Labs are the most popular dogs…
…and that’s been true for 28 years in a row.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love labs. They are generally so friendly and good with kids and just about anyone. But they are not my favorite breed, and I’d never own one.
They’re a lot to handle, really big and strong, and they have tails that can just about knock you down and feel like thick whips. They shed. They shed a lot. When you swim, they try to help you and can end up drowning you. Feeding them is an investment.
Now I’ll just tiptoe out of the room before the lab lovers come to give me not just a tail-lashing but a tongue-lashing…
I’ve had a couple of labs and my sons both have them.,. I had a golden for years that was a great dog. The past 25 years, I’ve had bassets. Bassets are great when you are my age. My older son takes his lab to the park and has a ball thrower to tire the lab out.
Mike K:
I’m assuming that bassets are probably considerably easier to tire out than labs are.
My dog was a medium-sized cocker/poodle mix. Great dog. Friendly, not too big or small, didn’t bark much, didn’t shed.
Love dogs. Sister had a yellow Lab. Everything you say is true, particularly the shedding.
The one dog that irritates me is a Dachshund. I live in a condo. Neighbor has one as a “comfort” dog. Damn thing barks all day. Sometimes an hour and a half straight, I kid you not. Damn thing is like a honey badger too…….no fear.
Comfort dog my a$$
Goldens are my personal favorite. Personality like Labs, but tend toward less energy. My wife and her sister were breeders for a rare breed: Icelandic Sheepdogs https://www.icelanddogs.com/#/
Great dogs, very smart and loyal, but also a bit “barky”. The pups are extremely cute and at a few weeks old tend to look like Ewoks 🙂
On our third English Springer Spaniel, all sweethearts, so that’s my vote. But all the labs I’ve know have been really nice dogs.
From the farm to now I’ve had mutts. Fewer health issues and often very intelligent. We have a 16 year old schipperke and who knows what. She is very smart, adores us, and is fearless. Our other mutt is 7. We guess he is a shepherd, golden, short hair collie mix. A very sweet fellow and smart enough know he is not the alpha dog in the house.
Rich Taylor:
Don’t judge all dachshunds by that one! They can be barky, it’s true. But they can be very sweet and not especially barky. I’ve known some great dachshunds, although I don’t think I’d ever have one because of their back troubles. But so adorable!
Neo, you make a good point. But I’ve only been around two of them in my life and it was the same thing. However, just last week I saw one at an auto repair shop and he/she didnt bark once.
I think the present situation is more the owner than the dog. I also think that because they call it a “comfort” dog is what really gets me.
When I was about 4 or 5 we had a Beagle named Flipper. He bit me viciously on the ankle. It was my fault because I was teasing it with a bone. Not maliciously or anything, I was a kid. Flipper was gone. I remember my Dad telling me they gave it to a farmer. I have no idea what really happened, but maybe there’s a farmer out there with many many dogs.
The schipperke and the corgi are the preferred breeds, though the schipperke lover I know best says, ‘not an old person’s dog’.
Nothing improves on a cat, however.
“There is nothing like a dog.” Period! –No, doubleplustriple!!!!!!!!!
Grew up on the farm, therefore dogs (and cats). Had a dog for the first 13 years of married life, and then my sweet Lucy for 15 years after my Honey abandoned me to go live with Penny, the first of those two. (The rat — I wasn’t finished with him. *frown of displeasure*)
All mixed-breed and all but possibly three were mutts. Loved every one of them. Growing up, we had (among others) a boxer-pointer. Our first dog, Penny, was allegedly beagle-terrier (of some sort). Absolutely the sweetest thing, and we surely missed her.
Unfortunately there was a long dogless spell because the Honey was highly allergic and we were unable to get a “danderless” type, owing to having to support a human young’un. After he died, the latter, all grown up, gave me a dog from the shelter, allegedly “shepherd mix,” which tells you nothing. What sort of shepherd? What about the rest? I, and a lot of others, think part pit bull, which means another terrier. Absolutely the sweetest thing.
My very first dogfriend (and best friend) — I think I was about three — was Pudgy, a pudgy puppy whose mom was Tippy, my Grandma’s pet girl. Absolutely the sweetest thing.
And of course there was Tiger, the boxer, who was our favorite dog of my later childhood — probably over the ten years over which I went from 8 to 18 — who was absolutely the sweetest thing.
Everybody thinks his dog is the sweetest dog in the world, but in my case it happened to be true.
