Labradors are known for their love of water. If you live near a pond, lake or stream, you can take your dog with you when you go for a swim. Be sure to stay out of any deep areas so that your pet can rest when it needs to. Swimming is a much more difficult task for dogs than it is for humans so watch for signs of exhaustion.

Active Labradors love the outdoor lifestyle. If you enjoy camping, cycling or hiking, your dog would greatly enjoy being right beside you as you go about your day. Not only will it keep you in shape, but it will help keep your Labrador from packing on pounds as well!

There are several toys you can use to play with your active Labrador outside. They are not all expensive or complicated, either. In fact, the best toys for your pet are usually the ones you may already have in your garage! Tennis balls are excellent tools for a good game of fetch. Frisbees are fantastic for teaching your Labrador to jump and land properly and the process of retrieving while burning all that excess energy they have. You’d be surprised at how much fun you can have with just an old stick from your backyard, too! Labradors love chasing, catching and retrieving things with their owners.

While playing with your active Labrador, there are some precautions that you must adhere to. For instance, always bring water with you. Playtime can be an exhausting experience for both you and your pet. Pack up enough water that the both of you can stay hydrated. Also, make sure to watch out for traffic -automobile and human. If you’re hiking or cycling, make sure your Labrador isn’t bounding into the way of any other people on the trails. If you’re in a more urban setting, stay away from the streets and parking lots to avoid a potentially devastating accident.

By following a few simple rules and taking the time to get creative, you and your Labrador can have a great time burning off some energy while having fun playing!

The ACL is commonly torn when your Labrador twists on one of its hind legs, putting too much tension on the ligament and causing it to rupture. This often occurs if your Labrador slips on a slick surface, makes a quick turn while running or is hit by an automobile.

Obesity is another common issue in Labrador health and can also put too much weight on the knee. Overweight Labradors tend to have more instances of ruptured cruciate ligaments than dogs with ideal weight numbers. It appears that in most Labradors with this problem, the ACL slowly degenerates and becomes weaker until it tears without any sudden injury.

If your Labrador ruptured their cruciate ligament, they will appear much less lively. They will usually hold the foot of the affected leg a few inches off the ground. Some may start to use the leg again, but the pain will return and your Labrador will repeat the symptoms. Labradors with a degenerating ACL may show the same signs of pain and there may be some swelling on or near the joint.

Diagnosis of a torn ACL is made through observing abnormal movement of the joint. If your Labrador is in a lot of pain or very nervous, the muscles near the knee may be so tense that they prevent the abnormal movement from occurring, causing your veterinarian trouble diagnosing. If your vet suspects a ruptured cruciate ligament in your Labrador but can not feel the bones moving, your pet may be sedated to relax the muscles and then re-examined.

If the ACL is completely torn, Labradors are generally treated with surgery. After the surgery, your Labrador should be strictly confined up to eight weeks to ensure Labrador health. After about ten days, most Labradors will start putting minimal weight on the injured leg. It is extremely important to be careful with your pet to prevent the surgical correction from tearing. The veterinarian’s instructions regarding the recovery period should be followed exactly.

More than likely, your Labrador will recover fully and be ready to romp and play within a few months. They will pain-free and enjoying life again!

As you begin your journey towards dog ownership, you are likely to be confronted with more breeds than you ever thought were possible.  The Labrador is currently the most popular dog in the United States, with good reason.  Still, taking some time to understand what a Lab is and where they came from can help you determine if it is the right breed for you.

Breed History

Many Labrador lovers do not realize that the original breed was indigenous to Canada.  They were more than man’s best friend – they were an important part of the fishing community, where they worked side by side with fishermen to pull in nets and catch escaped fish.  Eventually, they were crossbred with several other breeds, most notably Spaniels and Setters, to create the breed we know today.

The Perfect Owner

While every breed has unique characteristics, perhaps none demand a specific type of owner like the Labrador.  Remember that Labs are very active and social.  The perfect owner will have both the time and the energy to devote time each day to their Labs.  This is especially true during the critical ‘puppy’ time.  The ideal owner will recognize just how much affection and playtime their new pet needs and will work each day to provide them with the puppy/owner time they need.

