NOT a pet store. In fact, you might wanna reconsider the breed. It is currently the most over bred dog in the US. Generally speaking, popularity of a breed leads to bad things with the genome.
As much as possible.
Ideally. This can be accomplished via group training/obediance classes.
A must. I would advise against getting a dog if obediance training is not possible. No matter how good a dog might be, training will make things even better.
Kayeby’s numbers sound good. I would advise considering insurance for your dog (http://www.petinsurance.com/). I euthanise at least one animal a day for purely economic reasons.
Cost of lab ownership: Select 1-3 random pieces of tasty looking furniture in your home. They will be eaten. Add this cost to the above list of expenses.
Hip problems: I don’t know what the remedy is, but this can be a heart-breaker, or a wallet-breaker. AFAIK, lab hip problems don’t become detectable for a couple of years…well after you’re totally in love with the dog. Then you have to choose between a crippled dog or an operation that costs a small fortune. Both of labs I’ve owned came from the same family tree…one was in perfect shape her whole life, the other one needed hip replacement by the age of three.
But they’re the best little piggies. I’d never own a dog other than a lab (chocolate!).
Staitistically you can increase the likelyhood of purchasing an animal with good hips if you purchase the offspring of parents whose hips were evaluated as excellent. There is an organization that has radiologists who evaluate the hip radiographs of dogs and award a number to those with great hips. More info at their website: http://www.offa.org/
Also, there are a number of papers showing that phenotypic expression can be improved by feeding less food during rapid growth. Ask your veterinarian about this.
Most of what I meant to say has already been covered. I would like to re-iterate that labradors can have hip problems, but I think you can offset this by making sure your dog doesn’t over eat. Dogs don’t believe in dieting so you have to do it for them. I’ve always found that Labradors love childre(no jokes please!) and a Lab. would always be my choice for a dog.
Well, an hour of active outdoor play with your lab might be ideal, but most people don’t have the time and/or are too lazy to do it. A nice backyard where the dog can roam a bit has numerous benefits. It makes the outdoors more accessible, which means it’s easier to play fetch, and to put Spike out for a quick whiz. It can also be someplace to park the dog for a couple of hours when running errands so she doesn’t chew up your shoes, books, furniture, beer, tv remote control, appliance cord, carpet, child’s stuffed animal, etc.
I have had three labs over the last 15 years. Two blacks (Twig and Abby), and my current 7 month old yellow, Farley. I love labs. Here are some generalizations I have found:
[ul]
[li]All labs love to eat. It is very important to keep them at their correct weight, especially when they get older. When they are old, it is hard from them to drop weight, and it is very cruel to have an obese dog because it makes it much harder to move around. Watch the dog, not the dish.[/li][li]Labs have medium to high energy levels. We walk ours twice a day and play with her for an hour or two each day as well. They need to use their energy or they will be desctructive. If you are not willing to excersize your lab every day, please choose another breed that better fits your lifestyle.[/li][li]I have found in general that female labs generally have a more “sweeheart” personality. All labs crave affection. It is common for you to be sitting at the table and they will slip their head underneath your arm to be petted. If you pet them, they will bring you a toy.[/li][li]Buy lots of toys. Labs absolutely love toys. We have a basket of toys for our lab and she is always taking them out to play with.[/li][li]As labs grow, retrieving becomes their life. There is almost nothing else they like better. Expect them to constantly bring you tennis balls, socks, squeaky toys, etc. and dropping them on your lap to throw them. They will do this for hours.[/li][li]Labs make good watch dogs. True, they would probably not bight a trespasser, but they will surely bark and make a racket to warn you. This really kicks in as they get a bit older, around a year or two.[/li][li]Labs are very smart. This can get them into trouble. They are very good at solving “problems”. Sometimes they think you fridge door being close is a “problem” and will solve it. Be aware that they are like this, and try not to be angry at them because they were alone for a few hours and destroyed something. Yesterday my puppy ate some of my window screen for breakfast.[/li][li]Absolutley either go to obedience school and learn how to train your dog. [/li][li]Labs, as all canines are, are very social animals. They want to be your best buddy and go everywhere with you. They love car rides. They love walks. They need to be around “their pack” to be happy.[/li][li]Our labs wake up each day with the attitude that seems like “today is the best day in the world!”. I love this about them. Even when they are jumping on my head at 7 a.m. and I am trying to get a little more sleep.[/li][li]Be aware of sudden vet bills. They happen. We had one instance that cost us $1500 in about three days, totally out of the blue. It happens, and will likely happen once or twice in the life of your dog. Be prepared.[/li][li]Above all, love your lab, and they will pay it back ten fold. All they ask is for food, shelter, and love, and they repay it by giving you everything.[/li][/ul]
I swear, for every dog thread I read here and hear about how things are done in the US, I want to bitchslap the collective dog owners of the US. This is not directed to you in person, neuroman, it’s just the general attitude.
