50 Fun Facts About Labrador Retriever

The Labrador Retriever is named after a region of which former British colony?

The Labrador region is the mainland part of today's Newfoundland and Labrador; the dogs themselves came from the island's fishing ports.

In which country was the Labrador Retriever developed as a breed?

British aristocrats crossed the imported colonial fishing dogs with local hunting dogs to fix the type during the 19th century.

Labradors descend from which now-extinct landrace of fishing dog?

The landrace was gone by the early 1980s, but the small white chest 'medallion' some Labs carry is a leftover of its tuxedo markings.

Yellow Labradors range in shade from creamy white all the way to what?

Fox-red is still registered simply as yellow, though breeders sometimes market it as if it were a separate colour.

The first yellow Labrador on record, born in 1899, was named what?

He came from the kennels of Major C.J. Radclyffe, only four years before the Kennel Club recognised the breed.

Which nobleman gave the Duke of Buccleuch the stud dogs Avon and Ned, ancestors of every Labrador?

Three families collaborated in the 1880s to establish the breed, and the two dogs were mated with bitches carrying the blood of the original 1830s imports.

In which year did the UK Kennel Club recognise the Labrador Retriever as a breed?

The breed's first recorded yellow dog had been born just four years earlier.

In what year did the American Kennel Club record its first Labrador registration?

Within a century the breed would hold the AKC's number-one spot for 31 consecutive years.

By which year had the name 'Labrador Retriever' become common in England?

Colonel Peter Hawker had described the type decades earlier: not larger than an English Pointer, usually black, with a short smooth coat.

Ships trading with the colony first brought the breed's ancestors to England in the 1830s via which Dorset port?

A local earl with an estate nearby was among the first to breed the newcomers for waterfowling.

The Labrador's characteristic tail is compared to that of which animal?

Thick at the base and tapering to the tip, it works as a rudder when the dog swims.

Which physical feature helps a Labrador swim?

The slightly oily, water-resistant coat sheds water so the dog stays warm on winter retrieves.

A retriever's 'soft mouth' means it can do what?

It is a gun-dog trait: a bird crushed by hard jaws is useless to the shooter.

How many genes are primarily responsible for determining a Labrador's coat colour?

They are MC1R, Agouti and CBD103, and puppies of all three colours can turn up in a single litter.

A loss-of-function mutation in which gene makes a Labrador yellow regardless of other colour genes?

Dogs with working copies of that gene and Agouti plus the black allele of CBD103 come out black.

Along with the tail, what do the Kennel Club and AKC call a 'distinctive feature' of the breed?

It should be short and dense but not wiry, with a natural water-resistant oiliness.

Which of these eye colours is appropriate for a Labrador under the AKC standard?

Brown is the other accepted colour, and the lining around the eyes should be black.

A 2011 study found 13 of 245 Labradors carried the M264V mutation for which trait, invisible in the breed?

On a solid-coloured dog the dark facial mask is invisible, so the trait cannot be judged from appearance.

In the United States, field-bred and show-bred Labradors are often mislabelled 'American' and what?

In fact both lines are bred in both countries and every Labrador descends from British stock.

A UK study put the Labrador's average life expectancy at how many years?

A Swedish insurance study found only 25% of Labradors had died by age 10, against 35% of dogs overall.

A Royal Veterinary College and University of Sydney study found which colour of Labrador lives about 10% shorter?

The colour was originally called 'liver', and liver pups were recorded at the Buccleuch kennels in 1892.

Roughly what share of guide dogs in the United States are Labradors?

They are also the most popular assistance-dog breed in Australia and many other countries.

In a 2006 study of four guide-dog breeds, which was most likely to fail training?

Given longer training, though, both Shepherds and Goldens went on to a higher success rate than Labs.

Labradors are the most popular dog by ownership in the UK, New Zealand and which other country?

In 2006 both the UK and the US had well over twice as many registered Labradors as the next most popular breed.

Which breed ended the Labrador's 31-year run as the AKC's most popular breed in 2023?

In 2022 the Lab had already slipped to second in the AKC's registration rankings.

Which British assistance Labrador, 'the most decorated dog in the world', first rode the London Eye?

He answered over a hundred spoken commands plus hundreds of signed ones, and could put his owner in the recovery position after a fall.

Allen Parton, owner of the 'most decorated dog in the world', was injured in the Gulf in 1991 serving with which force?

