The dog that came off the Newfoundland boats
The Labrador Retriever did not come from Labrador. It came from Newfoundland, where fishermen kept a smallish, short-coated, powerfully built water dog now called the St John’s water dog, and used it for very nearly the work the modern breed still enjoys: swimming out into cold water to bring back a line, a float, or a fish that had come off the hook. That dog had to be strong enough to swim in a swell, sensible enough to work alongside a crew, and willing to do it all again after lunch.
Ships trading between Newfoundland and the English port of Poole in Dorset brought those dogs across in the early 1800s, and English sporting estates recognized at once what had arrived. The second Earl of Malmesbury kept and bred them and is generally credited with calling them Labrador dogs, and the fifth and sixth Dukes of Buccleuch did much of the work that fixed the type. The Kennel Club in England recognized the Labrador Retriever in 1903, and the American Kennel Club followed in 1917.
Everything the breed is known for traces straight back to that first job. The willingness to swim in anything, the appetite for carrying objects around the house, the soft mouth that can pick up an egg without marking it, the cheerful cooperation with whoever is holding the other end of the day — all of it was selected for on a working boat and a shooting estate, and none of it has gone anywhere since.
Coat, colour and the otter tail
Two features tell you the breed from across a field. The first is the coat: short, straight and unusually dense, laid over a soft weather-resistant undercoat, so that a Lab coming out of a pond shakes twice and is more or less done. It is a hard coat rather than a silky one, and running a hand down a Lab in good condition feels like stroking a doormat that likes you.
The second is the tail, which the standard calls an otter tail and which nothing else in dogs quite matches. It is very thick at the root, tapers gradually to the tip, and is covered all the way round in the same short dense hair with no feathering underneath. In water it works as a rudder. In a small kitchen it works as a coffee-table clearing device, and the whole family learns to put mugs a little further back.
The colours are three: black, yellow and chocolate. Black came first, and was the only colour anybody wanted through a long stretch of the breed’s early history. Yellow runs the full range from a near-white cream through to a deep fox red, and a puppy registered as yellow at eight weeks may darken or lighten noticeably across its first two years. Chocolate covers everything from a light sedge to a dark liver. All three can appear in the same litter when the parents carry for it, which is why a chocolate puppy can have a black brother.
Grooming is about as simple as a double coat gets. A rubber curry or a hound glove once a week lifts the loose hair and brings up a shine at the same time, and most owners do it in front of the television. Twice a year the undercoat turns over with the seasons and the same tool comes out daily for a fortnight. Nails a little and often, ears wiped while you brush, teeth from the first week.
Field lines and show lines
Anyone who spends time around the breed eventually notices that Labradors come in two silhouettes, and it is worth knowing which one you are looking at.
Show or bench lines, often called English Labs, are the blockier ones: shorter in the leg, deeper through the body, broad in the skull, with a heavier coat and a thicker otter tail. They tend to arrive at adult steadiness a little earlier, and to be perfectly content with a good walk and a long lie-down afterwards.
Field or working lines, often called American Labs, are lighter and leggier, with a narrower head, a longer muzzle and a rangier outline. They were bred to hunt all day and they carry the drive that goes with it, which makes them superb at anything involving retrieving, water, scent or a whistle.
They are one breed rather than two, and plenty of Labs sit somewhere between the descriptions. It matters because it is the best single guide to what a particular puppy will want from you: both types are friendly, trainable and fond of water, and one of them will want rather more to do before it settles in the evening. Our staff can tell you which way a puppy’s parents leaned.
Temperament and family life
The Labrador is the most familiar dog in America, and the reason becomes obvious inside a week of living with one. It is friendly to essentially everybody, it takes children and visitors and other dogs in stride, and it would far rather be in the room where things are happening than anywhere else in the house.
The outlook is sunny and uncomplicated. A Lab greets the morning as though something excellent has been arranged, follows you while you get ready, and then lies down across the doorway of whichever room you settle in. The tail keeps going the entire time.
Labs also stay puppyish for longer than most breeds their size. The settling generally arrives well into the second year, and plenty of owners will tell you it took until three. That long adolescence is part of the appeal: what you have in the meantime is a big, cheerful dog that wants to be included in everything, and the answer is to include it — in the walk, in the car, in the garden, in the evening on the floor beside the sofa.
They are famously interested in food, which is the single most useful fact about the breed. Most owners measure meals rather than filling the bowl, and count training treats against the day’s total. It keeps the rewards worth having, and it means there is always a Labrador in the kitchen, ready to work for the next piece of cheese.
Training a dog bred to take instruction
Nothing in dogs is easier to teach than a Labrador that is being paid properly. This is a breed selected over generations to look at a person, wait, and then go and do the thing, and that wiring is the first thing any good trainer notices.
Start in the first week. Short cheerful sessions, one thing at a time, marked the moment it happens, finished while the dog still wants another go. Food is the currency and a tennis ball is the bonus. Recall, a sit, a settle on a mat and polite leash manners are the four that make everything else easy, and all four can be taught before six months to a dog that thinks the whole business is a game.
The retrieving instinct is the lever. A Lab with something to carry is a calm Lab, so give it something: a retrieve with a wait built into it, a scent game with a hidden toy, a food puzzle to unpack, a training dummy out in the yard. Ten focused minutes of that does more than a long unstructured half-hour, and a Lab that has used its head comes in and sleeps like a dropped coat.
What a day with a Labrador looks like
Mornings are the main event. A proper walk in the cool part of the day, ideally somewhere with water in it, sets a Lab up for hours. Swimming is the exercise this breed was built around, and it is worth finding a lake or a dog-friendly stretch of shoreline within driving distance, because a Lab that has swum is a different animal that evening.
The middle of the day is for sleeping, and Labs are unembarrassed about it. They find the coolest tile in the house, arrange themselves in the shape that blocks the maximum possible doorway, and stay there until a bag rustles somewhere. In a Florida or Tennessee summer the early and late hours are the pleasant ones for both of you, with shade and cool water through the middle.
Evenings are social. This is a breed that wants to be underfoot while dinner is made and on the floor by the sofa afterwards, ideally with a foot to rest a chin on. Five minutes of trick training, a food puzzle or a retrieve down the hall rounds the day off nicely. A Lab that has had its walk, its swim and its share of the evening is about as straightforward a dog as you can live with.
Come and meet the Labrador puppies
Photographs of Labrador puppies all look much alike. Standing in front of a litter, you notice at once that they do not: one is already the blocky one, one the leggy one, one comes over first and one waits to be asked.
Our Labrador Retriever puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you how a particular puppy has been getting on with people and with its littermates. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to sit on the floor with a puppy for as long as you like before deciding anything. Find directions and hours, and ask about financing while you are here. Every puppy here goes home with its vet records, its vaccination history and a health warranty, and our team will walk you through what those cover.