:>)))
Mutts all, and maybe the muttiest was also the nuttiest: My Mom’s beloved Thunderbolt, a.k.a. Foolish, who was a stray (we had quite a few strays on the farm) who came to keep Dad and her company after I left home. He was not small, but was shaggy, and a most enthusiastic guy. Lotta fun. :>))
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PS. I’ve also known, owned, lived with cats over all but the allergy years. Cats are great. We still have a cat. :>))
Rich Taylor:
Same farmer they gave my little yappy dog to when I was a kid.
My parents didn’t want a dog, but we WON that one at a fair (!) and it was not a good dog for kids, plus no one in the family had a clue how to train a dog.
bassets are probably considerably easier to tire out than labs are
Bassets sleep all day, in any position, often amazing,. When pups they will chew but the energy level seems far below labs. My golden was a wonderful dog but she had bad breath that I could not get fixed, It would take the leaves off the trees. I have yet to have a basset with bad breath.
Juliet sleeps all day until, about 5 o’clock when she seems to develop the enthusiasm of, if not a lab, a golden. It is time for her walk.
Most of what you say is true. I’ve had 5-6 labs in my lifetime since I was a kid. The main problem I see is people who get a lab because of temperament and it’s just a friendly, popular dog. However, they need a LOT of exercise and play to work off all their energy. They are a super-high energy dog, and if you don’t work it off in a positive way they will do so in a negative way, i. e., destroying your house, digging through wooden doors, eating an entire couch.
Also, they are big, they can get very big, I had a yellow lab that weighed over 100 lbs. pure muscle, no fat on him. That means they are very strong and can jump up and knock over an adult. They can unintentionally injure a young child. They can scratch very badly if their nails aren’t cut and they jump up. They are hell around the house because their tails are thicker than other dogs (for swimming, the base is very thick and powerful. I had my pair of black and yellow labs playing uncontrollably inside the house one time (a gf who was unaware of their boisterous nature let them both in and then left them alone, and the yellow, Tiger, was strictly an outdoor dog) and somehow I walked in just in time to see one of them knock the end out of a 50gal fish tank. For some reason a trashcan was nearby and I was able to catch a lot of the water and save my fish, but it was a mess.
The reason Tiger was an ‘outdoor only’ dog is he had never been trained. I had gotten him from a customer who had kids and who had never taken the time to train him, so he was completely out of control. I knew him since he was a pup and predicted this, and took him off their hands out of pity. After much patience I did get him trained enough he didn’t jump up on me every time fed him, leash trained him and taught him to come if he got loose, but that was about it.
My secret was: IT’S NEVER TOO YOUNG TO START TRAINING THEM- to leash, to come, to stay, to sit, to lay down, to shut up, to drop whatever-it-is they have in their mouth. Those things. Start when you first get them home, along with box training them not to crap in the house. This takes constant vigilance, so I’d take a week off work to spend completely with the pup.
WIth a pup this young you have to start with extremely short training periods, like 10 mins or so, then always end with a lot of fun and play so they begin to associate training with enjoyable experience, but keep it serious so they know when you give a command you mean it. First teach them to come to you with a clothesline or very long leash. Nothing irks me more than seeing a family running around a neighborhood trying to corral their dog, who won’t come when called. This is NUMERO UNO command and basically cures all ills, discipline-wise. If he comes when you call you can stop any distructive behaviour or aggressiveness.
You also start with learning to heel -dogs shouldn’t pull you all around when you walk and it’s wrong to let them do so, if you want to let them do that take them for a walk with NO leash in an appropriate place, like a woods or big field, but again, this only after you’ve taught them to COME WHEN CALLED!
Sit, stay and lay down are just basic commands you need to have because sometimes you just want them to wait there for a minute or you want them to settle down and go lay down. I also would train them to drop anything they had in their mouth, even meat (in case of chicken bones or whathaveyou). You’ll find this is a very good habit, it saves them not only from bad bones but from destroying stuff they shouldn’t have.
My own dogs would heel without a leash, even if a cat or another dog came by, would sit and stay until I came back, even walking to the convenience store, going in to buy something and coming back out, none of them would budge. This is not an easy thing to train, it takes time, over time. You can’t do any of these things all at once, you must be patient and persistent.
Labs are good in that they pay attention to you, they WANT to learn and please you. They are also intelligent. I tried to help people with Irish Setters, Greyhounds, a biting Chow and other dogs and I was struck by how smart the lab was in comparison. This makes things easier, plus they watch your face, making it easy to communicate. Give them a short, easy name with a long vowel, and make all your commands the same way, with plenty of differentation. This isn’t essential but makes it easier on them.