I can see only two reasons for getting a dog:
To work (which breaks down to a. competing and b. true work dog: Hunt, track, guard, protection)
Companionship.
I gather from the OP that the person is buying a dog for reason #2. If that person doesn’t have time to train and spend with the dog, then why get it? It’s not like a playstation that can be put away when it’s boring and there are more imkportant things to do. There’s no pause button on the dog, though god knows I’ve wished for it many times.
And remember, dogs are extremely social animals, which is how we managed to tame them in the first place. Each pack of dog has its own ‘culture’ (for lack of better word) which is shared only within that pack. This means that a certain bark/call will mean danger just to that pack and no other dog pack. It’s the same with wolves, and jackals I think.
To leave the dog alone in the yard and think it’s gonna be fine, 'cause it’s got water and its favorite ball to play with, is not true.
Understimulated dogs will try to activate themselves out of boredom. This can lead to mischief.
If you don’t have the time or the money, don’t get a dog. And try looking into what the dog was bred for. I can’t understand why people buy border collies if they don’t have sheep or are prepared to up those two hours a day to four.
There are a number of dogs I wanted, but I checked a lot of stuff first. I wanted a short haired dog, since grooming isn’t very interesting to me. It should be active and playful, with low or no interest in hunting. Smart, obedient and friendly, medium size. After checking, I picked a boxer, which I haven’t regreted. It’s a fantastic dog - for me. But I work with him for almost 2,5 hours a day. On top of that, he’s always around and I have to arrange my life around him, but it’s worth it.
I think you’re reading much more into neuroman’s statement than there actually was. I doubt he was advocating getting a dog and putting it in the backyard whenever convenient; rather, that a backyard is advantageous when owning a dog.
Elenfair and I have three dogs. We do not have a backyard where they can stretch their legs. Thus, we take them for daily walks and frequent trips to an off-leash dogpark to let them run and swim themselves into exhaustion. However, if we did have a nice fenced backyard, they could spend as much time as they wished running around in circles as opposed to being inside.
We arrange our lives around our dogs – it’s her career, no less; she raises and trains service dogs (which I see was notably omitted from your list of “true work dogs”. Why is that?) and offers grooming. Your comments in these threads, though, seem to be reactions to miscommunications and exceptional cases.
I think that we’re all pretty much in agreement on the majority of dog issues. Why be confrontational?
Labs chew. Several relatives and inlaws have labs and to a dog, they all are orally-fixated to the point of obsession. If bored, they will eat everything. Furniture, garage doors, horse saddles, etc.
Labs eat. Labs are the most food-obsessed dogs I’m personally familiar with (I’m by no means an expert). As a consequence, nearly every lab I know or see at the dog park is fat. This isn’t completely the owner’s fault – it’s very hard to know how much to feed a dog who eats like they’re starving to death no matter how much food you give it. And, if they get bored, they will get into any and all food you have lying around. (My favorite case is my sister’s lab eating most of a bag of flour, and then shaking the rest all over her apartment.) If you get a lab, you’d better be able to lock it out of the kitchen, or put locks on all your cupboards and refrigerator.
