband and I got married. We had previously been breeding the year before, but had decided to make some big changes to our program. Cactus Rose was our fresh start at this!Â
In our year breeding prior to becoming Cactus Rose, we learned many things. We saw first hand the issues that dilute (silver, charcoal, and champagne) Labrador Retrievers have and decided we did not want to be apart of producing dogs with these issues. We also learned first hand the importance of health testing our breeding dogs, and learned about issues such as dysplasia that are running rampant in some of the lines in this breed. With our new knowledge, we decided it was our goal to become responsible, ethical breeders.Â
When we started out, we did not have responsible mentors that were educating us and helping us along the way. It is because of this that we will always go out of our way to help new breeders learn more about how to breed the right way. We now feel a great responsibility to do our part at bettering the breed we all know and love, one litter at a time.