Then, when they are trained, be prepared to walk them several times a day and one good, long play period a day and at least once a week spending a day with them. You don’t have to do these things, but it certainly makes them happier and better behaved. I was lucky in that my house abutted a huge vacant field and lot with a pond (they love to swim), I had a fenced in yard they could run around in during the day and I was self-employed so I could spend a lot of time with them.
I now have 2 little girls who really want a dog, but they are too young to really take care of a dog (I really hate to get anything but a Lab) and I know how much work they are so I have wisely put it off until they can do the work.
As to feeding them, dog food is cheap. The real expense these days is vet bills, heartworm medicine and shots, which have grown exponentially since I had my last dog 10 years ago. And that goes for any dog, not just Labs.
-testimony of someone who has raised, trained and loved 5-6 (I actually forget how many because I often named them the same) Labs over the years, 2 of which died of old age.
I had an outdoor lab because my wife would not let her in the house. I had to fence part of the yard because my daughter, who was six, ran some risk when the dog would get in the pool with her.
I also had a chocolate lab years later that all but destroyed the house when she was left alone at home. I did not get another dog until I was retiring and could be home.
I had a Lab. Everything you say is true. But I loved that lab so much. Got her hip replaced. Spent a fortune at the emergency vet — she’d eat anything. Once ate two pounds of Hershey’s kisses. Barfed shiny, glittery bits of foil when the vet induced emesis. She ate fifteen cans of cat food — chewed up the cans and sucked out the meat. $800 later we learned she had swallowed no metal shards, thank God! She always made her regular vet laugh. She was funny, and for the first half of her life, overly energetic. She was a couch potato the last seven years. I finally had to say good bye two years ago when she was thirteen. I still miss her so much.
The first thing we did after we got married was to get a dog, and after 43 years my wife and I have never been without a dog. The best dog we ever had was a black lab. We got him after he flunked out of Leader Dogs For The Blind school (they refer to them as “career change” dogs). It was pretty clear that he wasn’t leader dog material but he was incredibly sweet. We had to put him down when the poor guy developed a brain tumor. We still miss him.
Our great pyrenees is the best dog in the world. I know that some of you will disagree, but you don’t know what you’re talking about. Thelma the pyrenees is never going to win any obedience competitions, she sheds enough white fur to make a sweater every week, and she barks every evening from supper to bedtime. Luckily we have no neighbors close by. She is also gentle and protective of our other dogs and cat, and even though she won’t usually do what you want done, she’ll always do the right thing.
My online name is RigelDog. Rigel was a black Lab, the first dog that I got as a grown adult. Everything you say is true, Neo, and I didn’t know enough of this at the time. Rigel deserved a heck of a lot more exercise and play than I gave him and as a result he acted out by eating walls and couches and remote controls and once a pair of diamond studs (which resulted in me examining his every leaving with disposable wooden chopsticks for several days afterwards. Yes, I got them back). But what soul that dog had! So smart, so incredibly gentle when the kids came along, and decent deterrence value for those possible miscreants who only saw a huge barking dog and didn’t understand that he was a Lab and so was likely to escort burglars to the family valuables. On clear winter nights, I find his star and tell him again what a Good Boy he was and that I hope to see him again someday and play fetch for as long as he wants to.
My wife is a dog walker and we house sit dogs. We used to house sit an English Lab that was a great pal to our German Shepard. That Lab was built like a Mack truck and was only slightly overweight and had the shiniest jet black coat. And he was very laid back.
Lately we’ve been house sitting an blonde English Retriever that I’ve nicknamed Dancer. She likes to rear up on her hind legs and plant her front paws high on my chest and we dance around the room while I scratch her chest and belly.
We had two Shepards sequentially. The first was super loyal and attentive to his master, my wife. The second was moderately attentive but equally interested in running and playing. Both were avid swimmers. The second Shepard was so fit and handsome, in my biased opinion, that it was like living with a living work of art.
No mention of Chihuahuas, suitable for small apartments,and generally quiet and not at all destructive. In the last few decades the nasty snappiness has been bred out of them. And, they give just as much love,just in a smaller package.
I like dogs – pretty much all types. And then there is The German Shepherd Dog. I’m on #6. There is nothing, NOTHING! like the intelligence, beauty and loyalty of a well bred, well trained GSD. Every canine instinct perfected. ‘Nuff said.
Count me as another cat person. What Rich Taylor said about problem owners– I got turned off dogs (all breeds, all sizes) early because my mother’s older sister was the kind of person who made a succession of dogs as neurotic as she was. The first time I read the section in C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves about the type of person who loves dogs for the wrong reasons (essentially, because they can’t talk back to a human), I recognized my aunt at once. I used to explain my (childless, it goes without saying) aunt to friends as the kind of person who treats dogs like children and children like dogs. It took me years to get over the verbal and psychological abuse she dished out to me and my cousins, and I’ve never gotten over a kind of visceral distaste for dogs– I suspect because they remind me of her.