After all the stories I’ve heard, I knew a lab wasn’t for me. We got a lovely German Shepard mix who is the calmest, most well-behaved 1 year old dog you’ll ever meet. We leave plates of food on the coffee table and he doesn’t touch them. He’s a joy.
Maybe I was lucky. Mine never chewed anything that he shouldn’t have.
Something to that. But have you ever met a beagle? My Lab liked to eat, but his beagle companion (ex-GF’s dog) has to have her stomach pumped twice. The Lab was with her both times, ate a lot, but stopped at some point. The beagle ate until she physically couldn’t continue.
I will say that the Lab grossed me out once. He once opened a cabinet and got a 5 lb bag of chocolate chips. (Yeah, I know. Chocolate can be deadly. I knew that, but had no idea that he could reach a 6 foot high cabinet over the stove.)
Anyway, I come home, and he’s eaten pounds of chocolate. Fortunately, he vomited up most of it. He greets me, as usual, thrilled with life. The gross part? Not the expected, understandable inherent disgusting-ness of vomit. It was the opposite. This was the best smelling, most appetizing vomit that’s ever existed. Chock full of chocolately goodness. The dissonance between what my senses were telling me (Mmmmm!) and the cognitive knowledge that it was vomit was hard to take.
My first dog was a lab mix. Smartest damn dog I have ever met.
Boots would retrive for hours. We would throw a stick or a ball down the hillside and off he would go. If he could not find it he would look up at us and we would yell “to your left, or down further” anyway the dog seemed to know what we were describing and would then go find the ball. I swear that dog understood English.
As far as protection goes, if a stranger came to the door, you have never heard such a loud bark. Used to scare the shit out of us. (and the guy on the other side of the door!) Other than that, never a peep out of him.
As far as love goes, we never did find out just how long he would let us rub his belly at one time. We always gave up first.
Other than some chewing when he was a pup we never had any problems with him.
I miss Boots, and I want another Lab!
Ino, I’m sorry about missing the service dogs. The classifications doesn’t carry over very well between Europe and the US. I’ve just checked the homepage of the American Kennel Club and they sort dogs in a totally different manner. I recently got my boxer to do a mental test and he performed very well, so I’m of course very proud. I was even asked if I wanted to make him into a “service dog”, though that classification carries other connotations here. I’d never give him up, but here, service dogs means: guard, protection, search and rescue, mold hunter and a lot of toher things. I’d get the training for free, but have to be on call in case his services are needed. It’s an honor, so I’m considering this. In the midst of this, I missed service dogs.
Yes, I know I came of as confrontational, but it’s accumulated from numerous dog threads on this board, as well as reading about dogs in the US on other websites. In short, I feel really sorry for you guys, but in large parts, you have yourselves to blame. I’m going to throw cats in the mix here, since there is at least one thing about how they are treated that i find appaling.
[ul]
[li] De-clawing of cats. So they scratch and destroy furniture. Teach them not to. Buy one of those scratch post where the cat can use its claws.[/li][li] Docking of tail and ear cropping is barbaric and the dog will suffer for estethical reasons. This is one area where legislation was needed over here, and not all European countries have banned it yet, but we’re on our way. Most other changes have been self regulatory.[/li][li] Puppy mills. The less said the better.[/li][li] Buying from a pet store. See what I wrote above about taking the puppy from its mother at the right time. To take a puppy at five weeks, so it can be displayed in the store is wrong: The puppy will suffer in the store and the buyer will have a harder time training it. All sales here are directly from the breeder. I’d never buy a dog without having a chance to check out the parents. Also - all clubs for pure bred dogs maintain strict rules and a registry about things like allergies and HD, which means that unsuitable dogs aren’t allowed to mate. In the contract I have with the breeder, there’s a clause that he will only be allowed to breed with a female that the breeder has approved.[/li][li]Invisible fences, electrical remote control collars and things like that. Hey, if you can’t controll your dog, you shouldn’t have one.[/li][li] Spaying or neutering the dog. I know there is a controversy around this, because of the amount of feral and abandoned dogs in the US. But if people learned how to control their pets, it wouldn’t be necessary. A male without gonads smell wrong to other dogs and is therefore more prone to getting attacked. They’re also prone to putting on weight.[/li][/ul]
Dogs are dogs, and people who can’t deal with that shouldn’t buy one. It’s all a matter of changeing attitudes, and unfortunately, the idjots at PETA scream the loudest and many people disregard everything they say. And a lot of the things PETA says about pets are wrong.