Just What You’re Getting Into

Labradors are considered medium-sized dogs.  They are athletic, with a short coat that is partially water resistant.  They are the ideal dog for waterfowl hunting but also have sweet and temperate dispositions making them perfect family pets.

If you have the time to devote to your new pet, the Lab may be the perfect breed for you.  Full of energy and affectionate, they are ideal for both families and outdoorsmen. Consider adding one of these fun and feisty dogs to your home and see how long it takes for you to have a new best friend.

So what should you and your favorite pet look for in a good dog park?  It boils down to the “4 S’s.”

Safety:  Be sure the park is fenced in and secure.  Chain link or other durable fencing should be used and high enough to prevent even the most feisty Labrador from jumping out.

Shade: Shade is particularly important during the hot summer months – especially for longer trips.  Be sure your pooch’s park has plenty of shade.

Sanitation:  The best parks always have clean up stations for those ‘little messes’ our lovely Labs leave us.

Sipping Water:  Your pet will be running and playing – and working up a thirst.  Be sure your favorite pet park has clean, potable water for pooches.

If you simply keep the 4 S’s of dog parks in mind, you will most likely find the perfect place for you and your Labrador to frolic and play.

As a final piece of advice, be sure that you understand all of the rules and regulations of the park.  While most rely on the same set, some differ, so take the time to check for posted rules and be sure to follow them.  The more people that do the better the experience is for each Labrador Retriever that visits.

In the opinion of this writer…yes. As the owner of two Labradors under the age of three, I have come to realize that exercise is essential to a happy dog as well as a happy owner. I am part of the 70% of dog owners who believe that my beloved pooches are part of my family. Now that all my children have left the “nest”, trips to the dog park have replaced earlier trips to the playground and more recently, endless trips to sporting events. I no longer discuss SAT scores, the best colleges and curriculums, but have migrated to simpler subjects such as the perfect dog food, the best fetching toys, and the love that I have for the two devoted dogs who love me unconditionally and are always happy to see me…always.

Dog parks are a great way for your Labrador Retriever to run, learn to retrieve toys, as well as socialize with other dogs. As an owner, there are several criteria that make a dog park a safe place for you and your dogs.

1. Make sure that the park has secure fencing and gates.

2. Dog parks should have a separate area for smaller dogs.

3. There should be clean-up stations throughout the park.

4. Dogs should have access to shade and drinking water.

5. Parks should be large enough for normal interaction.

Here are some general safety rules for your dog and your family.

1. To be fully protected, you dog should be fully vaccinated, have a good immune system and  have no injuries or chronic pain. Puppies are extremely vulnerable to deadly contagious diseases, so don’t take them until they had all of their shots, and the vaccines have had time to become effective. Ask your veterinarian during your last round of shots.

2. Female dogs that are in heat, male dogs that haven’t been neutered, and anxious or aggressive dogs are not good candidates, and should not be at dog parks.

3. Before you enter the park, spend a few minutes observing other dogs and the way they interact. Dogs will naturally congregate around the entrance gate when a new dog arrives. You may want to walk your dog around the outside of the fence, so that dogs that are already at the park can get a “preview” of the newcomer, and your dog won’t be overwhelmed when entering his new playground.

4. Once you’ve entered the park, take your dog off his leash. Although this is a good opportunity to socialize with other dog owners, be aware of your dog, as well as other dogs at all times.

5. Have a basic knowledge of your dog’s body language. Dogs use facial expressions, ear and tail positioning and overall behavior to express their intentions. Signs of a frightened or threatened dog include eyes that appear to be larger than normal, ears that are pressed against the dogs head, tail that is tucked between the two hind legs, excessive shedding and a tightly closed mouth. If your dog appears uncomfortable, take him home. This is supposed to be a positive experience.

6. Small children should not be present at any dog park. There are too many possibilities for accidents.

The only other suggestion that I would make is to cover your car seats with towels or an old washable blanket or quilt. Outgoing and curious Labs tend to bring home a little mud and grass.

