The Labrador Retriever Top of the Pops

Because we have owned and bred many kinds of dogs, friends often come to us for advice when they are ready to buy their first dog or to get another after one has died. Whether these friends are young parents with small children or people who live alone, the name that appears most frequently at the top of our list of recommended breeds is the Labrador retriever. If ever a breed deserved to be called the good old boy of the canine world, the Lab most certainly is it.

Everybody's Everything

A well-bred Labrador retriever loves the world and everyone in it. Labs, by and large, are supremely content to live in the moment, especially if it is the moment you are living in, too. They can be utterly devoted to one person or to a house-full of children and adults. They will go anywhere and do anything their owners might fancy.
 

Walking, jogging, swimming, hunting, chasing Frisbees, playing hide-and-seek – the list of the Lab's favorite things is boundless; but this is not to say the mature Lab is a hyperactive dancer that must be kept jitterbugging every minute it is awake. A Lab is also happy to curl up with you and a good book or to help you steal a siesta in the shade of your favorite tree.

The Lab is so accommodating it is a fair bet to become America's national dog. Last year it ranked first in new registrations (149,505) among the 143 breeds registered by the American Kennel Club (AKC). Indeed, the Lab has been the top of the AKC's pops for the last six years.

Where's in a Name?

Although it is Labrador's namesake, the Labrador retriever was fashioned in England after its ancestors had emigrated there from Newfoundland with the help of that country's fishermen. The origin of the Lab's Newfie ancestors, however, is a matter of some dispute. One writer announced with great conviction: "Vikings and Basque fishermen visited Newfoundland as early as 1000 AD and wrote accounts of the natives working side by side with these retrieving dogs." Another authority said with equal conviction: "It's fairly clear there were no indigenous dogs in Newfoundland when the first fishing companies arrived."

Whom to believe? The advice here – as it is in most disputes concerning canine origins – is simple: flip a coin. You will be right half the time.

No matter where their ancestors originated, there were two types of dogs hard at work in Newfoundland by the early 1700s. Both were called Newfoundland or St. John's dogs. One was a heavyweight contender with a long, ponderous coat. This dog, used primarily for draft work – though he was not opposed to getting his feet wet retrieving – was the greater Newfoundland (or the greater St. John's). In four-dog teams it hauled carts loaded with 200 to 300 pounds of fish and the driver of the cart. Greater Newfoundlands pulled carts to market in their "native" land and in England as well. This greater Newfoundland, odds are, is the ancestor of the modern breed of the same name.

The lesser Newfoundlands (or lesser St. John's) were smooth-coated black dogs of smaller build. The constant companions of fishermen, lesser Newfoundlands were unrivaled at retrieving game in the field and fish in the freezing waters of the Labrador Sea. They were also unrivaled for their hardiness, serving as tow barges when necessary, and for their stamina, often working 20 hours at a time. When they were off duty, they played with the fishermen's children.

St. John's (or Newfoundland) dogs, greater and lesser, crossed the Atlantic to England regularly in the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries. When England passed a law in 1856 forbidding the use of dogs for draft work, British interest in the greater St. John's lessened.

Another British law – the Quarantine Act of 1885 – put paid to the further importation of the lesser St. John's dog, but for some decades before that a handful of British estate owners had regularly imported St. John's dogs and bred them to produce several strains of retrievers. One of these breeders, the third Earl of Malmesbury, was probably the first person to apply the name Labrador to one of those strains. In 1887 the earl wrote to a friend, "We always called mine Labrador dogs, and I have kept the breed as pure as I could from the first I had from Poole [Harbour], at that time carrying on a brisk trade with Newfoundland. The real breed may be known by their having a close coat which turns the water off like oil, above all, a tail like an otter."

When Labrador retrievers first appeared in British Kennel Club's events during the latter part of the 19th century, the retrievers category included curly- and flat-coated dogs, as well as other varieties. Indeed, dogs from retriever litters were eligible to compete with the variety they resembled most; but by 1903 the Labrador had been established as a separate, true-breeding strain, and it was granted separate registration status by the kennel club.