I get a feeling many people buy a cat or dog to get a self-propelled cuddle toy. And that’s stupid.
Since you said you’re getting a black lab, you might as well start buying all your clothes in black as well. It’ll save you time.
Labs shed.
You’ll have black dog hair all over everything. And they like nothing better than to rub up against you just after you’ve “lint-brushed” yourself.
Regarding service dogs - here, service dogs are dogs are trained to help people with disabilities - the blind, wheelchair bound folks, the deaf, or people with other disabilities including but not limited to socio-affective disorders, epilepsy, CP, and so forth. They are highly trained animals who perform a wide variety of every day tasks from getting the phone, to opening doors, getting things out of the fridge, and so forth.
I think we all agree on the fact that many people get pets for all the wrong reasons. I see many dogs who just sit at home and do nothing, and who go totally neurotic. People are drawn to a particular breed for its looks and/or brain power (like Border collies, or australian shepherds) and then end up with a dog who is too smart for them and who needs a “job”… who gets bored and in turn who destroys the house for lack of something better to do.
I’m currently working with a young Australian Shepherd. She’s a herding dog at heart. Because of this, we take herding lessons and are getting ready to compete in herding trials. It appeals to her instincts, and she loves it! We do tracking, herding (sheep, ducks and eventually cows), conformation, service work and AAT work (special program, long story), obedience, agility, flyball and Rally-O. My Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever still works in tracking, SAR, obedience, AAT/Service work, agility (as a senior now!), hunting trials and Rally-O.
Going back to the OP: Beyond the basics, it’s important that you DO things with your dog. LOTS of things. Not just coming home every night, feeding it, and taking it out for walks. Dogs need a challenge, need things to do. Find a dog sport that interests you, and GET INVOLVED. That could be:
-Tracking
-Search and Rescue
-Competitive Obedience
-Therapy Dog Certification/Training/Work
-Hunting Retriever training/competition
-Rally-Obedience (see AKC for that)
-Agility
-Flyball
-Disc Dog Training/Competitions
-Freestyle obedience
-Air Dog training/competitions
… this keeps your dog happy - doing things WITH you that make his or her brain work. That way, you build a great relationship with your animal, and you will both benefit from the activity and the time you spend together.
Dogs are not unlike kids - they change our lifestyle, for the better - they get us outside, doing things, learning things, and most importantly building a “working” relationship of sorts.
Regarding spay/neuter Out here, it’s practically a necessity. People be dumb, I swear. That, and you know, sometimes it’s nice not to have to worry about your bitch in heat being jumped by some idiot’s dog who, though he’s shock collared by an invisible fence (sorry folks, but I truly don’t believe in those), ran through the perimiter because he smelled the pretty girl. In North America, there is a SERIOUS over-population problem. Spay and neuter your pets unless you are going to be a serious breeder…
**Regarding buying from a pet store ** You should NEVER buy a pet from a petstore. Their suppliers, called brokers, buy the dogs off of puppy mills to resell and make a handsome profit. You may even find, in pet stores, dogs who have AKC papers. This is because there are puppy mills out there who have bought their “breeding stock” from AKC registered breeders, and, in turn, can register the puppies through AKC. So you get “purebred” dogs, yes, but without any kind of guarantee. Purebred means nothing other than “parents are registered with a valid registry body”. It means nothing when it comes to quality.