In 2010 Parton founded the charity Hounds for Heroes in his dog's memory.

Sully, the service dog at George H. W. Bush's 2018 funeral, was named after which person?

After the funeral he joined Walter Reed's facility-dog programme and was given the rank of Hospital Corpsman 1st Class.

Zanjeer, the detection Labrador given a state funeral in 2000, served which city's police?

He was nicknamed 'Ginger' for his coat colour and helped avert several follow-up attacks after the 1993 bombings.

How much RDX explosive is Zanjeer credited with detecting during his police career?

He also turned up 242 grenades, 600 detonators and 175 petrol bombs before dying of bone cancer.

Frida, the goggle-wearing rescue Labrador famous after the 2017 Puebla earthquake, served which country's navy?

She is credited with locating 12 survivors after the 2010 Haiti earthquake and has two statues in her honour.

Which award did guide dogs Salty and Roselle receive for leading their owners out of the World Trade Center on 9/11?

Roselle guided Michael Hingson and 30 others down 1,463 steps in just over an hour, passing firefighters heading up.

Roselle was asleep under her owner's desk on which floor of Tower 1 when Flight 11 struck above her?

Her fellow medallist Salty was seven floors below on the 71st with owner Omar Rivera.

Sasha, an explosives-search Labrador killed in a 2008 Taliban ambush, served with which British military unit?

She had located 15 improvised explosive devices plus mortars, mines and weapons before a rocket-propelled grenade killed them both.

Australian special-forces dog Sarbi was missing in Afghanistan for roughly how long before her 2009 recovery?

She vanished in the same 2008 ambush in which Trooper Mark Donaldson earned Australia's first Victoria Cross since 1969.

Lucky and Flo, twin black Labradors, became famous in 2007 for sniffing out nearly two million of what?

Software pirates reportedly put a £30,000 contract on the pair's lives, and they became the first dogs to receive Malaysia's outstanding service award.

Jake, a black Labrador who searched Ground Zero, later worked after which 2005 disaster?

He had been found abandoned as a puppy with a dislocated hip and a broken leg before becoming a federally certified rescue dog.

Which US president's Labradors were named Buddy and Seamus?

Buddy shared the White House with Socks the cat, a relationship that was famously frosty.

What was the name of Putin's black Labrador, who unsettled Angela Merkel in Sochi in 2007?

She was a 2000 gift from Sergei Shoigu and was said to descend from a Labrador once owned by Leonid Brezhnev.

Marley, 'the world's worst dog', was made famous by which journalist's memoir?

The 2008 film adaptation set a record for the biggest Christmas Day opening, taking $14.75 million.

Which actor starred opposite Jennifer Aniston as Marley's owner in the 2008 film Marley & Me?

The film grossed $247.8 million on a $60 million budget despite mixed reviews, and spawned a direct-to-video prequel, The Puppy Years.

Which singer's Labradors, Charlie and Bear, appeared with her in numerous magazines?

The pair became minor celebrities in their own right through the family's photo shoots.

Wally Conron, who bred the first Labradoodle for a guide-dog association, later said he regretted creating what?

Sultan, a dog from his first litter, worked for ten years as a guide dog for a woman in Hawaii.

In the Vietnam War, Labradors served in what role?

They alerted handlers to snipers, tripwires and weapons caches, and could locate wounded or missing personnel.

Labradors, Leonbergers and Golden Retrievers train at a canine lifeguard school in which country?

The dogs are trained to leap from boats and helicopters and tow swimmers back to shore.

Under the AKC standard, what is the ideal weight range for a male Labrador?

Bitches should weigh 55–70 lb, and the dog should be as long from withers to tail as it is tall at the withers.

Which Labrador condition brings on hyperthermia, weakness and disorientation after a short burst of exertion?

Labrador obesity, meanwhile, has been linked to a missing chunk of the POMC gene that governs appetite.

A UK study found Labradors predisposed to which liver disease, with an odds ratio of 4.14?

Nobody knows why; both hereditary and environmental causes have been proposed, and bitches may be more at risk.

Which Peter Hawker sporting book described the early Labrador as 'not larger than a Pointer'?

Its fifth edition of 1846 is where he separated the 'proper Labrador' from its much bigger cousin.

Obesity in some Labradors is linked to a missing section of which gene?

The breed is also among the most commonly affected by progressive rod-cone degeneration of the retina.