ALL ABOUT LABRADOR RETRIEVERS: WORLD’S #1 RETRIEVER
(bells ringing)
– [Host] Dogumentary TV,
producing the best breed
documentaries on YouTube.
(dog barking)
(upbeat guitar music)
– My name is Alexandra Flanigan
also known by Sandra.
And, I have been in Labs,
rather, since 1989.
Started out with one Labrador as a breeder
to show the dog and ended
up doing field work.
So, I had my training, early training
with field work.
Was able to place a Junior Hunt title
on that yellow Labrador in those days
and learned a lot from her.
And, from there I grew to
two or three more Labradors
over the next few years
and again continued
to do both the show ring
and doing some field work.
In the latter years I’ve
only been able to do
like Working Certificates.
It’s too rugged for this
old lady to go tromping
around in the ponds.
That most of the dogs have gone through
and got their Working Certificate
to show that they still
have that innate ability
and, you know, to bring in the ducks,
go to the pond, and swim back.
The Working Certificate
is only a one-shot trial.
You go to a couple of
practices and throw bumpers
or live shot birds and
you do a bit of training
and then you have a judge,
at a different show,
you take the dog and they
judge the dog’s ability
to do a land retrieve
and a water retrieve.
And, that’s the Working Certificate.
It’s just a beginner level.
It’s the first rung of the ladder.
That’s the fun part about having Labradors
is doing the things they were bred to do.
We people kind of spoil
ourself with conformation.
In our ego we have the prettier dog
and getting the championship on ’em,
you know show champ for conformation.
But, the true fun is taking them out
and working them in the field.
The breed standard would be
the measurements, the coat, the tail,
the head, the structure
to conform so that they can do the work
of retrieving and going
in and out of the water.
And, if you go back, the
head should be pleasing,
and the ears should not
exceed past their eye,
the corner when you pull, so
there’s a balance to the head.
The muzzle should equal the
length up into their forehead
and into the back of the skull.
So, it’s in proportion.
The coat on the dog is a double coat.
There is an undercoat and an outer coat
and that’s what makes
them the true Labrador.
And, you really need to
show that to the judge
or the judge will find
it in the show ring.
But, that’s what’s their insulation
and their original job of
pulling the fishing nets
in the cold water of
Labrador up in Canada.
And, that’s what they were
bred to do and so therefore
they have to have that coat.
Level top line, tail set
off the back in continuation
to the spine, not up like an antenna.
It is a rudder in the
water and that’s the form
that they will steer by.
The webbed feet is another
trait of the Labrador.
The standard on height, the girls
are about 21 1/2 to 23 inches
at the withers, the shoulders.
And the boys can go 22 to 25 inches
at the shoulders.
The history of the Labrador Retriever.
It actually originated
in Labrador in Canada.
And, there was two breeds,
the Greater Labrador, being the Newfie,
the lesser being the Labrador Retriever
as we know it today, a
little bit smaller today.
And, they were discovered by the British
while they were using them
on fishing boats in Canada.
They took them back to
Britain and actually
grew the breed out so
for conformation and show
and also sought the value
of hunting with them.
Once the British encountered the breed
in Canada and saw the function
of the water
(duck call squawking)
and the retrieving agility,
the big sport in Britain is to go hunting
for pheasant and therefore they thought
this would be a fabulous
dog hunting pheasants,
the lord of the manor.
It was the people who could afford
to have guests and have a fleet of dogs
that they actually had kennel
masters that worked these dogs
and continued to breed them and hone them
to what we have today.
And, so even though
they are a Canadian dog,
I attribute Britain to
nurturing what we have today.
After the British got ahold of this dog
and found the attributes that it could do,
it started to spread throughout Europe.
And, so you find Labradors
in many, many countries
with different functions.
But the main thing is hunting,
the main goal is to hunt.
The three most common
dogs that you’ll find
at a field training
facility like I’ve gone to
would be a Golden Retriever,
a Flat-Coated Retriever,
and your Labrador.
And, the differences between
them can be very vast.
The other retriever who
supersedes all of these guys
would be your Chesapeake
Bay Retriever too.
They’re also in the mix.
The Labrador is built like a boat.
The front of the chest
between the shoulders
has what we call a keel
and that’s what plows through the water.
They are probably the
stronger of all of the dogs,
probably even Steven
with the Chesapeake Bay Retriever.
And they can move through
the water quite fast too.
But, when they jump in,
they jump in full force
like somebody just dropped
the boat into the water.
They’re a great house pet, the Labrador
because they want to please.
That’s their whole goal,
that’s why they make
such good therapy dogs, guide dogs,
they love people and they’re actually
very easily housebroken.
They can be a real pest
sometimes because they feel
that they are a little dog
and they’re not a little dog.
And, so if you jump in bed, you look by
and here’s three of
them laying in your bed.
And, you’re going but I
have to get in here too.
So, they are great.
They’re great with children.
They’re great with older people too.
They just have a sense
about them, a compassion.
It’s beautiful to watch.
They’re a great dog for a family.
The Labrador needs a yard.
Apartments, condos,
that’s a no-no on my list
as far as where I would
like to put my dogs.
I don’t care if it’s a small
yard, but they need a yard.
And, if they don’t have
that, they you have to have
access to a park where you can get out
and walk them
and exercise them.
But, they love to lay out in the backyard.
And, they love the outdoors.
They’re just too big a dog
for a condo or an apartment.
