Guide Dog Owner here: My first guide was a lab retriever cross but, definitely had more of the lab personality as I’ve now come to understand.
Current guide is a retriever and like many others, I had concerns around the things I’d heard about the breed such as their stubbornness.
I needn’t have worried. Pyrgo is a fantastic worker, is rightly cautious when approaching obstacles, curbs, steps etc.
He ha some stubborn elements but, they are around good traits such as him slowing down or stopping for moving things on pavements like cycles and electric scooters. It works because no matter how much I encourage him (positive reinforcement context), he will not be moved and just wages his tail when he shows me that he was right and I was wrong.
He is gentle and kind which are other retriever traits.
I understand that they are easy to train and that would make sense as they are bright dogs.
I have had to work on my retrievers recall a bit but, liver paste seems to do the trick as does making good use of the touch command which is routine when working with a guide dog but, is great for other scenarios where you want your dog to focus on you.
My dog was also a bit indifferent toward me at first but, bare in mind he’d been puppy raised; trained and boarded by others before coming to me.
They say that retrievers are incredibly loyal once they bond with you and that is certainly my experience a year and a Hal into our relationship.
Hope this helps.
paul