Musings on expectations of behaviour

Sorry Kate and other lab owners! I didn't mean it quite like that. I was groping for a dog that people think makes a great pet. I personally could never keep up with a lab or any kind of retriever and I'm well aware that a lot of people get them expecting a great pet and don't realise that they take 2 years or so to grow out of puppy behaviour. Labs are popular for good reasons, though.

 
Corvus - that's OK!  I guess I was being a little....breed defensive lol.  I have encountered the attitude that labs are just the perfect family pet "right out of the box" and I get annoyed by it.  I am definitely not saying that's what you were doing, just that I can be overly sensitive when it comes to my Ben and his breed.  Sometimes I feel like I am in a no-win situation....I train him constantly and then encounter people who think he's just well-behaved naturally, but if I didn't train him I'd be one of those dog owners that everyone hates - with a big black uncontrollable excitable dog that has no manners.  Oh well - he's a joy for ME to have around so I don't much care what other people think on the subject.  They are great pets - they just take work, like every other breed, and yes, they ARE popular for good reasons.  They are clever, receptive to (positive) training, easy to train because they are all food addicts, goofy, good with kids if well socialised and are always happy to play that perennial favourite, fetch.  On the other hand, labs - at least MY lab -are/is incredibly high energy, he retrieves everything he can reach so I have to supervise him closely, and they will find any body of water they can to get wet and muddy in.  Definitely not a perfect fit for everyone, but a perfect fit for many. 
 
Kate
 
 

And natural hunting ability. Shadow tracked and got at least two baby mice yesterday. I know he dropped two at the door returning from our walk but he may have swallowed one. Really small. Hopefully the bones are still gellatinous. I'm not worried about him eating "raw" meat, though I don't feed him that way. And the hide and hair would just pass through. Canids don't digest those things unless they are ground up. But bones could get stuck. The x-rays I've seen for dogs with bone impactions is just exactly from catching a rat or squirrel in a field and getting it cross-threaded. But, I think he'll be okay. He's full of vim and vigor today.
 A co-worker just got a black lab pup that was wandering around a town we work in. He looks pure. Anyway, the co-worker plans to train him as a hunting dog and probably took him along the Labor Day Weekend, which is the opening of our dove hunting season.
 

ORIGINAL: Benedict
 I guess I was being a little....breed defensive lol.

No, that's probably a fair call. I should have been a little clearer. I guess what annoys me is that people want a dog that has all those traits you mentioned in the lab that makes them a good pet, but decide instead to get something completely different and then try to mold it into their idea of a lab. I was reading breed profiles on hounds a while back because I was interested in them and was pretty unimpressed to read profiles saying how you should reign in the prey drive of your hound by firmly teaching him not to chase or something. I was like, if you don't want a dog with a high prey drive, then get a pug or something. I don't understand why you would think it's fair to expect to be able to 'train' something imbedded deep in the dog's genetic history out of him. And I don't understand why you'd want to do that in the first place. I like prey drive, even though I have pet rabbits. But prey drive and things like that are part of dogs and I like dogs. If I decided to get a sight hound, I'd be trying to find ways to channel that behaviour that has been bred into them rather than trying to drum it out of them.

It's good that there's still call for retrievers to be used for their original purposes. It's not quite so common over here. We do have a hunting culture, especially up north in the tropics and in the bush. But a lot of what gets shot is too big for dogs to retrieve.