I’ve only had to take back
puppies a couple of times
where the people have,
I call it, failed to get this dog
to adapt and both times, one was a condo
and one’s an apartment and
they were not truthful with me
and I ended up having
to re-home the puppy.
But, they just don’t understand
you can’t lock them up
in an apartment for
the day and go to work.
They need their yard, they need a yard.
The ideal owner for a Labrador Retriever
would be someone who’s outdoorsy, active,
maybe likes to go hike
or even walk every day.
They make a great walking companion.
The other is if you’ve got children
and you’re taking ’em to the park,
dog goes with, you know,
and becomes the other child.
That’s what they are.
They become part of the family.
They’re another member.
And, they love to be part of
it, involved with the kids.
It would be someone that
takes the time to include
the dog in a lot of their
activities as much as they can.
The grooming needs.
That’s a joke (laughs).
My favorite thing is someone
says do you have to bathe them
and brush them and do the
daily, weekly, whatever?
And, I look at ’em and go no
because when you’re showing your Labrador,
the last thing you want
to do is to rake through
and draw that coat out.
The double coat has to be there.
And, so my favorite thing
to do is a week or two
before the show have them swim in the pool
and let the chlorine clean their coat out
and then take ’em to the
show two weeks later.
No brushing, no blowing, no nothing,
just let it be clean, let it lay down,
and have the two coats right there
so that the depth of the coat
can be felt by the judges.
The breed temperament on a
Labrador should be very pleasant,
gentle, and pleasing.
If you have one that growls,
it should be corrected
and stopped right away and told
this is not acceptable behavior.
So, they should be very
pleasing, cuddly, and warm,
and very tolerant and that’s why
they’re so good with children.
Socialization is very
important and it has to be done
at the right time where
the window of opportunity,
just as you have with children
and teaching them different things.
With the puppies, the best
opportunity to start the training
is when they complete all of their shots.
I drill that home because I don’t want
the health endangered.
As far as training a
Labrador Retriever obedience,
I recommend that at six months.
Around the same time that
you’re doing the socializing,
if you have the right instructor
and the proper information
being passed to you it’s a great time
to be trained yourself because the teacher
is training you on how to train your dog.
You’re the middle guy
and so once you learn
the repetitions of the
correction or the praise,
then you make a great, great
trainer with your puppy.
There were many health
issues when I started
in Labradors 29 years ago.
Fortunately science,
which is in my background,
is growing and learning all the time
and we have found ways now
to DNA, X-ray, do all of the testing
to find out some of these.
And, one of them was hips and elbows.
And, we know that genetically
it’s being passed on.
And, so if we can X-ray and certify
through the Orthopedic Foundation
our hips and our elbows
and get them numbered, and we do it
for three or four generations,
we know we’re going to produce
healthy and sound dogs.
In my puppy pack, the most important thing
that I go through with them
is the hips and the elbows
and the eyes.
Those are the things that
keep that dog viable.
That being said, when
I release that puppy,
it’s only eight weeks old.
And, the scary part is
that the environment
they’re going to, I’m
not in charge anymore.
And, my biggest concern
is allowing a puppy
to jump from a sofa down
or a table and down.
If the kids leave it
somewhere and it jumps down,
you can damage all of the
cartilages and soft tissue
that are holding those bones together
are still very, they’re
immature and still growing.
And, they need time to mature.
And, taking a dog running
and jogging to excess
at a young age is a no-no.
You’ve got to allow them to grow.
They don’t hit puberty till 12 months.
And, so in between that time they go home
to about 12 months, it
should be house and family
and nice walks, swimming,
low impact, low impact.
And, allow the dog to grow.
Life expectancy is anywhere
from 10 to 12 years.
But, some of us are getting
very good at breeding
and the average on mine
is running anywhere
from 14 to 16.
I lost three of them this
last two years at 16.
And, I’ve gotten calls from clients
and they were just beside themselves.
Their dog made it to 14 and
did well, you know, did well.
So, that’s kind of a real bonus
is to see us push that out
a little bit longer ’cause
they don’t live long enough.
You know, they get into
your heart and you think
my gosh, how am I going
to exist without this dog?
Their life is so short.
So, it’s nice to see the longevity.
Drummer and he’s a yellow male
and he just turned five at Christmas.
He is a finished show champion
and on top of that he has
his Grand Championship
and he also has won, he did last year,
win the Southern Cal Specialty.
So, he’s won in competition
against all Labradors,
not just other breeds of dogs.
He also has his Working Certificate
and he also now and again, he
does have his Good Citizens,
Canine Good Citizen, but I
think he forgets (chuckles).
He gets a little rambunctious.
And, the other gal, her name is Piper.
She is a black female.
She just turned eight and she also
has her Working Certificate.
And, she hasn’t been shown that much
and she is from Sweden.
She was an import brought to me.
Lovely dog, great girl, very, very smart.
The breeder in Sweden has 50 years
of genetic testing and breeding
and a lot of hunting in the line.
As I had stated earlier,
29 years I’ve had an affair
with this breed.
I’ve loved them since I
was growing up in Canada.
My father had one when I was 10 years old.
Two years ago I actually was president
of the Southern Cal Lab Club.
And, so now I’m retired.
I’m sitting back watching
all of the new people
get involved and carry the torch.
It’s been a wonderful
journey and I love the breed.
And, I love the people.
The personality of most of these people
that I associate with are
like the dogs, very pleasing.
And, so it’s like an
extension of your family.
