I have met these people of whom you speak!

I've known loads of thuggy labs (and loads of nice ones)-I don't think its much of a surprise, until recently they were the most popular breed so it stands to reason that many will be owned by idiots. Most of these are great family pets just thuggy with other dogs. I know of three at work-same litter, same absolute lack of any sort of training.
the most dog-aggressive dog I've met recently is a neutered lab, who absolutely detests entire dogs.
 
DabDab said:
My experience of labs isn't great either I have to admit. Though most I see out walking are pets - all the working labs I know are delightful. And for some reason the chocolate labs seem by far the worst, particularly for having aggressive tendencies.

I do wonder whether it is because people often buy them because they think that they are an easy family dog, and therefore are the sort of people who are unlikely to want to put a decent amount of effort into training them properly....?
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I think it is because breeders have been breeding for colour and not worrying about temperament, which is totally wrong.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I think it is because breeders have been breeding for colour and not worrying about temperament, which is totally wrong.
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Sorry, I wasn't very clear when writing that - the second paragraph is referring to non-working labs in general, not just the chocolates.

Yes, very much agree on the chocs re gene pool and breeding practices. About 15 years ago in Sussex there seemed to be suddenly a real trend for the chocolate labs and they seemed to be everywhere. There was an awful lot of incidents involving them, but I assume that a lot of them were related in some way.
 
And now everyone wants a fox red, with their horrible snipey heads. (Which are improving and apologies to those with lovely fox reds).
Breeding with colour as your main requirement is never a good thing.
(says she, who may breed from Ffee one day if her health tests are good and she is a good worker...and will specifically look for a black dog carrying yellow! (But he will also have needed to have won a FT!))
 
Clodagh said:
Perhaps labs are better when they have jobs?
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All the Flyball or working labs I’ve met have met have been wonderful, the pet labs have been out of control and at times agressive so I think you might have a point.

Fizz is dog neutral with 98% recall (I’d never say a she’s 100%, she is a whippet) but Dobby is an overfrienly tit so he stays on a lead/long line and has controlled interactions, it’s not rocket science.
 
my collie cross was on the lead and was attacked and bitten badly by a chocolate lab, there is a chocolate lab inour village who attacked a king charles spaniel and broke 2 of her ribs and also bit her , IMO they are too inbred as the other coloured labs that i know seem to have lovely temperaments. last week i was walking with my 2 off lead and saw someone coming down the other track with a german shephard off lead, my little terrier started to walk up the path and the GS snarled and ran after him, little terrier ran as fast as he could so GS then attacked my collie cross who was walking off lead by my side..the owner had no recall and had to do a flying leap to grab his dog..the owner did apologise but why on earth have a large aggressive dog off lead on a well used walk. my collie cross was bowled over and althouigh not bitten was quite sore the next day, she is nearly 13 so elderly and really doesnt need to be bullied..this is one of the rerasons i have stopped walking in my own village as we seem to have aquired some numpty dog owners. i walk in my local park and know all of the dogs and have a much more relaxing time....
 
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I confess I went nuts the last time a dog attacked Brig. He was absolutely dog neutral, which I think is the way for a dog to be. I would have lumped into dogs attacking Person A’s dog too. People are so ignorant. One bite caused Brig to have to have a huge operation, I’d rather not have someone else’s stupid animal attack mine and I’m very careful to ensure mine doesn’t either.

I blame all these ridiculous ‘puppy parties’ ie free for alls where your dog learns to go up to other dogs and immediately start playing/bowling them over etc. Horrific

Pearlsasinger said:
I think it is because breeders have been breeding for colour and not worrying about temperament, which is totally wrong.
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Absolutely. A girl over on Petforums very carefully did all the health tests and bred a chocolate bitch to try to overcome this.

Clodagh said:
And now everyone wants a fox red, with their horrible snipey heads. (Which are improving and apologies to those with lovely fox reds).
Breeding with colour as your main requirement is never a good thing.
(says she, who may breed from Ffee one day if her health tests are good and she is a good worker...and will specifically look for a black dog carrying yellow! (But he will also have needed to have won a FT!))
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Says she who couldn’t possibly have a black lab! 😂

The last lab I came across (close up, I avoid other dogs, obviously) was attacked by Zak and had a proper pop back I was cheering on the lab

The only chocolate locally is horribly obese. Dunno if it’s related to the colour.
 
I don't know why I'm still surprised at the level of idiocy but its at the point where almost every dog I can see that's off-lead and nowhere near an owner is not trusted

One woman seemed outraged at being yelled at by an on-lead dogs owners after her off -lead dog had approached and then bitten said dog who had bitten back.

Her actual quote was 'I'm not responsible for how my dog behaves with another dog when he's on a walk'
 
Both owners are in the wrong. They both starting screaming and being verbally aggressive. This is not the way to control dogs during an excitable incident. They both endorsed the dogs behaviour by teaching them that humans react like a badly behaved pack of dogs.
 
I know 2 different labs quite well and both fall into the "too friendly" catagory. The first one, a black lab is my friend's that was always overly excited, pulled terribly, jumped on visitors etc and coz she took her to puppy classes that had no effect she seemed to think that she should just give up and accept how she was, that was until she started dragging her down the path to a snarly aggressive dog wearing an orange no dogs lead and Holly just didn't seem to understand the other dog didn't want to play.... My friend has been working hard over the past 5 months to train Holly and she is now lovely and easy, ignores other dogs on or off lead, doesn't pull and is much more relaxed. The other yellow lab is my sister in laws who she even describes as "a bit of a thug with other dogs" and thinks it would teach him a lesson if another dog but him, I can't get through to her that a) it's her job to teach her dog and b) her dog could be massively undoing months of someone's training with a reactive dog!
 
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