Whats it like raising a Chocolate Lab?

Unconditional love, faithfulness, loyalty. They are great dogs.

If the price sounds too good, make sure your getting a real lab.

Labs are the best dogs you could get. Playful, loving, loyal, friendly, and if you train them right, they are really well behaved. I would recommend kennel training your puppy asap.
Congrats!

Labs are wonderful dogs, charming companions, great pets and good workers. One caution: they do have a kind of an extended puppyhood. I happen to think that’s fun, but some people don’t like the longer training period.

I hate to go against the crowd, but they never ranked real high in my book. Before I left the USA 11 years ago, in that country they were not too smart and because they were so popular and being stupidly bred, the temperament and heath were going downhill as well.

But in Australia they are not nearly as bad and in Peru, who knows? But make sure the parents were x-rayed for hip dysplasia also eyes should have been check for pra. If not, you could end up with a blind lame dog. Sometimes chocolates are extra prone to skin probs as well.

I’m not a fan either. At least here in the US, the majority of labs are 80 lbs of ‘Duh’.

When we get calls at the emergency clinic and the caller says “My dog just ate {insert outrageous item like soap, shoes, knives, carcasses, etc}” we usually respond “Is your dog a lab?” and they ask “How did you know?”

Thank goodness @syz, there is finally something we agree on! I never cease to be amazed at how many people think they are wonderful. I just assume they must never had an association with a sensible dog.

@rooeytoo I’m glad someone else said what I was thinking.

I don’t have a problem with Labs in general but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure you get these health checks done and like @DrBill said, make sure that price really isn’t too good to be true.

@syz It’s awful but your post made me laugh! I figured beagles would be up there on the “eat anything” list, not dumb though.

Beagles are a close second ;)

Indifferent practices by mill-type breeders have ruined a lot of dogs, but if Seeing Eye uses labs for candidates, there’s no way they are 80 lbs. of d’uh.

You can more easily find bad than good GSDs, Border Collies, Bichons and labs, but that’s not the dog’s fault.

@syz: We grew up with a beagle.( Remember Larchmont Jeffrey). My mother had a deal with the Larchmont taxi to transport Jeff to our house after he roamed…a regular habit. His tag said “Call Larchmont Taxi and send this dog to 7 Villa Lane, collect.”

And as I have also said before, he apparently was eventually sent to a “nice family in the country.”

Labs are it around here. They even seem to be driving the ubiquitous pick-up trucks.

@pdworkin – the labs used as seeing eye as well as gsd’s are usually from specific bloodlines bred specially for that purpose. No way the average lab off the street would ever make it as a seeing eye dog.

It is hard to find a sound shepherd, they have rears that move like egg beaters but a lot still have sound minds. Border collies are herding/working dogs and go nuts without a 60 hour a week job. From a handler/trainer/groomer perspective, bichons are a lot of difficult coat with sharp teeth.

I always tell people when choosing a dog, don’t go by looks, determine what you want in a dog and then study the dog groups, herding, working, sporting, etc. and choose a breed that suits you from that standpoint. I value intelligence so I always go to working or herding, they may not always be the most trainable but they are the most intelligent
(but keep in mind, there are no absolutes in this world!)

I am quite aware of the work of Seeing Eye’s genetics division. That’s exactly what I was talking about. The deficiencies are not in the breed, they are in the way the breed has been managed.

@pdworkin is exactly right. If you’ve seen Labradors that act like 80 lbs of Duh, it is because the owners didn’t take the time to properly train them, or socialize them, or spend enough time with them, the same thing that unfortunately happens to all breeds of dogs. The fault lies with the owners, not the dogs.

Bottom line is the same, unless they are from the seeing eye breeding program, they are pretty hopeless. And it has been that way in the 35 years I have been training and handling all breeds of dogs.

I gather you have labs.

Go to a dog show, and check out the obedience and agility rings, you don’t see many labs, some but not many. That is the test most people consider the relevant one. The hunting lines apparently still have good noses but I notice more beagles in airports and being used as drug sniffers, that is due to a combination of better noses and smaller more compact dog. Not surprising, they are retrievers not sniffers.

Actually, I only have rescued dogs, generally mutts, as pets, but my girlfriend is blind, and her dog guide is a GSD; some of her friends have goldens, others have yellow labs. One even had a poodle, but they are a little too bright to make good guides.

@MayaLocke: Welcome again. Any personal experience with Labs? We find that starting with that before adding the Google info is a good idea.