If you follow these simple guidelines, a dog park can be a great experience for you and your pet. Not only will your Labrador be able to exercise and run freely, he will learn valuable social skills.  Most importantly, he will come home tired, allowing you several hours to work, clean, shop or do whatever task that needs to be accomplished.

Your Labrador retriever is smart and wants to learn tricks, if for no other reason than to please you. Happy, well-adjusted dogs are the ones who are allowed playtime, romping, running, games and learning to keep their minds and bodies agile. A bored dog will exhibit signs by digging, chewing, wandering off or barking incessantly. It will help everyone in your family, especially your Lab, if you take the time to train them, discipline them and love them in equal measures.

You can start this process with a good standard obedience course, both on-leash and –off. Labrador retrievers are strong dogs when adult-sized, so it would behoove you to teach him manners before he gets big enough to push you around. Once your puppy is trained, maintaining the training into adulthood should become routine. No one wants a dog jumping up on strangers, nosing where they shouldn’t be nosing, digging up a garden, chewing on the baseboards or barking like a maniac at the slightest provocation. Training early on will establish with your dog who is the master in the home and out, and will help the dog be more secure, knowing there is a strong hand taking care of the big decisions and safety of the family.

Training a puppy to do tricks can be learned by reading books, from the Internet, or in a class specifically designed to help you. Labs can generally learn to sit, play fetch, shake “hands” and roll over with a minimum of effort, because they are smart and willing to learn and please. Retrievers have excellent noses and can be trained to find lost items; and retrieve them (hence the name). You can learn to train the dog tricks either with food rewards or affection rewards, both bringing the results you desire within a relatively short period of time. The affection/praise system of training might be desirable in Labrador retrievers simply because of their propensity for becoming overweight. Labs tend to load the pounds on if their diets are not strictly maintained, so food rewards should be closely monitored.

Consistency is a big part of teaching a dog tricks. Firm, patient instructions and discipline given without a raised voice is an important tool. Frightening your dog will certainly not make them learn any faster; it will simply confuse them and make them insecure. You want the dog to respect you and bond with you and your family, so patience and consistency is key among all family members. If you are not at home, you want the comfort of knowing that the dog will respect everyone in the home, so it is important to let every family member be a part of teaching the dog. Familiarity and respect will come to your dog with even exposure to everyone in the house, so go on family walks and play in the park. Teaching your dog to fetch a tennis ball is great exercise for him, and a valuable opportunity for him to bond with you and the whole family.

Labrador Retrievers love to have fun, and do require a bit of guidance to begin with when they are puppies. Providing direction in a fun, firm way at a young age will make the Lab into the most loyal dog, well-behaved, fun dog that an owner could wish for. Labs want to please their owners, so positive reinforcement and lots of love is always the way to train your dog.

Labs need some type of exercise every day. A bored dog can become a restless or destructive dog. The excess energy that they build up can be worked off with some games or an afternoon jog. Additionally, the dog and the master can both have fun, and get a great workout. There’s nothing like going for a long run down the road with your Lab, or throwing a stick or a ball on the beach. Labradors are retrievers, and love to play fetch. Remember, when the retrieve the ball and bring it back to you to reward them with kind words or even a hug.

There are ball throwers that are sold at the pet store that make the dog fly clear across the park with ease. My dogs love this gadget, and it has been a life saver. The dogs will get a great workout.

Labs do love to eat, and an overweight dog is an unhealthy dog. Owners need to know the correct amount of food for the weight and the activity level of their dogs. If you can afford it, try to buy premium dog food. When I upgraded the food that my dogs were eating, their coats looked better, their eyes looked clearer, and their overall health seemed to improve. My dogs are my family, and I want them to live as long as possible. For me, it’s worth the extra money.

You have to be careful with some labs “counter surfing.” My 1 year old puppy has jumped up on the counter and grabbed full loaves of bread (plastic included) when I wasn’t looking. She is also very fond of anything chocolate which can be dangerous, so be careful where you leave food items. My food stores have all moved either into the refrigerator, or into the higher cabinets.

