Selection guide - Excellent with children and other pets

Try a Labrador if you're looking for a good family dog. They're excellent with children. Feel confident in adopting a Labrador if you have other pets; they get along well with everyone.

Labrador Retriever - Dog Lover

DOG FAQ - Will a male or female Labrador make a better pet?

Both sexes make good pets. In general, male Labrador Retrievers are more dependent and females are somewhat independent. For example, if you are at home working on your computer, your male Labrador Retriever will probably sleep right under your feet while your female will probably sleep in the other room and just come in and check on you periodically. For most people, a male Labrador Retriever will probably make the best pet!

Labrador Retriever - Dog Lover

DOG FAQ - Are Labrador Retrievers hyper?

Labrador Retrievers are active dogs especially in puppy hood. And Labrador Retrievers often do not fully mature until around 3 years of age! This means you will have a dog that is mentally a puppy (with a puppy's energy) until this age regardless of its physical size! Often a Labrador Retriever puppy is labeled hyperactive when it is simply a normal, exuberant and bouncy puppy.

If you are prepared to deal with this period of time in their lives, you will not have problems. It is the people caught unprepared who then label their puppy hyperactive and incorrigible and dump it. We would like to stress that such dogs, untrained and unexercised, WILL be a huge problem for their owners, becoming destructive, unmanageable, and in many cases escape artists. Once under proper discipline (which does NOT mean beating the dog!), most of these Labs will shape up into good pets.

Labrador Retriever - Dog Lover

DOG FAQ - What kind of work can Labradors do?

Besides hunting, doing field trials, and being terrific pets? Quite a bit. Many Labrador Retrievers are used as Service and Therapy dogs, for example. Still others do very well in Search and Rescue work, as well as making excellent Bomb, Narcotic, and Arson dogs. Their nose, disposition, and trainability make them particularly suitable for these types of activities and the breed has a distinguished history in these endeavors. Interestingly, in comparison to other breeds, such as Goldens, there are relatively few Labrador Retrievers in obedience competition. No one is quite certain why, although of course several theories have been advanced, from Labrador Retrievers are a little too "disobedient" (a necessary ability in Service work -- to disobey an unsafe command), to most people with Labrador Retrievers being involved in other activities such as Hunt Tests.

Labrador Retriever - Dog Lover