Do labradors really smell?

[headintheproverbial]

Looking into getting a family dog over the next year or two as the kids get older and researching now.

Labs seem a good bet for children, trainable and friendly.

But one 'con' I keep seeing as I research is shedding and smell! We have dogs in our extended family but no labs. Is it bad??

I think of labs as a medium size breed certainly not enormous...not sure what mine would be if they was the case

Yes they do generally stink. I’ve gone nose blind to all of my dogs and don’t tend to smell them though!

Not to everyone's taste but our chihuahua doesn't smell.Bigger dogs smell more doggy imo

We have labs and they don’t smell, although they are brushed regularly and are fed good quality food. Their feet have that lovely biscuity smell though!

My dogs are well trained, don’t eat outside of the home (except the odd bit of grass) and don’t jump on people! I also have children and the dogs are great with them.

I don’t recognise the generalisations that previous posters have made about the breed. Now I’ve had them I can’t imagine ever having any other than labs in the future.

I've always had Labradors and none of them have ever smelled. Yes, they shed hair but regular grooming reduces the domestic impact. Their heads and ears smell like clean leather. I have never bathed any of them, only washed the bits covered in badger poo...

People are deluded. All dogs smell and all homes where dogs live have a bit of a whiff about them even if the owners deny it.

This is making me miss my big yellow git. He was a big lolloping clumsy fuckwit, who gave the best cuddles in the world. And barked at XH whenever we argued - he’d stand next to me if I was shouting at X, and bark along with my shouts, to tell him off as well.

I have a red lab and she is pretty dinky. She’s always been really gentle with little ones. She was pretty much hand fed by them when we started training so they are beloved sources of food

Love the smell of my lab, he gets washed pretty regularly whether that's in a river, the garden or the bath. Got a Eufy robot vacuum which helps with the shedding. Perfect dog for us.

Have had several labs and don't believe they smell unpleasant. On the contrary I love their doggy smell and would rather my house smelt of them than anything else. Yes they shed hair but I've never felt the need to be hoovering all day as an earlier poster said.

I think if a bit of hair, smell, mud etc bothers you that much then maybe dogs aren't for you.

@Keepyourdistance000

Not if they are regularly shedded and groomed/bathed.

Correct. There is a Labrador that regularly comes to my office but he is a mostly indoor dog is washed regularly.

Having said that, you can definitely smell a bit of a doggy odour when he’s due for a bath

There is a Labrador that regularly comes to my office but he is a mostly indoor dog is washed regularly.

Mostly indoor? How awful for him.

And no dog needs to be washed regularly.

I’ve never heard of an indoor Labrador. Is he ill?

Agree, you’re not supposed to keep bathing labs. You’ll disrupt all the beneficial oils on their coats. If they roll in fox poo yes.

We have a delicate black working strain lab. Honestly, like a hairy ballerina. Sheds like a demon but smells lovely (unless she’s been rolling in fox poo). Swims regularly but I dry her well. I change her bedding a lot and feed her raw food. She is still young tho’, I wonder if it is a bit like people and she will whiff more when she reaches her twilight years?

Our family lab doesn’t smell but think it is mostly because he requires such regular hosing down and brushing due to his love of mud, puddles, rivers etc.

He is amazing with my children, youngest is one, and we couldn’t have asked for a more gentle personality. Yes he can get a bit overexcited but he seems to instinctively understand that they are small and to be calm about them. He saves the crazy for playing football with my 13yo!

Labs have an excellent sense of smell.
They do stink.

We had one when I was growing up, she did smell when she got wet - quite often, she loved water - but the rest of the time she didn't. Saying that, she was a dustbin and ate anything, even things that weren't food, so suffered from terrible flatulence on occasion.

They are absolutely enormous and very strong and not at all gentle, not malicious usually but very over the top and clumsy and jumpy and overwhelming.

Ours was boisterous but in a controlled way, and she could be really gentle with small children and elderly people. If you've met labs that behave differently that's probably due to bad training rather than some inherent Labrador trait.

Thinking about it, my grandparents had one when I was really small, I don't remember her being smelly and overly exuberant either.

They do stink.

You've met them all have you?

Anyway - it's all subjective. A stink to one person is a gorgeously adorable aroma to another.

All dogs smell if they don't get a regular bath. So would we!!
I had to give my 20 year old cat a bath at least once a week when she couldn't wash herself any more or she would smell too.
She enjoyed the warmth on her arthritic joints.

Yes they stink.

Well I've never met one that didn't smell. Infact I found one a few months ago (it had only just escaped from its garden a few mins before) that reeked to the high heavens. Honestly I didn't even really want to touch it. Never met a dog that smelled so bad. I imagine it wasn't being groomed properly though. I have a sprocket, and even at 10 years old he still doesn't smell bad. He rarely gets washed.

They clean themselves don’t they? So maybe as they get older they clean themselves less and smell more. Mine is always cleaning himself. Then tries to kiss me 🤢.

Mine smells of biscuits. I’m clearly nose blind and I I don’t care. He smells delicious!

My MIL has a black lab and my god I have never seen a dog lose so much fur and not be bald! Black hair absolutely everywhere. Also they do have a more doggy smell than other breeds.

They are easily trainable as they are so food orientated. They will literally eat anything.

All dogs stink. If you have a dog, your house stinks. That's your prerogative, and you may experience it as an "adorable aroma", but there it is.

@sadpapercourtesan

All dogs stink. If you have a dog, your house stinks. That's your prerogative, and you may experience it as an "adorable aroma", but there it is.

This is an outright lie. I have a Lab and two cats, and my house does not smell of either.