Registered: 03/27/03
Posts: 572
Loc: Kaufman County Tx
Offline
An article in the paper (dallasnews.com) caught my eye. Labs were the number 3 in biting people. I was surprised because every hunting dog I've met has been a love dog. I mean a pet me till I cry baby.
Golden reterivers are the breed least likely to bite.
My guess would be that most of the labs that bite are not hunting dogs but pets from poor breeding lines that haven't seen a duck in several generations.
However, I had a friend who owned hunting labs and his line was the quickest to fight other dogs I've ever seen. (It's all in the breeding)
You have to remember how many labs there are compaired to other breads, it is a numbers game. I respectfully disagree that it is in the breeding. I believe it hole hartedly falls on the person that raised the dog.
Temperment problems can stem from breeding and the way the dog was raised.
W4B, you just mentioned the classic "heredity versus environment" argument - but with different words.
And I agree with you.
I call Labrador's - 'ford dogs.' They're incredibly easy to train and predict when they come from reputible stock and properly handled/cared-for/trained.
Labs love to please their people and one has to 'work at' creating a failed [hunting] Labrador!
But as for biting, I'd also question if the bites reported are a reflexion on the total number of Labradors in the country.
However I've been around a few old school Chesapeake Bay retrievers that will tear into you just for looking at them wrong. Don't even think about sticking or laying your hand on their owner or his property.
With any dog, I try to read their body language before deciding to trust them. Like people a dog earns my trust.
Battue
Addition: Dogs probably read us better than we do them. I used to have occassion to be around a guy who had need of a top of the line "protection" dog. In a social setting the dog would go around and smell each individual. For whatever reason those he didn't trust would not be able to get next to his owner. He would place himself between them. Kind of cool to watch that dog "work".
I always felt good that he gave me the once over then essentially ignored me. He would always watch me, but if I put my hand down he would let me pet him. Most others he would just stand off and watch.
Edited by battue (08/25/0806:27 AM)
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Labs are the number one breed in the country right now so that kind of throws that little bit of info out of the window, if this is true it is only because there are more labs than other breeds surveyed
