Labradors and their fascination with food

[WildRosie]

This has been discussed on here before but one thing I don't understand is why Labradors in particular have this apparent compulsion to eat. All dogs, whatever their breed, size, age and so on have to eat to survive but Labradors take this to the next level. I'm not sure they are a unique breed in this respect - our show Cocker spaniels many years ago had a tendency to podginess. Thankfully they all lived to a good age regardless.

Are Labradors naturally cunning dogs with an innate ability to snaffle nosh when backs are turned ? Or do their big brown eyes overcome their owners every time ?

Oh yes, I've got 2 of the greedy buggers, even down to eating socks and pants.

I’ve seen many fat golden retrievers, in fact People often comment about how unusually lean our lad is..

My labrador was never full in all of the 15 years I had him. He always tried to persuade anyone whose attention he could attract that he was a poor, starving waif.

They just don't seem to have a "full" setting, so us owners have to watch what they get to eat. They certainly won't.

I read a while back that the stomach of an adult labrador can hold something like 14 pints. If that is true then maybe it explains some of their constant obsession with eating anything and everything, regardless of whether we would even term it food.

Here's rotten fish connoisseur at the back and horse poo aficionado at the front. Also not above eating a sock.

🐕

You are right about cockers being little piggies as well eg getting onto the table to drink out of teacups (evidenced by dog hair around the rim of the cups), eating the knobs off the cooker, Christmas decorations on the tree are a no no after one particular episode, bars of soap taken from the bathroom, oranges taken from the fruit bowl etc etc

I saw a quite slender Labrador not long before Christmas. A few folk on here suggested it was a Red Fox but from a working line, rather than show so maybe it is possible to breed Labradors that don't feel the need for feed all the time.

We had a very skinny lab. She came from a gundog line though.

Once didnt eat for days because my dad had gone away with work. My mum had to hand feed her ham slices till she had appetite and eventually had to take her to the vets for checking. They said she was pining.
Loved raw egg though. Odd dog

The advantage of Labrador ownership is that you so rarely have to clean the kitchen floor. Our Lab took about two hours to realise that the sweet spot in our house is under the kitchen chair used by our son. He visits that spot about eighty seven times a day, just on the off chance (he's learned not to risk the cat food). Our neighbour has two working labs (out retrieving several times a week in season). When out on a lead walk to the Co-Op, they've been asked if their dogs are ill. Nope, they are just lean and healthy. Normal 'farm physique' Labs. Even with working Labs, it doesn't always come naturally. Our neighbour regularly comments that she does not know how the youngest is still alive given what she ate as a puppy and her appetite is still enormous.

At the local eye hospital the receptionist is blind and has a gorgeous coloured lab (Stevie), he looks like he is made of caramel.

I usually have a biscuit for him and obviously ask if he can have it, I put the biscuit on the counter and his nose virtually dances as he sniffs it but he knows he isn't allowed unless his mistress tells him to.

I think I may be a labrador

I’ve heard them described as having a pet stomach with legs. Seems apt.

My friend has a chocolate lab & I call her 'the hoover'

My Lab has taken part in tests for this. Think it was a swab from inside his mouth I had to send off.
I keep him lean as he’s got so much more energy when he weighs less and seems happier in himself. I know more overweight other breeds than the Labs round here to be honest.
Spaniels always seem be fat and also Cockerpoos.

My mates labrador ate our whole pizza, then replaced the box lid. Only realised because it was covered in chilli and he wasnt in a good way afterwards.

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DEHfDVTsXVao&ved=2ahUKEwjw1t7q3oTuAhU0mVwKHU0ZCYEQwqsBMAB6BAgBEAM&usg=AOvVaw0yuvvG1FzHHvBAlNTVT1Gv" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DEHfDVTsXVao&ved=2ahUKEwjw1t7q3oTuAhU0mVwKHU0ZCYEQwqsBMAB6BAgBEAM&usg=AOvVaw0yuvvG1FzHHvBAlNTVT1Gv

^youtube fail. It does work when you click it though 😂

Funny you should say that Honeyroar, Ive seen a labrador just casually flip a fish out of a stream. It was pretty impressive considering they're usually morons.

My choccy boy is a dustbin. He's never, ever full and can hear the fridge/biscuit tin opening from a mile away. We watch his weight carefully though as I want to have him for as long as possible so keep him fit and healthy. He's a lovely lad.

It was pretty impressive considering they're usually morons.

I cannot disagree with this @user1471565182

We (very briefly) considered training ddog to be DD's medical alert dog when we first got him. Then we quickly realised that he's an idiot and would be a liability, so that idea was shelved pretty quickly. We also have a Heinz57 who is the smartest dog I've ever known and would be a great alert dog, but he's a bit long in the tooth now bless him.

I think labs tend to either be highly intelligent (i.e. guide dog etc) or the complete opposite. They are such clowns sometimes, it's impossible not to love them.

The only thing a lab won’t eat is itself. Unless it’s really desperate.

@Namechangey123

“yet I have never seen a fat Golden.”

I have!

With labs and weight though, it’s not because they want to eat, it’s just that people for some reason seem to find fat labs acceptable. They’re not off buying their own food, a human is keeping them at that weight.

I don’t think it is all down to owners. My old lab was a thief - anything left on kitchen counters or lower cupboards was fair game - she once ate a birthday cake that had been left unattended. She learnt to operate a wall mounted dog food dispenser and could open cupboards until we fitted child locks. She would also scale our fence to eat the contents of our neighbour’s open (and rat-infested) compost heap. She wasn’t overweight as she had a couple of hours off lead walking everyday but left to her own devices, I think she would have been very fat.

My lab is apparently never fed, ever, I'm very cruel. She doesn't steal anymore although did as a puppy but she does hunt and God forbid we see anybody eating while out walking. All training out the window and she must run over to them and do her very best sit, sometimes she will even offer a paw in the hope they will share

This is why I would never have a Lab. They're gorgeous but they're also canine dustbins and I don't think I'd be able to cope!

My labs have eaten a whole xmas turkey and gammon in one sitting, leavi g the foil perfectly tented so nobody realised until we came to carve. The worst one was scoffing pounds of windfall pears from a friends orchard and the pears making a rapid reappearance on the car journey home (not envy.)