Anyway, we recently brought in another Lab, our sixth, when we lost a very special yellow. We loved him so much but he also had a companion and vice versa and when one leaves us, you have to consider whether you want the remaining one to be ‘alone’. We didn’t so we always sought another companion, if and when this happened. I am saying this because I have compared personalities and all were treated with unconditional love and part of our family. The last one is now almost 9 months old and he’s much bigger than we thought. He’s also an American Lab, where we usually brought on English Labs. He’s trim, athletic, smart and loving. But, he’s also 100 pounds. And, he’s not overweight. He is displaying a much stronger protective instinct than the other 5, although the others would also not hesitate to warn a stranger if they came too close or they perceived a threat.

Recently, my father-in-law visited who hasn’t seen the dogs in months so the new ‘pup’ was unfamiliar. The companion is a 80 pound female, English, only 3 years old. She is a little easier to sense familiarity than the new ‘pup’. He got right up not more than one or two feet away and barked incessantly right at him. Like he was telling him to sit right there until I figure this out. He is adopting well to training but I couldn’t persuade him to stop until he felt satisfied things were fine. Then after a half hour or so, he stopped barking after about 5 minutes and noticed the congeniality I guess, he was laying at the feet of my father-in-law, completely calm.

Just an FYI. I thought it was an interesting story given our familiarity with the breed and love for them.