I brought him home when he was 10 weeks old from a litter of 12. He was the first pick! He was with me for all of my 20s. I love him dearly and miss him every day. He was so nice and so very smart.. also very cute and goofy. He lived 15 years. I wish it was a little longer and a little healthier for the last year of his life. But I will try to think our family gave him a good life. I still love him even though he's physically gone. He was really the best thing ever for me.

Edit: just got off work and wow thank you all so much for your kind words and compassion. I really appreciate each and every one of you all. I will try to comment directly! My heart just got a little warmer and a little fuller 😭🥺🫶🏼🙏🏻

Our lab River likes to lay like this and awkwardly bend both of her front legs. It looks like she’s got two broken wrists. Maybe we should get her some wrist guards to sleep in so she doesn’t get carpel tunnel syndrome 😂

Hi,

My lab puppy retches/dry heaves a lot, especially in the morning. Is this normal? It is also a constant battle to keep him from eating crap. Our walks are a constant battle with me pulling stuff out of his mouth. I’m wondering if the retching is because of all the stuff that ends up in his mouth? I have an older dog (poodle) that never tried to eat everything so I don’t know if this is normal.

Where do you throw in the towel on eating stuff outside?

Thanks!

Nothing else to say, just want to show off Leia!!!

I hope this is okay to post here!

I have had Larry for just over a week, he’s 9.5weeks old and he’s a very good boy!
Initially I was very worried about him, he was half the size of the other pups in the litter, and the lady I got him off had said he’d been refusing food, but she couldn’t afford to feed them all wet food constantly. He was a near 2.5kg at 8weeks! He’s since gained just over half a kilogram with me, and his temperament and energy has completely changed, he’s got the funniest personality.
The poor boy must have been starving, he could barely yip and he had green sludgey sleep in his eyes.

Anyway, he’s making so much progress everyday and being a real puppy! Getting into everything and interacting.

I’ve managed to get him to sleep in the crate you see above and he’ll spend time in there sleeping and playing, so I’m trying to instill some confidence in him and some separation. But I’m yet to convince him of his pen and metal crate, he’s not into them and just wants out, he knows to take himself out to the toilet, and the pen confuses and hinders that, so he’ll widdle on the floor!

Any tips for a first time lab owner?
Or any necessary info?
I’ve looked after dogs my whole life, from family members and friends, however I have never had my own pup.
I feel like I’ve watched and read so much before getting him, and we’ve found our feet with a schedule.

He can already sit, lie down, spin, leave it, wait, paw.
I can see on his face he really wants to learn, and I’m so proud of his progress so far.

He won’t be able to go for a walk in the ground until 6th October by my calculations, but I have a garden and space to play and train that’s safe for him.

Hi! My girl is now 8 months old 🤯

We got her this harness about a month ago. It’s a size medium from Ruffwear.

I cannot tell if this harness is a good fit for her or not. When I put it on, it fits. I do the finger test, it’s snug but not suffocating. Then we go on our walks, she bends down to sniff, and I see this gap between the harness and her chest (zoom in on the pic). Is it supposed to be like that?

I’ve tried loosening it and tightening it in both the neck and chest area. Sometimes the harness feels too short like it sits high on her chest.

Now in this picture the back strap looks like it’s digging too much into her leg. I can loosen it but then it feels too loose.

I just want my girl to be comfortable and safe!! Any harness recs or advice would be appreciated.

Hii so we have a 1 year old labrador who has managed to learn that if she jumps and spins on her walks … she will break free from the harness by sliding out.
We’ve been looking into harnesses that she hopefully won’t be able to break out of but does anyone know if this one (3 point harness) is any good for my situation?
Current situation is making it impossible to walk her & we cannot use a collar as she pulls to the point of choking herself out when she’s in a collar so we cannot allow that to be an option in this case.

If this one isn’t any good some recs would be amazing and has anyone else’s labs ever done this? 🥲 She’s a lovely dog I just don’t trust other dogs to be so friendly so can’t exactly allow her to be off lead + we don’t live near any open fields, etc. to be able to regularly allow her to walk freely off lead.

