I'm the same Big Paul,
All my dogs are rescues, but the Labs are full pedigree and health checked. There are rescues and there are rescues, you can pick up some cracking dogs because many people can no longer afford to keep their dogs. Also some breeders are still trying to make money out of breeding dogs, but some of the people they are sellling the dogs to are unsuitable. I go on 'Gumtree' and look at the adverts that say 'lovely dog but my child has fur allergy' or 'due to work commitments this dog needs a forever home' what they mean is that the dog reached puberty and they couldn't handle the humping and other behaviour problems.
At that point I make an offer and get myself a nice dog, once the pup is spayed/neutered at (12 months old) and welcomed into the pack I set about training it to hunt. It's great giving a dog a second chance at a good life.
Stewart you are a man after my own heart, a great big pack of dogs is great fun!