The enduring characteristics still in the breed today are loyalty and companionship. The Labrador, when bred from sound genetic lineage for generations, is steady, respectful and responsive. These dogs look for leadership rather than challenging it, and as long as the owner is consistent, kind and patient, the Labrador really loves training sessions, both one-to-one and in groups.

These are people-orientated dogs and enjoy the stable roles of companion and family member. Because the breed takes longer than some to mature, it is essential to maintain a calm and consistent set of rules right from the start, with plenty of encouragement and praise. Poor temperament in a Labrador could be the result of poor breeding. The same applies to serious hip and elbow problems and night-blindness. The ethical breeder has systematically screened for these problems. But purchasers must be aware that a bad/chaotic/neglectful etc environment can ruin a potentially wonderful dog, both physically and temperamentally.

The ancestors of the breed were used as working partners of fishermen and hunters in an often vital role, retrieving fish and game - food for actual survival. The soft mouth and absolute commitment to the task of retrieval was, and still is, essential for the gamekeeper and sporting shooter alike. Not surprisingly in more recent times the breed is chosen for highly disciplined tasks such as guide dogs for the visually-impaired, police surveillance, drug searching and obviously retrieval in various situations.

Stable gene pool
Having a stable gene-pool (by careful line-breeding) can be compared with cooking from a recipe, using fine ingredients, as opposed to throwing bits and pieces haphazardly into a pot and hoping for the best, resulting, in the case of dogs, with a great many unknown elements, in temperament and soundness, but they can of course be a great deal cheaper. A case of BUYER BEWARE.

Hips and elbows
X-raying and grading is essential, involving a general anaesthetic and associated veterinary costs. There are also substantial fees involved after this: sending away the film to the radiologist and his grading/certification for each dog. But this is all essential for an on-going sound breeding programme: there are no short-cuts.

Eye certification
Each breeding animal must be checked by an opthalmic vet every year from one year old to exclude hereditary conditions. There is now a ‘one off’ DNA test to detect Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA) but other conditions such as hereditary cataracts are not detected. I personally prefer to do an annual check-up.