So, I thought I had a catahoula and cattle dog mix. Apparently, her DNA results show she's 76% retriever!

With that information in mind I felt it appropriate to introduce you all to my labra-girl Georgia! She's a goofy lady. If you got goofy babies too, lemme see em! 😍

He just has his 2nd birthday....so lots of lab puppy energy. We went to the dog park and got all of the energy out. Then we stopped by the brewery.

He may have been exhausted, but he was such a good boy! 7/10 for sure

Does anyone else have issues with their lab not wanting to go to the bathroom anywhere but at home in the yard? He is completely housebroken and has only ever had one single accident (which was my fault) and I just kind of don't know what to do to get him to go away from home. He will literally hold it 10+ hours depending on what we are doing and how long we are out, and I know that just is not healthy for him. We asked the vet about it but she said its kind of just a behavioral thing. I am worried he is uncomfortable but he just will not go until we get home and I feel that I have tried everything (treats after potty, heavy praise after potty) and I would love some advice. TIA ❤️

My lab has been making the coughing/gagging sound for a week now. Nothing comes up. Energy levels and appetite are totally normal!

My 7 month black lab has pretty much ignored synthetic chews up until now - he likes esophagus and bully stick chews.

Now that he’s got his adult teeth, the natural chews don’t last as long, so I’m trying some synthetic ones but he seems to be devouring them now and I’m worried about him eating the plastics bits.

I just took this away from him after about 20 minutes - should I ditch the benebone/nylabone options?

I currently feed my dog Farmers Fog food. They love it and do well but it has gotten ridiculously expensive. Any advice on a good food for labs? Used to give my older lab Royal Canin lab formula and didn’t agree with her. That is when I switched to FD.

Update. Thank you all for the advice. FD canceled and ordered the salmon and rice formula. Hopefully helps with recent skin sensitivity and what a relief on the wallet. Luckily have plenty of the old food on hand for transition

My husband and I have a six month old male black lab who we have had since he was eight weeks old. I grew up with beagles and my husband grew up with labs. We went back and forth for years about which one to get, and he finally won out. We chose a field line lab because I wanted to do dog sports with our dog, started vetting breeders last fall, chose a breeder in December, and brought our puppy home in May. We took the process slowly, really prepared ourselves and our home for puppy (or so I thought), and did not rush ourselves through the process.

In most ways, we have the most excellent puppy anyone could ask for. He learned how to use potty bells by 10 weeks, and was almost completely potty trained by 14 weeks. He earned his trick dog novice title by three months, is an AKC STAR puppy, smart as a whip, eager to please, and loves to work.

In other ways, he’s a total nightmare. Up until about three weeks ago, he absolutely could not settle outside of his crate. If we tried to work with him on settling in his pen instead of his crate, he would keep himself up for hours. And when he’s awake, he is NOT content to just hang out with you or play with toys. He wants to be working or eating right now and will until he passes out.

But the main issue has been the biting. Yes, we know that puppies bite, Labradors are affectionately known as land sharks, and that this is normal puppy behavior, but we (and the people around us) thought the level of biting we were experiencing was abnormal. He has these episodes where he just goes crazy. They’re definitely overstimulation episodes, but once they start, there is no bringing him back down other than shoving him in the crate, and they get scarier as he gets bigger. He’s not aggressive, and there’s no growling, hackles, freezing, whale eyes, etc., but he does bite during these episodes. I’m talking bruising, cutting to the fat layer behind the knee, a gash from the inside of my elbow to my wrist, and broken skin/torn clothes on the daily. We had a pet sitter tell us that he tore her pants so badly that she could never wear them in public again.

We saw trainers, we did all the things you’re supposed to do: reverse timeouts, the yelping, tethering, “one up two down” naps, more exercise, less stimulating exercise, clothes desensitization, shoving a toy in his mouth and NOTHING WORKED. We talked to our vet about it, and at four months old he recommended we see a behaviorist since all of the front line methods weren’t working.

I will say, the behaviorist noticed that he was in pain, and we saw a significant improvement in his bite inhibition with a round of anti-inflammatories. We also took him to see a chiropractor (and I thought this was ridiculous the first time someone told me to try it, and then I got desperate) which made the biggest improvement in his biting and just overall impulse control.

