49 Fun Facts About Labrador Retriever

The Labrador Retriever takes its name from a region of which former 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 American Kennel Club shows, the Labrador competes in which of the club's seven breed groups?

Sporting is the AKC's group for spaniels, pointers, setters and retrievers, because those breeds were first developed to work closely with hunters, finding and fetching their quarry.

Labradors descend from which now-extinct working breed of the North Atlantic fishing fleets?

The St. John's water dog died out in the 1980s, but the small white chest patch some Labradors still carry is a leftover of its black-and-white tuxedo markings.

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

Fox-red is not a separate colour: kennel clubs record it as plain yellow, and breeders have been selecting ever darker dogs because the deep shade sells.

Spike, a Labrador-mastiff cross found in a California animal shelter, played the title dog in which 1957 Disney film?

Old Yeller nearly had another star: trainer Frank Weatherwax had paid three dollars for Spike, and Disney first turned the dog down as too playful to look fierce.

Luath the Labrador crosses the Canadian wilderness with a bull terrier and a Siamese cat in which 1963 Disney film?

The Incredible Journey came from Sheila Burnford's novel, and its 1993 remake, Homeward Bound, recast the trio: young Luath became Shadow, a wise old golden retriever.

Before 'chocolate' caught on, brown Labradors went by which less appetising colour name?

Liver was the shooting world's word, and brown Labradors stayed rare until the 1960s, when pet owners took to them and much preferred to call the colour chocolate.

Blind of Arden, a champion Labrador owned by Averell Harriman, made the cover of which magazine in 1938?

Life pictured the four-year-old after he won America's top retriever stake of 1938, capping a faultless trial by swimming to an island to find a duck he had not seen fall.

A nameless black Labrador that wandered the grounds of Headley Grange gave which band the title of a 1971 song?

Led Zeppelin needed a name for the opening track of their fourth album, and since the title appears nowhere in the lyrics they borrowed one from the visiting retriever: Black Dog.

A Labrador puppy became the advertising mascot of which household product on both sides of the Atlantic?

Toilet paper got its puppy by accident: Britain's Andrex meant to film a little girl trailing a roll through the house, regulators feared it would encourage waste, and a Labrador pup took her place. America's Cottonelle adopted one too.

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

Otter is the word both kennel clubs' standards use: thick at the base and tapering to the tip, the tail works as a powerful rudder that helps the swimming dog turn.

Which physical feature helps a Labrador swim?

Fully webbed paws help a Labrador swim fast, which suited the breed's first job: its ancestors swam through icy water to bring in fishermen's nets.

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

To carry game without damaging it, a retriever holds the bird gently in its jaws; a hard-mouthed dog bites down, and a crushed bird is no use to the shooter.

Two yellow Labradors can produce puppies of which colours?

Yellow only, because the colour is recessive: each yellow parent has two copies of the masking gene and nothing else to hand on, whereas two black Labradors can have puppies of all three colours.

A broken MC1R gene makes Labradors yellow; in people, faulty copies lie behind which hair colour?

Red hair and yellow fur share a cause: when the MC1R receptor fails, pigment cells stop making dark eumelanin and turn out yellow-red pheomelanin instead.

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

Coat joins the tail in both standards: short, dense and weather-resistant, it suited icy North Atlantic water, where long-haired retrievers came out encrusted with ice.

Besides brown, which eye colour do Labrador breed standards accept?

Hazel joins brown in the British standard, while the American one allows it only in chocolates and warns that black or yellow eyes give a dog a harsh expression.

America's Labrador Retriever Club suspects that 'silver' Labradors owe their grey colour to crosses with which breed?

Weimaraner is the suspect because every dog of that breed carries the dilute gene that turns brown fur silver, a gene no Labrador was recorded with for decades.

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

English is the tag for the stockier show type, but America's breed club calls it unsuitable: lean field dogs are bred in England too, and most Labradors sit between the two styles.

Vincent, a yellow Labrador, belongs to a boy named Walt in which TV drama?

Lost cast a Hawaiian dog with no acting experience, and although Vincent is male, the Labrador who played him, five-year-old Madison, was female.

A 2018 study of British Labradors found that dogs of which colour live about 10% shorter lives?

Chocolate Labradors lived a median 10.7 years against 12.1 for the rest, and the researchers suspect that breeding for the recessive colour narrows the gene pool.

In 1999 Lucy, minister David Blunkett's Labrador-cross guide dog, greeted an opponent's House of Commons speech how?

By being sick: the next speaker said the same opponent gave him 'a sense of nausea', so he found it 'rather appropriate' that the minister's dog had been ill.

A 2006 study of four breeds trained at The Seeing Eye guide-dog school found which was least likely to graduate?

German Shepherds were the least likely to graduate and Labrador-golden crosses the most, though shepherds and goldens did better when given longer than the standard four months.

Which breed ended the Labrador's 31-year reign as the American Kennel Club's most popular, topping the 2022 rankings?

The French Bulldog climbed from outside the top ten to first place within a decade, its small size and quiet manner suiting city apartments, and pushed the Labrador down to second.

Endal, Britain's much-decorated assistance Labrador, could operate which of these?

A cash machine held no fears: Endal put the card in and took the money out, and when a car knocked his owner from his wheelchair he pulled him into the recovery position and fetched his phone.