If you’re looking for a breeder, there are great guidelines available online. Do a quick search for “finding a reputable breeder”. Find someone who breeds only occasionally. Find someone who DOES THINGS with their dogs. Make sure the lab’s parents have health certifications: OFA for hips, CERF for eyes, OFA for thyroid, heart, and elbow dysplasia… and ask about hereditary problems in the breeder’s lines. Ask about epilepsy, ask about auto-immune disorders, Cushings, Addisons, whatever you know may come up in your pup. Put chances on your side. Find someone who is willing to help you raise your puppy - who wants to hear about how he/she is ding - who is willing to help you get started with dog sports and training…
Anyway - good luck, all around… it’s a fun journey…
Sorry, forgot that one. This is, on all accounts, a myth and one a lot of dog owners (especially men - no offence there :D) use not to neuter their dogs.
All our service trained dogs are neutered. In fact, a lot of police dogs (protection dogs, military dogs, landmine detection dogs, SAR dogs, narcotics/arson detection dogs) are neutered.
If you frequent off-leash parks, a neutered dog is less likely to get attacked than an intact dog. When my toller was intact, he’d pick fights with other intact boys. It was a testosterone thing. Since he’s been schnipped, no problem. Neutered dogs are also less prone to marking their territory all the time which, in a working dog like an SAR dog, is really REALLY helpful.
Dogs who are spayed or neutered do NOT put on more weight than other dogs. Truth is, most people get their puppies neutered at 6 months in North America - they get fat because of overfeeding, especially of low-quality foods, and because they simply don’t get enough exercise once the “cute puppy stage” and novelty has worn off.
I have long had many wonderful working dogs who were all spayed and neutered (could you imagine working with a female dog who goes into heat for 3-4 weeks every 6 months? Not me.) I have never had a weight-gain problem on a pet caused by a spay or a neuter. My aussie, who is spayed, still has trouble keeping weight on because she burns all she eats in the course of her working/training day.
True. And although it might sound shallow to some, I passed on a perfectly nice yellow Lab from my breeder just last month for just this reason. I wear black a lot more than I wear khaki. (Brushing frequently with a slicker brush really helps.)
That brings me to another point. Get your pup used to being brushed, having his paws handled/nails clipped, and ears and teeth inspected and cleaned if necessary. He’ll tolerate it a lot better than if you start later.
Not in my experience, but it’s purely anecdotal, of course. There are some neutered males on the field where I take my dog every day. They are frequently, if not often, pounced by other males.
However, the point is moot, because we have very different conditions here. Feral dogs simply don’t exist and the weeks the females are in heat, the owners promptly stay away from other dogs. If someone shows up with a yummy female, they’ll get thrown off the field pronto. Too many responsible dog owners, for them to get away with that.
Another thing: Never let your dog play with other dogs when on a leash. And you should remove the collar too, especially if it’s a chain link. And if I could legislate, I’d outlaw those infernal expandable leashes.
We’re starting obedience, course three, tomorrow. If he performs well, I’m thinking of letting him track mold. Big problem in many houses here, built after 1974. I’m also taking a course with him in tracking blood. We just got home from a two hour long walk on the beach and he’s snoring in his basket right beside me.
No black lab in the world needs $400 worth of grooming a year.
I want a RottieLab mix (rescued, if possible).
Not getting your pet spayed or neutered in the US simply irresponsible. PERIOD. Imagine this: the dog is in the backyard, you’re playing fetch with it. Even the most well trained, well behaved, intact male dog will jump a fence to get at a female in heat. Turn your back for an instant and that female is pregnant. Presto: five or six unwanted puppies.
Why, exactly, would you remove the dog’s collar, The Gaspode?
Labs need LOTS of attention. Lots of dogs are like this, high energy, high play drive. Often, this can be tempered by cross breeding, but every dog is different.