Labrador Retriever

Labrador Retrievers are one of the better choices for a family with children. Expect a big dog that is high-energy, sheds heavily and needs very little grooming. Fine alone for a few hours.

Source: American Kennel Club breed standard.

The Lab was a fisherman's dog before it was a family one. In Newfoundland it swam lines and hauled nets out of freezing water, and almost everything about it still says so — the thick water-repellent coat, the webbed toes, the thick "otter" tail it steers with, and the total absence of hesitation about jumping into anything wet. That working history is also why the breed is so relentlessly cheerful and so hard to tire out. The complaint you hear most from Lab owners is not about temperament, it is about adolescence: a Lab stays mouthy, bouncy and enormous-but-puppyish until around three, long after it has reached full size. Families who love them are usually the ones who expected that and planned for it.

Day to day. High-energy — this is a dog that needs a real outlet every single day, not a stroll. Skip that and you get chewing, barking and digging, which is not naughtiness, it is boredom. On noise, it is about average for noise.

The coat, honestly. This breed sheds heavily and needs very little grooming. That is the opposite trade: almost nothing to do to the animal, but hair on the sofa, the car and your school uniform, all year.

Being left alone. Fine alone for a few hours. A few hours is fine; a full working day, every day, is asking a lot.

Training. Eager and easy to train. That makes it a forgiving choice for a family training their first dog, as long as everyone is consistent.

• You want a dog with a reputation for putting up with children
• Someone in the house genuinely wants to run, hike or train most days
• You want a dog whose coat looks after itself
• You have room for a big dog and a car it actually fits in
• This is your first dog and you want one that makes training feel possible

• Your daily walk is really a quick trip round the block
• You cannot live with hair on the sofa, the car and your clothes
• You are in a flat, or nobody can physically hold this dog on a lead

Rough running cost: $$ (middle of the pack) — because it is a big dog, so food, medicines and anaesthetics all cost more.

Those are relative bands, not live prices. For real numbers across every pet we cover, see the pet cost study and the cost calculator.

Rescues do have Labrador Retrievers and Labrador Retriever crosses, usually adults whose size, coat and temperament you can see rather than guess at.