 Outside North America and Western Europe , the Labrador arrived later . For example , the Russian Retriever Club traces the arrival of Labradors to the late 1960s , as household pets of diplomats and others in the foreign ministry . The establishment of the breed in the Commonwealth of Independent States ( former USSR ) was initially hindered by the relatively small numbers of Labradors and great distances involved , leading to difficulty establishing breedings and bloodlines ; at the start of the 1980s , home @-@ born dogs were still regularly supplemented by further imports from overseas . Difficulties such as these initially led to Labradors being tacitly cross @-@ bred to other types of retriever . In the 1990s , improved access to overseas shows and bloodlines is said to have helped this situation become regularised . 
