Kennel or pet store to purchase?
How much face time with the owner does a healthy puppy need?
Does he need to interact with other dogs occasionally?
Obedience training a must or an option?
What are the projected costs of dog ownership?
One thing that person needs to know is which end eats and which end poops. :smack:
Don’t, don’t, DON’T buy a puppy from a pet store! Going through a breeder with a good reputation is the best thing; to find out who that might be, you can try going to a local dog show and talking to the people there.
IMHO, obedience training ought to be mandatory for all dogs. An obedient dog is a good citizen, and is far less likely to end up causing problems for its owner.
I’ll leave the other questions for someone who’s more of an expert than I, but I don’t believe any dog expert will disagree with what I’ve said.
Good luck!
The someone should realize that the puppy will grow into a large dog, who needs lots of room to run and play. This is not an apartment dog. I second the obedience training, and I agree it should be mandatory. Also you should be prepared to spend quite a bit on food. As with any dog, there’s also registration, shots, heartworm prevention, and vet trips.
Labs are great with kids but not so great for protection, usually- maybe they can be trained as guard dogs, but every one I’ve known has been a big softie.
I’m the once and future owner of a black lab pup. I strongly second Pad’s advice against buying a pup from a pet store. Go with a breeder. (If you’re in Illinois or southern Wisconsin, I’ve got a great one to recommend.)
There’s a series of books on dog training by a group of monks (from New Skete, IIRC) that I found very helpful. It’s good to socialize your pup with other dogs, and a puppy training class can be useful for this. If you haven’t trained a dog before, obedience class is a good idea. (IMHO, it’s not absolutely necessary for breeds like labs, which tend not to be aggressive or overly headstrong.) I highly recommend crate training.
Costs will vary. You’ll need a crate (get the largest you can find), and there’ll be vet bills. Another expense is a dog walker if you work during the day. The need for face time is greater when the dog is young. Once he’s trained and no longer a pup, he can be left alone for longer periods of time. You have to be ready to commit time, though, every day for the next 15 years. (If you’re lucky, that is.)
Labs are great protection dogs. Sure, they’re big softies around the people they love, but labs are a hunting breed, and trust me, if a lab decides it’s going to go after something, it’ll go after it like a laser.
They’re also a high energy dog, and need lots of exercise, so the owner needs to be prepared to spend a lot of time playing with the dog.
I suggest that instead of getting one from a breeder or a pet store (which is most likely going to sell you a dog from a “puppy mill”) that you go to the local humane society and get one there. Sure, you won’t be certain of the dog’s pedigree, but you’ll be saving an animal that might otherwise be “put down” and trust me, housebreaking a puppy is no fun.
Huh. I’ve owned a couple labs and known many, and I’ve never known one that ever acted aggressively towards strangers. I trained my own labs to react to outside noises, but I wouldn’t have trusted them to protect me from intruders.
Good to know.
I really just want this someone to know that with a large dog, you can easily spend at least $100 a month on food, supplies, and the vet. Be prepared.
Not a big one for "me too"s, but I cannot stress strongly enough that NO one should EVER under ANY circumstances buy a puppy from a PET STORE. Absolutely no exceptions, ever ever ever.
If you must own a purebred dog (which I tend to recommend against), develop a relationship with a good breeder.
Better still is to find a dog who hasn’t had his genetics thinned by human intervention: adopt a mutt from a kennel.
I’ve found that animals can usually tell when a person’s up to no good. A well taken care dog of any breed will go after someone it percieves to be a threat to it’s owner or their property. A lab knows how to hunt, without ever being trained. So not only will he/she scare off a dangerous intruder, should one approach, they’ll be more than happy to chase the bastard down and chew his face off! 
Retrieve, yes. Hunt? What does that mean?
I’ve never met a lab that I could see chewing someone’s face off. They probably exist, but I wouldn’t bet on a randomly selected lab doing so. I’ll agree that, to a person unfamilar with dog body language, a 90 lb black dog running towards him at night could be a little scary. He’s more likely to get his face licked (as opposed to chewed off), though.
Well, the lab I owned would take off after rabbits and squirrels with an intensity I’ve not seen in other breeds, and I raised him from a pup, and never trained him to hunt. As for chewing someone’s face off, a friend’s lab very nearly did that to a door to door salesman who refused to leave when asked. (And no training as an attack dog.)
As I said, it’s a case of a dog being well taken care of, and a danger being presented to the owner or his/her property (not saying that you don’t take good care of your dogs, mind you). I once knew a guy who had a collie that he started chaining up outside because of the damage it’d do to the house, if left alone indoors. One day, someone broke into the house, just out of reach of the collie, the dog rubbed it’s neck raw against the collar trying to get at the burgler. After that, the guy left the dog in the house, not caring if “it ate the couch” because he knew that anyone who broke in there was going to be in a bad way.
Keep your lab BUSY! A bored lab is a destructive lab – not out of vindictiveness, but out of desperation. Plus, most labs will eat just about anything, including area rugs and compressed peat pots (you should have seen the vet bill for that one). My lab paid me back for leaving him alone too long by learning to open the refrigerator door and cleaning the fridge out whenever I left the house. He also learned to open the kitchen window and let himself out for a stroll (actually, a garbage eating binge around the neighborhood). Labs may appear dumb because they are so affectionate and goofy, but don’t be fooled – if your Lab wants something, he WILL find a way to get it. Be prepared to dog-proof your house for the sake of your possessions and the safety of your dog.