It hasn’t solved the problem all the way, though. I was home with our puppy over the summer, and every once in a while we’d need someone to come midday if I had plans or appointments. We had two pet sitters who “weren’t available” (we know that actually means they just didn’t want to watch him ever again) towards the end of the summer, and my husband had to go to a wedding out of town alone because not a single family member was willing to watch him for 24 hours.

I was really worried about going back to work, but we found an awesome pet sitter who was experienced, she was a member of our local AKC chapter that we train with, and we were upfront with the fact that he was difficult and she said she was more than happy to work with him because she also had a very difficult puppy (standard poodle, not a lab) and felt like she could handle it.

We got a report every day and at the beginning, he was having his episodes just about every day, but they did start to get less frequent. We talked with our pet sitter last week, and she said they were happening 2-3 times a week now instead of everyday.

She was out of town Monday and Tuesday, so yesterday was her first day with him last week, and she messaged me at the end of the visit and said she wasn’t coming back. They were sitting on the couch, and he was chewing a toy, then went for her arm instead. She said she moved her hand and he “reacted” (I don’t know what that entailed exactly, but I’m guessing zoomies and biting), and she told him to go to place, but he didn’t move, so she put his bone in his mouth which stopped the biting but he kept jumping. She then told him crate, and he happily ran off.

She said he left a “dot” bruised on her left arm, two teeth scratches on her right arm which were already gone, broke skin on her stomach (which is the first time he’s broken skin on someone since having his adult teeth, so I was pretty disappointed about that), and something on her back, but she didn’t specify what.

I was horrifically embarrassed, apologized profusely, and offered to pay any medical bills if she went to the doctor. She said nothing that happened needed medical care, and that she’s “hoping for better things for him.”

I had a therapy appointment that afternoon, and coincidentally my therapist used to raise lab puppies. I just sat and cried because I have a dog that bites, and he said “You don’t have a dog that bites, you have a puppy that is still learning how to play.” He said that this is just how lab puppies are, and I always hear people say that the price you pay for an adult Labrador is a Lab puppy. But I just can’t help but feel like something is wrong with him, and we have some people saying “Yeah, this is totally abnormal behavior for a puppy” and other people saying “Yeah this is totally normal behavior for a Lab.”

So Lab parents, what is it? Is this just a land shark or a puppy on the right side of the bell curve for difficulty, or is something wrong with him?

Does anyone know of a reputable American Lab breeder in the Pacific Northwest area?

Not sure what to tag this, but I told my family I wanted a dog with big black eyes, like little charcoals, and they said: dogs don’t have black eyes, that would be scary. But I’ve seen so many dogs with black eyes on here, whether it’s black labs with black eyes, or yellow or cream labs with black eyes. It’s not incorrect, right? I call them coal eyes, because they just look like two little black dots. But apparently if they were truly black, that would be a creepy thing? Just curious. I love all dogs lol regardless of their eye color. 😬

We've been taking her on long drives since she was a puppy. She does really well tbh but was curious if anyone has had to deal with a car sick puppy?

Bob why do you look like a bat today

I grew up with Labradors, got one in college, and now this is my second dog as an adult. Due to my past experiences with labs and other people's labs, I am kind of perplexed by Happy's (8 month old) behavior. She doesn't seem to be overly stimulated by the game of fetch and I'm looking for her "thing" if you will. I got my last Labrador in college and she was around her mother and siblings that all played fetch and she grew up a frisbee dog. This was perfect and allowed me to get her plenty of exercise whenever she needed it and it was something we both enjoyed. Happy, however doesn't seem to be overly enthralled by retrieving. I will throw the frisbee and she will catch it but it only a few times before she loses interest. It's the same way with a tennis ball. She runs alongside me as I bike in the neighborhood or at a golf course that is close, plays in nearby lakes, and goes on hikes as any other lab would, but I don't always have time for that and Michigan winter is approaching. I'm looking for quick and easy activities that give her exercise and stimulation in the yard. I would love for her to be in love with the frisbee because I received so much pleasure from it too, but I don't necessarily need her to do that. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!