Anyone have a lab?

[ilovetofu]

Planning to get a puppy soon.
Just wondering what do you like in particular about owning your lab?

Erm and also what would you change?

Have a wonderful bitch. She's very tuned in to people as were her two predecessors. Lots of enquiring eye contact. Knows when you're upset or in pain and sits very close and quiet until you're better. Great SOH, she knows about laughing and knows that her antics are funny and that they entertain us. Just wants to please people and, since she reads us so well, has been very easy to train.

Pros: Very easy to train and mine was very trust worthy in every situation.
Cons: Hungry all the time. Would eat anything he could find including other dogs shit.
Smelly/farty.
Hair in every meal I ate at home for 10 years, I swear the hair still gives me nightmares!
Too big for my small house.

I've gone smaller with my next dog - no moulting or smell and small enough to sit on my lap in the pub....bliss!

Do you think thar it’s better to have a male or female lab? Or do you not think it makes much difference?

I dont suppose there is much difference in the overall scheme of things.
On a purely personal basis, my boys have been super loving, velcro dogs, thick as mince, but lovely and very protective.
My girls have been sweet, very, very easy to train and very clever. Loving, but not cloying.

That is my experience though, I bet any money others will have exactly the opposite to say 😁

Pressed post too soon.

I have always preferred dogs to bitches, but have to say that as I get older, were I to have another lab in the future, it would be a bitch.
In my experience, they are just easier all round although my heart lies with my boys

Don't have one myself but know several.

They will eat ANYTHING - and not just food. Some of the things they eat (eg underwear) will require expensive emergency trips to the vet. I have never seen a skinny Labrador.

Generally lovely temperaments though.

I did have a trim lab - so it is possible!
I don't like boy labs, they seem overly keen in shoving their noses in your crotch/bum....

(Possibly looking for more underwear to eat ell?)

Our old boy was slim - proper waist and everything but boy did it take work - loads of active walks and we fed by eye - any hint of podge and he got less. DH is a vet though - and the other slim labs we knew belonged to vets or vet nurses!

Mime is a stocky build as a show lab so truly big boned the old style lab rather than smaller working lab
But he has a waist and I watch like hawk so can reduce his food and we also walk miles

My yellow lab is wonderful. She is now 7. Contrary to what others have said she doesn't steal food. She also only gets two short walks on lead as she had elbow dysplasia which needed an op and her exercise regime was recommend by the vet. She does like to get wet and muddy though and sheds hair over everything and everyone. But we don't mind because we adore her.

All three of ours have been slim. The choc was enormous when we were given her, like a hairy oil drum, but she slimmed down eventually. We don't really give treats and the older labs don't actually get much more feed than our large terrier. The younger ones seem to run food off without getting fat. It makes me sad to see some of the extremely fat labs people have.

I agree honey roar when I had my lab I was in charge of how much food she had...if we were on holiday and left him with family I knew she would come home fatter (like me) as they would always feed her too much (thinking they were doing her a favour, because she was always hungry).
a) Most labs will carry on eating until they are sick then eat that too they are never not hungry
b) Thanks, you've just increase her already high risk of cancer, and joint problems!
There was always a post holiday diet for both of us to get us back to a healthy weight again.

I have a theory that labs are designed to live in extremely cold climates, so are programmed to eat as many calories as they can to burn off as warmth. It just becomes an issue when you take them away from their natural "habitat" and put them in a centrally heated house. Same thing has happened in the horse world when ponies designed to live on sparse hillsides are brought into stables and fields of lush grass. They get obese and consequently are often ill.

I can’t tell you a single reason why you shouldn’t have a Labrador in terms of personality.
Easy to train (but you need to put in the effort at the begging), brilliant with kids, good guard dogs, reliable, easy to groom, strong, very adaptable, don’t get tired easily so you can go on wonderful walks on all weather anywhere you want.
There is the issue of hair so you’d have to vacuum all the time but that’s not unique to the breed. Watch their weight, train them well and you’ll have a true friend there.

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Really good deals on for any of you pet parents here. I use the site a lot it's great

I had a beautiful yellow labrador boy until two weeks ago. He was 15 and had to be put to sleep due to pure old age causing his health to suddenly fail.

I loved him so, so much and miss him dreadfully. I would have another again in the future.

Lovely temperament. They do moult a lot though. Someone once said to me that labradors moult twice a year, and each moult lasts 6 months. It's true, and it gets everywhere. I swept up every day, but even now I am still finding some of my old boy's fur around the place. Nice though, as it makes me think he is still all around me and hasn't gone anywhere.

If you want a lab so much then go for it. You won't regret it.

Sorry for your loss Topseyt. We lost our elder yellow lab two months ago. They really leave a hole in your heart and your life, don’t they.

Honeyroar, they sure do. There is a huge labrador shaped hole in my home and heart at the moment.

I'm aware 15 was a grand old age and I was very fortunate to have him for so long, but it's never really long enough.