Hey, my lab did the fridge thing, too. I had to strap it shut if I left him alone.
(I used the behavior to good advantage when I trained him to bring me a beer, though. He’d even close the door afterwards.)
Hehe, I had to laugh at the thought of my Lab being aggressive toward anybody. He defended his territory with a single, very intimidating “woof!”.
He also loved to range, retrieve, and EAT. Good gawd, that dog could eat. He lived to be 17 years old, I raised him from a pup.
I miss ya, Beauregard.
Shoot, I drifted off into sentimentalism, and forgot my tips for someone looking for a Lab puppy:
If you choose a puppy from a litter, gather them together, and when their attention is elsewhere, snap your fingers and watch to see which one is the most inquisitive.
Check the roof of the puppy’s mouth. Dogs with a black palate seem to have a better temperament. Some may say that this has no biological basis, but I swear by it.
My family’s second dog, a yellow Lab, came from a pet store. (This was in the late 80s, and I’m not sure if the puppy mill issue was widely known yet.) He was very friendly and was rarely aggressive, and he loved to swim, but he had some serious veterinary issues that may have been related to having come from a puppy mill. He had a chronically infected ear (which meant he couldn’t swim), and later an infected paw. He became diabetic at 7 and became blind after a few years of daily insulin. He was put down at 10 or so, which is less than a lab’s normal life span.
So I will also say never to buy a dog from a pet store, unless it’s the type that arranges adoptions through a humane society. If the someone has had dogs before and is absolutely certain that they can handle the responsibility and cost of keeping a big, energetic dog for 12 or more years, they could get a pet-quality Lab from a breeder. Otherwise, they should adopt a puppy, but they should first make sure that it doesn’t have aggressive tendencies.
After the first yellow Lab died, we found another from a breeder. Like the first, he’s very friendly, but recognizes strangers and becomes aggressive until he’s been told they’re okay. He doesn’t like to swim, apparently because he’s a different type of Lab. One thing you might want to check for when getting a Lab: my dog has a droopy mouth, and he drools.
Man, my lab got near a beer, and it quickly became his. He’d chew through cans to get to the stuff, and even managed to figure out how to get twist tops off. Damn clever animals, if they had opposable thumbs, I’d be seriously worried that we were about to be supplanted at the dominant species.
I keep hearing this and it’s just plain wrong. You don’t excercise or train your dog indoors. At home, a dog should relax, not play. That will be part of the training.
And speaking of which - Figure on spending about two hours a day, actively, with your dog. That’s training, playing, grooming, going for walks. A lab is prone to put on weight, so you have to make sure it stays fit.
All dogs were bred for a purpose. With breeds like labs, they need to work, and that doesn’t just mean talking long walks. They need to use their brains. Others have mentioned obedience training and I 100% agree.
Apart from the ethical aspect, buying from a pet shop is stupid. A puppy is trained by its mother qand there’s a reason you take it from the mother at 8 weeks: If it’s later, the dog will not bond as well with you. And that last week, between 7 and 8 is when the mother gives the pup important lessons in socializing. A dog taken too early might not know how to react to other dogs and training/raising it will be much, much harder.
As for costs: $100 is about what I spend every month, on the average. Vets are expensive. And just because a lab will eat just about anything, shouldn’t be a license to go cheap on the food.
The ASPCA has a chart for how much dogs will cost annually. For large dog it estimates:
Food: $350
Medical: $200
Toys: $70
License: $15
Misc.: $65
Spay/Neuter: $125
Collar: $35
Carrier: $80
Crate: $160
Grooming: $400
Total: $1,500
Obviously some of these are once-off costs, and others might be unnecessary (personally I’ve yet to meet a dog owner who has spent $400 a year on grooming)
Hope this helps!
This sounds like your first dog since you’re aksing these questions, and I would recommend AGAINST it being a lab.
Labs are totally active and remain that way forever. If you don’t think your situation is going to change for a long time and you currently have time to run the dog twice a day, then a lab is fine.
8 years from now, you could be married with 2 kids and you’re going to hate having a lab. Part of their charm is that they’re puppies forever. And that’s the problem.
Border collies calm down before labs do. I know 10 year old labs that still jump on people (owners fault, but you’d think they would calm down). They walk around wagging the tail incessantly, smacking into EVERYTHING. They’re clumsy and very easily excitable.
On top of that, they’re smart, so they need to be stimulated all the time.
At night, my dogs lay down next to my chair, and let me pet their bellies and heads. My friend’s labs: he sits next to you, you have two choices:
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don’t pet him. Which will start to irritate him until his head is in your lap, he’s whining and his tail is clearing off the coffee table.
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pet him. Which also gets his tail clearing off the coffee table, usually will inspire him to bring you toys, might inspire him to climb up onto the couch and start climbing on you.
I know, you’re probably thinking, “everyone’s got a lab. seems like a good dog to get.” I don’t think its a good first good. As a matter of fact, I don’t think a lab is a good dog at all.
Labs are prone to hip problems. You need to give a lab WAY less food than he wants to keep weight off him. From what I know, they’re not good protectors.