by Anna Hofman

Created on: May 31, 2009

You cannot help but to fall in love with this dog breed. Full of life, it is one of the happiest, funniest breeds many people claim to have come across. You also do become a slave to those big, innocent, "you know you love me" puppy eyes this particular breed is famous for. Just as an interesting fact, the Labrador Retriever, or Lesser Newfoundland is the most popular dog breed in the whole world. Bred to be a gun dog that would fetch, or retrieve, pheasants, rabbits or whatever the hunter was hunting, the Labrador is favoured for its incredible loyalty, intelligence and loving behaviour. They are everything a dog owner could want and have the ideal balance or playful and loving and will always be pushing their snouts into your hands and coming to sit on your feet, wanting to be petted. They're perfect as family dogs and get on with babies, children and adults of any age because of their extremely loving and loyal nature.

Because of their keen intelligence and working/fetching nature they are actually more popular with police and authority bodies than Alsatians, even though movies and television favours Alsatians because they are perceived as more intimidating. Labradors are also very common as assistance dogs to blind and disabled humans, both mentally and physically, and are chosen because of their patient, sensible and calm personalities for this purpose. Labradors are extremely rarely aggressive, sensitive, nervous, territorial or tense and also rarely pine if left for a few days/weeks due to their independent nature. Because they have been bred to be gentle when carrying game to the hunters, retrievers can carry an egg in their mouth without smashing it, and settle it down without it smashing in it's owner's hand. Labradors also are known for getting on very well with other animals and can easily be kept on farms and in houses with families who keep chickens, cats and small animals such as rabbits or guinea pigs. They show very little interest in actually killing small animals because they were only required to fetch, not to kill.

Labradors are usually chocolate brown, black or yellow (often referred to as gold, but this is incorrect). These are the preferred colours for shows and are often winners of all kinds of shows.

Because of their breed, they enjoy playing fetch and will fetch and return a ball or stick to you all day long happily (a great way of keeping your Labrador fit without having to walk it too far, although this shouldn't be a replacement for walking as this is definitely required for the dog to be at it's happiest).

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