Showing your Lab that you care by spending some time together is very beneficial to both you and your dog, and in the long run will help when it comes to your dog’s behavior. Puppies will be puppies, and do need to be disciplined, especially when their behavior can be dangerous to themselves or to others. My puppy liked to chew on computer cords, which can be very dangerous. A quick “no” , and removing her from area usually worked. I also used a few sprays that were designed to repel dogs, and that helped. Bitter apple is a type of spray that works well.

It is also important to socialize your lab to be around other people, as well as other dogs. Many Labs start out as being a little bit shy when they are puppies, so owners must take the time and energy to teach them to be around others and be comfortable. Positive reinforcement and patience are extremely important in these situations.

Labs do excite easily and if a young dog decides to bowl over their new companion, the master needs to firmly, yet gently set some limits. Normally, a gentle push away of the Lab from the person will work. If my dogs jumps on me when I walk in the door, I just turn away, and she calms down almost immediately.

On the other hand, some Labs like to do things like digging huge holes under the fence in the back yard. Usually this is a sign of boredom on the Lab’s part—so it is time to up the ante on exercise, with some extra love and attention as well.

If you are having trouble setting limits, and you feel that you are losing control, there are always classes to help with training techniques. You can do this in a group or individually.

Labrador Retrievers are people pleasers and basically need love, attention and a little bit of effort to get the desired behavior. They are loyal and loving animals and worth every effort you take to teach, train, and just be with them.

Children safe with labradors

Many people have a moral and emotional struggle when they have a Labrador and find that they are expecting to have a baby. This moral and emotional struggle generally arises from wondering if it is safe to have a Labrador around small children. There are many different views on this topic, though it is important to consider the facts, your lifestyle, and the temperament of your Labrador before deciding whether or not your dog and child will be good playmates.

The fear of having a Labrador around small children is that due to the general largeness and hyperactivity of a Labrador, it could be dangerous to put a Labrador and small children together. This argument is valid in many instances. Labradors want constant interaction and do not understand that children are delicate and must be treated with great care. Labradors seek the approval from the people that care for them and try to show affection. A Labrador can generally show affection to an adult without any problems, but if a Labrador were to try to jump on a child to say hello, the child could be seriously injured. Furthermore, children tend to pull the tail and ears of dogs. Though a Labrador generally has a steady temperament, having its ears and tail tugged at could make it anxious and ready to jump or run away.

However, many people have had Labradors and children live together for many years without any problems. The key to ensuring a safe environment for a Labrador and a child is ensuring that they are not left alone together. This is not generally because you are unsure of what the dog will do to the child, but because you are unsure of whether or not the child will antagonize the dog and make it agitated. Whether or not this would be a legitimate concern for you and your Labrador and children would vary based upon the temperament of your dog and your children. Only you will know if your dog and your children have temperaments that will allow them to be safe together. If you have any doubts, then sadly, they are probably not safe together unsupervised.

If you have determined that you would not trust your Labrador around small children unsupervised, you may wish to enlist the help of a skilled dog trainer to work with your Labrador in accepting the small children in the home and being more tolerant of the behavior of children. Some of the wonderful characteristics about Labradors is that they are incredibly intelligent and very much wanting to please their owners. Obedience training can work wonders for any Labrador. In fact, you will find that after your Labrador undergoes obedience training, not only will your children enjoy being around your dog more, but you will, too. A trained Labrador is a happy Labrador because it knows where its place is in the family and what is expected of it. It knows how to please you and gets great joy out of doing so. This makes your Labrador a much safer dog for small children to be around because you know that the dog will listen immediately to your commands.

Dock diving is a wonderful sport for Labrador Retrievers. Dock diving is a fun competitive activity for water-loving dogs, and gives your dog a chance to interact with other dogs as well! There are many different types of events that take place at a Dock Diving event, usually involving various contests in speed, distance, and obedience.

HISTORY OF DOCK DIVING

Dock Diving is a relatively new sport, having only about nine years of official competitions. Dock Diving was founded in 2000, at the premiere of ESPN’s “Great Outdoor Games”. An activity called “Big Air Dogs” was used as a supplementary event during the competition, and was so popular with fans that it was made into an official sport. Since then, Dock Diving has been rapidly gaining in popularity, with many national organizations dedicated to coordinating and judging events all over the country.

DOCK DIVING EVENTS

There are many different events that may take place in dock diving. Each of these events involves a dog jumping off of a plank into a large pool of water. It’s important to properly socialize your dog with pool swimming, as the clear water can look unfamiliar to your Labrador. Dock diving events are designed to test your dog’s abilities in the water.

DISTANCE JUMPING (also called the SPLASH event)

In distance jumping, a dog owner will lead their dog far away from the plank, and then encourage them to run and jump as far as possible into the pool. With training, some dogs eventually will require little or no encouragement to make this jump. The distance of the jump is measured by the exact area where the dog’s tail hits the water (from the distance to the plank). In a traditional distance jumping competition, each dog is allowed two separate jumps, and the best jump of these two is recorded.

HEIGHT JUMPING (also called the ULTIMATE VERTICAL event)

In this event, the height of a dog’s jump is measured as opposed to the distance. This is a much more physically demanding event than distance jumping, and usually only one of these events is held during a dock diving competition. In this event, a rubber dog toy is suspended about eight feet over the pool. To complete this event, a dog must either take the toy in its mouth, or knock it off of the suspension. Each dog receives two chances to either grab or knock down the toy, and with each round, the toy is raised two inches. There is also a novice division of this event, which is categorized by jumps that are under six feet in height.

OVER-WATER CATCHING (also called the CATCH IT! Event)

This event is a variation of the distance jumping event, with an added twist. It is judged by the amount of distance that a dog jumps (by measuring from the dock to where the end of the tail lands), but the dog is also required to catch a rubber dog toy that is thrown over the pool at the instant of the jump. This is a very difficult maneuver for some dogs, and is currently the hardest competitive event at Dock Diving competitions. In addition to this, the event is scored slightly different from the other events. Instead of only the best of each two jumps being counted, the dog has the opportunity to make both of the jumps count, and the total distance score is both of the jumps added together. The distance of the jump does not count, however, if the dog does not catch the rubber toy. This creates an additional challenge, and is the newest event to be held at Dock Diving competitions.

WHY LABRADORS LOVE DOCK DIVING

Labrador Retrievers are naturally suited to being involved in any sport involving water. The Labrador Retriever’s coat is made up of two distinct layers, which give them their water resistant properties. The outer layer is coarse, oily, and very resistant to any type of moisture. The inner layer is thick, soft, and helps to insulate the Labrador from any temperature variants. In addition to this, the Labrador Retriever’s paws are complimented by thin webs of skin in between the toes, giving them superior swimming abilities in the water.

The Labrador’s skills in the water were first recognized in England, when the breed was still in early development. English fishermen began to take Labrador Retrievers on their fishing boats, since the dogs were able to swim to and retrieve fish that had fallen off of the hooks. Labrador Retrievers also helped fishermen by grabbing onto the floating corks that held up fishing nets, assisting in dragging these nets to shore. These valuable skills were recognized, and selectively incorporated into future breeding.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR LABRADOR FOR DOCK DIVING

There are “Demo” events that are held along with official Dock Diving events, which give dogs new to this sport an opportunity to practice their skills at each specific event. These Demo events are not scored or judged, and are held mostly for entertainment purposes. Bringing your dog to one of these events is a great way to introduce them to the Dock Diving sport, and get some exercise as well!

However, before bringing your Labrador Retriever to a Demo event, it’s important to first establish a level of obedience with your dog. There will be a lot of other people and dogs at the event, and it’s important to properly socialize your Labrador before exposing them to such a high-energy event. Try to get your Labrador Retriever used to swimming as well, by constantly making water a part of playtime. Once your dog is comfortable with water, other dogs, and other people, you can do some preliminary training for a Dock Diving event. This can be accomplished by following a structured training program, or by simply mimicking some of the Dock Diving events when you are playing with your dog. Labrador Retrievers are naturally suited for the Dock Diving sport, and training should not be difficult.