Labrador Retriever

As New York Times reporter David Carr put it, about having his own blog, it's like "a large yellow Labrador: friendly, fun, not all that bright, but constantly demanding your attention."
- in a Village Voice article about the art market.

This is the first GCD(Great City Dogs) breed evaluation, appropriate because I originally wanted a Lab, a yellow Lab in fact, but ended up with this instead. Read our post about Choosing a Puppy.

Carr sums up nicely what most people think about Labs, and a lot of typical Labs. Like all dogs, the better qualities of the breed require a certain amount of work to bring out. For example, Labs are considered highly intelligent (by the standard of the number of repetitions required for them to learn a command -- it's no accident that they make excellent guide dogs) but if you aren't going to do the repetitions, then your Lab is going to seem not all that bright.

Labs see themselves as having two main jobs in life (not all dogs live to work, but some breeds do, including Labs): retrieving and companionship. You and your Lab are going to be happiest spending a lot of time together throwing and chasing a ball.

Labs are also prone to overeating and, if combined with lack of exercise, will get fat. They also shed, not as much as Golden Retrievers, but a lot, so grooming becomes pretty important.

As puppies, they like to chew, and that can be disastrous combined with their need to be your constant companion. Left alone, puppies can destroy furniture, even drywall.

But I still love Labs. It's not for no reason that you see lots of them in the dog park. I can't see owning one myself any more, but then I'm learning that I am a deep city person (DCG) and DCGs need GCDs (Great City Dogs).

About the GCD rating system^TM:
Four paws - a truly great city dog
Three paws - a good, sometimes great dog
Two paws - a dog that connects with certain people
One paw - a dog only someone as special as you can love