Recrossing the Atlantic

During World War I, Labradors crossed the Atlantic again, this time bound for the United States, where the AKC, 

following England's lead, had a catch-all classification for retrievers. When the AKC began registering Labradors as a separate breed in 1917, the first name entered in the stud book was Brocklehirst Nell, a bitch imported from Scotland. Nell was shortly joined by many others of her breed. Often they were accompanied by their Scottish trainers who were brought over by wealthy Americans interested in breeding Labradors. The affinity of the Scots for the Labrador was enormously responsible for developing the breed's hunting versatility and for popularizing Labradors in this country.

A Dog for All Reasons

Hunters, of course, have always admired the Lab for its hardiness, great enthusiasm for water work and all-weather suitability. Centuries of selective breeding had bequeathed the Labrador the ideal body for land or water work. The crisp guard hairs of the Labrador's coat easily shed burrs and brambles, and the dense undercoat makes the dog practically impervious to water. The Labrador's tail, referred to as an otter tail, serves as an efficient rudder capable of aiding the dog in the strongest currents. This unusual tail is thick and rounded in appearance, completely covered with extremely dense hair.

The Lab's versatility and skill as a hunting dog are enough to secure its reputation anywhere it goes, but its affable disposition is what makes the Lab a superstar. While hunters were enthusing over their Labs' prowess, the hunters' families – and other families, too – were discovering that when Labs were not out in the field, they were ready and willing companions. With that discovery doors were opened to Labs in countless American households.

Youthful Exuberance

Lest anyone think Labs are perfect, we are obliged to mention puppyhood – a time not without trials and tribulations. Lab puppies can be gawky, uncoordinated and enthusiastic. An interesting combination. Lab puppies will track indoors all the mud formerly in the yard and deposit most of it on your sofa. Their highly developed tails – great swimming aids and a barometer of the dogs' unceasingly great attitude – are also lethal weapons, capable of sweeping a table clean of every expensive bauble you have collected through the years.

Not only is puppyhood a trying time for Lab owners, it is also a long time. Labs do not become the mellow fireplace ornaments that Hallmark and other greeting-card companies portray them as until they are two to three years old. Fortunately, you will find it difficult to stay angry with your gawky youngster. Those big brown eyes will easily convince you that whatever just happened was all a mistake. Besides, you will already know there is not a vindictive or a spiteful bone in a Lab's body. So if you are prepared to give your Lab plenty of exercise – and if you put your knickknacks out of harm's way – by the time your Lab emerges from its protracted adolescence, it will have long since become an irreplaceable buddy. That buddy could easily be with you for the next 12 or even 15 years. With a friend like that, who needs knickknacks anyway?

Select Wisely

Selective breeding, always lauded as the method by which great dogs are developed, is also the means by which breed deficiencies are perpetuated. There is nothing sacred, much less magical, about the word selective. It is, instead, the kinds of selections breeders make that determine the health and soundness of their dogs. 

Unfortunately, many selective breeding programs include a number of unwise selections: the use, for example, of a top-producing stud that also produces a bottom-line genetic defect. Therefore, the Labrador retriever, like all selectively bred dogs, is subject to a number of inherited diseases. Chief among them are: hip dysplasia, epilepsy and progressive retinal atrophy (described below). What's more, Labs can also be afflicted with hemophilia B, hypoglycemia, dwarfism and diabetes.

Hip dysplasia is a malformation of the hip joint resulting in a poor fit between the head of the femur bone and the hip socket, in which the femoral head normally lies. This condition can be alleviated by surgery. The best way to avoid buying a puppy at risk for hip dysplasia is to ask if both the puppy's parents are OFA-certified free of hip dysplasia. If they are not – and if the breeder will not show you the certificates to prove it – keep looking.

Epilepsy in dogs is characterized by seizures. If they are short and infrequent, a dog may not need anticonvulsant medication. If the seizures are more severe, a dog is a candidate for a lifetime supply of phenobarbital, Valium or some other drug used to prevent seizures.

Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) is the wasting away of the vessels in the retina. Initially manifested as night blindness in young dogs, as PRA progresses, its victims become totally blind.

A responsible breeder will be amenable to discussing these problems with you. Anyone who evades the issues or denies they exist should not be given any consideration when it comes to purchasing your puppy.