When we first got him I couldn't figure him out because I had never owned a Labrador dog (any color) before. There are black labradors and brown labradors and there might also be reddish labradors too. What they have in common is they all have webbed feet and are excellent swimmers.
This was a problem for me because I live at the ocean and my dog was 8 years old so he thought he could swim a block out to sea like when he was 1 to 5 years of age. But and 8 year old dog is sort of like a 50 year old man who gets into trouble when he swims out to sea too far. So, you have to protect your dog as he ages from drowning himself in the ocean or lake or pond because this dog "Always overdoes" at least mine did. He was like a linebacker football player or something. He was "macho dog". He wasn't going to start a fight but if someone was in his way he might step on them or just knock them down getting to his ball you just threw for him.
And at 95 pounds if he runs into most people they are going to go down. Even my corgi (passed away now too) was stepped on a lot by him but it was also refreshing to watch her run under him between his legs too because her height fit under him when running if she could make it without getting stepped on which made for many laughing moments of people observing this.
We got him because our dog sitter was taking care of him for the yellow lab rescue people and our corgi bonded with him. That's why we got him because we realized our corgi might kill any puppy we got because old female dogs can be like that. You have to be careful of them because in the dog world females run the roost. So, she would bite his ear if he didn't go into the back yard and do his business and he would step on her (not to be mean) but finesse isn't a word yellow labs know especially if they are males.
When I first got him I thought he wasn't very smart but that isn't it. It's that they use their intelligence differently than other breeds of dogs do. They are very physically dominant when they are males though so you have to be aware of this. Also, if they bond with you they will follow you everywhere which upset me at first because I had never had a dog follow me everywhere even into the bathroom to the john, so I started closing the door so I could get some privacy. But, after a time I got used to him following me through the house, chasing balls on trails and being a comfort to all members of the family and of anyone that visited. The person that likely was hurt the most by his death wasn't me but the 13 year old son of our housekeeper who took him on walks and played with him. In some ways he was his dog as much or more than he was mine. At 70 I am more jaded than a 13 year old so his death came hard for my housekeeper's son. Dogs only live usually (big dogs) 12 to 15 or 17 years at most. So, think about what this is going to do to your family when your dog dies sometime after 10 years of age.
Anyway, Good bye old friend, many many of us are going to miss you!
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