Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire new dog-lab advice

This should not be this hard. Our lab of 14 years died a year ago And thE wife and kids are ready for a new one. My inlaws have raised labs for years and have had quite a following until they retired. Becasue of our history with the blood line, there is talk about staying with a good line. Here is the problem. I want a male and there is some prressure to get a female. We have two small girls and females are supposed to be less hard headed. The only reason I want a male is for appearance. There may be limited hunting, but I do not beleive that one sex or color hunts differnently than any other.

What have you experieinced? Am I just being foolish when i push for the male?

There are a lot of stereotypes like that out there, but IMHO gender has less impact than breed, breeding, or environment. Are females less boistrous because estrogen has an impact on behavior, or because people treat female dogs differently than male dogs in their formative months? I think the latter. Now I have seen pretty consistent behavioral traits related to breed, for example about 80-90% of JRTs are, shall we say, assertive with other dogs.

If you're going to get a purebred pup, or even a yearling, spend lots of time with the candidate and use your judgement. An ounce of direct observation beats a hundredweight of old wives tales.