Amazing - had I known labs can train themselves, I'd have had 4 of those instead of 3 GSDs and a loopy Lurcher!



It's not just neglectful, it's illegal here in the UK.

We see a lot of Labs with temperament problems, to be fair, in this area every second dog (it would seem) is a Lab. Blacks and Chocolates appear to be of less stable nature than Yellows. I see a fair few through behavioural clinics and sadly we have put a reasonable number to sleep over the years for biting. People call Labs 'a family dog' in the same breath they will call Jack Russells ankle biters (really winds me up that!) and Bull breeds devil dogs - don't you love that breed generalisations live on?? I have been bitten (badly) by 2 Golden Retrievers and a Black Lab!

Labradors also have their fair share of health problems.

I don't think a lot of people can cope with their behaviour in the first 2y, the chewing, eating of anything they can find, OTT behaviour etc.

It has to be said, however that some behaviours can be attributed to the fact that some dogs, from being a young pup, are crated for 8+hrs per day - many with no breaks - then owners come home to a dog sitting in it's own mess who is hyper and bored and wonder why they have problems.

My own dogs aren't wild on Black Labs - I think it's less about them not being able to 'read' them and more about the fact that these dogs always seem to be the ones who charge up and leap all over mine - no owner in sight of course!

My other bugbear about Lab owners is - why don't they put their dogs on a lead....ever??? It never ceases to amaze me that they will walk into the surgery with the dog off lead and allow it to run up to all the other people/animals and then tell me 'he doesn't need a lead...' they are told if you want to wait in the waiting room your dog MUST be on a lead!

As with any breed, there are good and bad and I know some lovely ones too.

A friend of mine is a receptionist at a local practice & she was telling me that yesterday they had a tiny yorkie in the waiting room when in walked an elderly mastiff the size of a small pony . The looks on the owners & dogs faces was a picture apparently!

It would be interesting to have some statistics on the proportion of labs to other breeds registered with vet practices & then look at the proportion of bites, behavioural problems, rehomings etc for labs as opposed to other dogs. I wonder if people think that some of these problems are more prevalent in labs just because there are more labs around?

As for entering a vet practice with an off lead dog. How irresponsible! Most poor dogs are quite stressed & frightened in the waiting room anyway so letting a lab bounce through the door & leap all over the place is just an accident waiting to happen!

A friend of mine is a receptionist at a local practice & she was telling me that yesterday they had a tiny yorkie in the waiting room when in walked an elderly mastiff the size of a small pony . The looks on the owners & dogs faces was a picture apparently!

Have to agree with you, it was a little more than a joke about labs, the fraudulent slip, was used in a not so nice way!

Fraudulent slips are not nice Jackbox - they can get you into all sorts of trouble with the law :mrgreen: