Labrador Retriever

The Labrador Retriever or "Lab" for short, is the most popular dog in America. Large and lovable, the lab comes in three official colors: Black, Yellow, and Chocolate. The Yellow coloring ranges from an almost white to a reddish color.

The lab is also very intelligent, and can be trained fairly easily. They tend to be very gentle with children and they can be trained to get along with cats. They can also make good guard dogs.

You shouldn't get a Lab if you can not play with it often and take it for at least one walk every day. Labs are active dogs! The intelligence of a Lab as well as its high energy level make for a perfect dog for dog sports. They also love swimming and, being "Sporting" dogs they are also great dogs to hunt with.

Labs really are great dogs so the fact that they are the most popular really isn't surprising.

If you are going to get a lab, try getting one from an animal shelter. I can almost promise you that there is a Lab at at least one of the animal shelters in your area (if you are American). Probably more than one. On petfinder I saw that in my city, there are currently 18 purebred Labs and 9 Lab mixes. Many of them were puppies.

But the Lab is not for every one. They may be too energetic for you or need more exercise than you can give them. I recommend that you foster a lab before you get one. As I have said, they are very common in shelters.