Hi I am genuinely interested in the answer to this question as whilst on another thread someone mentioned they had seen the same as me. For the last three/four years I have increasingly seen very large chocolate labs. I don't mean fat, I mean tall, and extremely muscley, more the size of a Weim. Is this something that is happening in the breed generally? Thanks Sarah
I always used to see what I believed was a lab, they are very popular in Norfolk, short coupled, medium size dog, very distinctive, now I'm now sure what I'm looking at these days. Extremely tall and the temprements are definitely different as well, hyper and very boisterous with the owners seemingly not having any control at all - nothing aggressive about them but still very wayward. I just wondered if I had missed something.
Nope, the standard has not changed. Chocolate has increased in popularity, especially in the past 10 years which has led to an influx of backyard breeders cashing in on it. There is an awful lot of 'variety' (in terms of looks) within the breed. But I suppose when some 45,000 Labs are registered each year, the majority of which let's be honest are not particularly well bred, that can be expected.
Hi I never knew 45,000 were registered each year, thats an immense amount. It is a shame really that this breed became so popular, although understandble, they are great dogs and that backyard breeders are involved and changing the breed and clearly not breeding for either looks or temprement. I wonder if these buyers know what they are buying and are under the impression they are getting a typical lab temprement. Many thanks for the replies. Sarah
The standard has actually changed, but not for that! It has changed in that labs are now meant to be deep chested without being fat whereas before a bit of extra weight to get the deep chested appearance was acceptable. Really tall crazy labs not the breed standard
