Do You Have a Labrador Retriever??
The last dog I had was a black Labrador Retriever mixed with a Newfoundland. She was built mostly in the same way a Lab is - she had that trademark stocky build and very pretty brown eyes. The Newfoundland in her however made her much larger than a purebred Lab. Today I would like to talk about my old dog and how she acted so you have a general idea about the breed.
In upcoming posts, I will profile different breeds giving you information on each one including: any breed-specific health problems, behavior to expect, and general information. If you have any particular breed you would like mentioned, please send an email to: dsheffler@petstrong.com
Let me describe a little bit about her overall personality before I get into specific issues she had. When she was a puppy, she was incredibly energetic, she always wanted to play with a tennis ball or run around the yard. She was a very pleasant dog and the only real issue she had when she was younger was she was incredibly edgy around men. She would growl and tuck her tail in her legs around all men except for my dad. Eventually she grew out of this stage and who knows exactly what caused it - she could have been abused by a male in her puppyhood.
She had an incredibly bad habit of jumping up on people when she said “hello”, not only was it awkward having a dog that big jumping on you, and trying to lick your nose….but for people who had no clue about her personality and what kind of dog she was it was downright scary. To discourage her from jumping, we would push our knee gently into her chest, she gradually settled down and stopped jumping up.
When she was a puppy, she used to love chewing on anything an everything….if you had it out, it would be in shreds when she was through with it! To solve this problem, we gave her only chew toys and taught her what items were hers to chew on.
Now I’m going to discuss the issues she had with her health and with her behavior. As with all dogs, she had a flea problem more than once in her lifetime. The key to getting rid of fleas is in how you treat the problem. EVERYTHING that has EVER come in contact with the dog must be sprayed, you must wash your dog frequently with flea shampoo and if the condition is bad enough consider getting a flea dip. If you do not treat the dog’s bedding area then she will get re-infested with the fleas once she lies down.
She also had a huge shedding problem….it seemed like everything throughout our house was covered in black hair every day!! She needed to be brushed regularly and that cut down a little bit on the shedding, but we still had to deal with it (although on a much smaller scale).
As she began to get older, she developed severe arthritis in her back legs. It was so bad when she stood up we could hear the creaking of her joints. This is a common problem in large dogs - especially her particular mix. A Newfoundland is a very big dog, Labs generally have short stubby legs - my dog was supporting all her weight on legs that were just not meant to do that. A problem (thank God!) she didn’t have was hip dysplasia, this occurs in the larger breeds and can be treated by your veterinarian.
Overall, Labrador Retrievers are great family dogs, she was loyal, protective, energetic, and just a joy to be around! Newfoundlands are also great dogs (but be warned they are incredibly large!!), they need a considerable amount of food every day and exercise to help them stay in shape. They are great family dogs too, and if you talk to an owner of a Newfoundland, I guarantee they will recommend the breed! If you have any further questions for me about Labrador Retrievers or Newfoundlands, please leave me a comment or send me an email (dsheffler@petstrong.com)! I’d love to hear your thoughts/stories!!
Thanks for reading! As always your participation in comments and discussions are encouraged and greatly appreciated!!