The sign-off 'Sit, Ubu, sit' ended episodes of which 1980s sitcom, over a photo of its creator's black Labrador?

Family Ties creator Gary David Goldberg named his production company after Ubu, his beloved Labrador, and later borrowed the sign-off for the title of his memoir, Sit, Ubu, Sit.

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

Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger landed a stricken airliner on the Hudson River in 2009, saving all 155 people aboard; his namesake went on to comfort wounded veterans at Walter Reed military hospital.

Zanjeer, the Labrador who sniffed out explosives after the 1993 serial bombings, served which Indian city's police?

Mumbai's bomb squad came to rely on him: days after the blasts he barked at a parked scooter packed with RDX, the first of at least three further attacks he helped avert.

Which two-word caption did a Bush family spokesman give his photo of service dog Sully lying beside the late president's casket?

Mission complete, wrote Jim McGrath in December 2018; the Labrador then flew to Washington with the casket, and afterwards joined a military hospital's dog team.

Frida, the goggle-wearing rescue Labrador who became a national hero after a 2017 earthquake, served which country's navy?

Mexico's navy retired her with a ceremony in 2019, when her handlers hung up the goggles and boots and gave her a chew toy; she stayed on to help train younger rescue dogs.

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

The Dickin Medal, a British honour founded in 1943 for animals in wartime, went to both Labradors for staying loyally at their blind owners' sides down more than 70 floors.

Guide dog Roselle led her owner down from the 78th floor of the North Tower on 9/11, descending roughly how many stairs?

1,500 is about right: Michael Hingson counts 1,463 stairs, and Roselle, who had been snoozing under his desk when the plane struck, stayed calm the whole way down.

Sasha, an explosives-search Labrador killed alongside her handler in 2008, served with which British unit?

The Royal Army Veterinary Corps lent dog and handler to a Parachute Regiment battalion, where one search of a building in Garmsir turned up mortars, mines and explosives and is credited with saving many lives.

Sarbi, an Australian special-forces explosives dog, turned up alive more than a year after vanishing in battle in which country?

Afghanistan is where an American soldier spotted her living in a village; he tried military commands on the black Labrador cross, and when she obeyed he negotiated her return.

Lucky and Flo, a pair of black Labradors, earned a price on their heads in 2007 for sniffing out what?

Counterfeit DVDs: their first Malaysian raid uncovered about a million pirated discs, so the gangs put a bounty on the dogs, who were moved to a secret location under guard.

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

Hurricane Katrina sent Jake and his handler driving from Utah to Mississippi to search flooded homes, a long way from the street where he was found as a puppy with a broken leg and a dislocated hip.

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

Bill Clinton named the puppy after his late great-uncle Henry 'Buddy' Grisham, and the pup feuded so badly with Socks the cat that the two had to be kept apart.

In 2007 Putin's black Labrador Konni wandered into his talks with which dog-wary leader?

Angela Merkel was reported to fear dogs, and photographs show her sitting uneasily as Konni sniffed around her; Putin later said he had not meant to scare her and had apologised.

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

John Grogan wrote a farewell column for The Philadelphia Inquirer when Marley died, and the flood of replies, far more than any column of his had drawn, convinced him there was a book in it.

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

Owen Wilson acted opposite 22 different Labradors, because the story follows Marley over 14 years; the trainer's trick for a convincing worst dog was never to tell them no.

Wally Conron bred the first Labradoodle in 1980s Australia because a blind woman's husband had which problem with Labradors?

He was allergic, so Conron tried a poodle cross; of the three pups in the first litter only Sultan suited the husband, and he went to Hawaii as the woman's guide dog.

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

A Frankenstein monster was his phrase: he said he had opened a Pandora's box, handing unscrupulous breeders a reason to turn out untested crosses for big money.

In the Vietnam War, Labradors served mainly in which role?

Tracker dogs worked in small teams, following blood trails to find a wounded enemy or missing personnel and warning their handlers of snipers and tripwires on the way.

Italy's canine lifeguards, many of them Labradors, leap to swimmers from boats and what else?

Helicopters let dog and handler drop in beside a struggling swimmer, who grabs the dog's harness or buoy and is towed back to shore.

Under the American breed standard, a Labrador with a nose of which colour is disqualified from the show ring?

Pink means a nose lacking any pigment, which is a disqualification; yet the same standard says a dark nose that fades to a lighter shade is no fault at all.

Owners of Labradors with exercise induced collapse most often report episodes during which activity?

Retrieving topped a survey of 225 affected dogs: in the excitement of hard fetching the hind legs weaken until they cannot hold the dog up, though it is usually back to normal within minutes.

Which PAW Patrol pup, a Labrador with a hovercraft, is the team's water rescue dog?

Zuma is the youngest of the pups, a surf-loving Labrador whose catchphrase is 'Let's dive in!', a fitting job for a breed first put to work on fishing boats.

The Labrador's ancestral breed dwindled after quarantine rules against which disease choked off its export trade?

Rabies controls meant a long quarantine for every imported dog, and a heavy dog tax at home thinned the breed further, until the last of the line died in the 1980s.

A gene deletion carried by about one in four Labradors helps explain which trait the breed is notorious for?

Food obsession fits the damaged POMC gene, which helps the brain register fullness after a meal; the variant is commoner still in assistance Labradors, perhaps because such dogs work harder for a titbit.