Cats– well, what’s not to like? They’re small enough not to knock me over; they can do their business indoors in a litter box (i.e., they don’t need to be walked outside with six feet of snow on the ground or temps in the 90s); they’re clean; they don’t slobber, drool, or raid the pantry. I suppose that if cats ever develop opposable thumbs, we’re in for it, but for now, I’m just enjoying my two affectionate and well-behaved kitties. They even appreciate baseball!
We are on our second German Shorthaired Pointer. They are fabulous dogs, smart and good with people, but if you think a Labrador Retriever is energetic, you would never be able to handle a GSP. Our boy is nine years old, has the energy of a puppy, and we take him afield in the neighboring farms four to six hours a day, every day. It still does not burn off all the energy, he is always ready to go, go, go. The farmers are happy with how many groundhogs they catch and kill in a year. Once he chased down a running coyote and picked it up and shook it awhile until it broke loose and got away. Fast dogs, with intense predator instincts
They shed as much as a Lab, but at least the short hairs are much less difficult to clean up. I love him dearly, but this is our last Shorthair, I’m getting too old to keep up this pace day in and day out.
We’ve got a black toy poodle. When we were 550 miles from our summer home, our specifications for a dog were he had to be small enough to carry back and fourth easily and he couldn’t shed. He’s a great little guy and smart as hell.
I love dogs! Received my first, a red Cocker Spaniel puppy, for my third birthday. Since my husband and I have been married, we’ve had ten dogs, presently, two rescued ex-racing Greyhounds. I like terriers and sight hounds, because expectations for obedience are limited. Herding and working dogs are too smart for me. Sporting dogs tend to be too active. Greyhounds are both beautiful and funny, and sleep most of the day.
We have a house/dog sitter when we are away and it has been years since I boarded a dog. When I lived in New Hampshire for a year and still traveled on business I had to board my golden but she didn’t mind. I lived by myself for years with just a dog and the past 25 years it has been a basset hound.
My daughter has a miniature Australian sheepdog and her efforts to train it have been hilarious. There is a guy who has a small herd of sheep and trains them to herd sheep. Of course, she lives in Santa Monica. She sends me videos of Huxley herding sheep.
My daughter just lost her 13 year old Yellow Lab. Every fault listed is valid. You could develop bruises on your leg from the tail, etc.
This one, a rescue, had some additional problems–
Anxiety– She was on prozac most of her life
Aggressiveness– to other dogs. Hell to pay unless they submitted immediately. (Daughter chose her to run with her in the evenings. No way.)
Fear of water–Yep. Guess she didn’t know she was a Lab. Not sure she could swim. Fell into the pool once, and daughter swears she had to rescue her.
But, Lord was she loved; and how she loved her people (if you accept that concept in animals)
Had a Beagle right after we were married–wife had to have a pup. Destroyed everything in reach. Beautiful markings, classic long legged physique, great temperament; but, a four legged wrecking ball, and terrible thief as the neighbors reminded us. Never intended as a house pet.
For a long time now, I wouldn’t consider anything other than a mutt. A great one moved around the country with us, and shared living and automobile space with as many as three cats, for many years.,
Oh, and Siamese cats rule. If you don’t believe, ask one.
I’ve had beagles and they are as hyper as German Shorthairs. Goldens are mellow but active. Long hair and lots of shedding. I used to shave mine for summer, Just left her feathers on legs and tail.
As I get older, bassets are more my style. Our present one is a rescue and the most loving dog I have had. She loves the car and is never more than 5 feet from me. We have to leave her in the house in Tucson summer but she even rides to the store with us when it is cool enough,.
I’ve always had big dogs but now own a Wire Fox Terrier named Asta after the star of The Thinman movies with William Powell and Mirna Loy. This is the best dog I’ve ever had.
Why.., sputter, choke,sputter, what the.., whoever..choke, why if you ever owned….sputter, who could dispute..sputter
I like labs and have owned several. Just put down my 14 year old Matty two weeks ago. She was and did all the things you mention, but also listened attentively when I rambled to her (and I’m sure she understood the vast majority of it including the political parts), retrieved like nobody’s business, and kept my feet warm in the winter (well, in the summer, too,.but no matter). She was sweetness in a fur coat and I miss her dearly.
I’m not saying other breeds are endearing, just not for me.
NOT endearing