For 31 consecutive years, the Labrador Retriever held the top spot in American Kennel Club registrations — the longest run of any breed in recorded AKC history. That run ended in 2022 when the French Bulldog took the number one position, but Labs remain consistently in the top three, and by virtually every measure other
The socialisation window in dogs is one of those things that sounds like a training concept until you understand the neuroscience behind it — and then it becomes one of the most important things you’ll do with your puppy. Between 3 and 12 weeks, a puppy’s brain is in a sensitive period where new experiences
Recall with a Labrador puppy has an advantage most owners don’t fully use: very young puppies are naturally inclined to follow you. In the first weeks after bringing a puppy home, if you walk away from them they’ll come trotting after you out of genuine instinct. That’s your training window — and if you miss
Labs are smart, social, and usually very food motivated, so Labrador puppy training can feel rewarding fast when you keep it positive and consistent. In March 2026, the winning approach still looks simple: 5 to 10 minutes at a time, a few times a day, with treats, praise, and play doing most of the heavy
A Labrador on a walk can look like a happy hoover with legs. One second you’re enjoying some fresh air; the next you’re wrestling a chip wrapper, a dead bird, or something that defies identification out of their mouth. It’s one of the most common complaints from Lab owners, and one of the most genuinely
If your labrador retriever turns every walk into a towing contest, I want you to know something: this is one of the most common problems I hear about from Lab owners, and it’s also one of the most fixable. Labradors were bred to work hard, move fast, and stay driven. That’s what makes them brilliant
Labradors eat things. All things. Things that are clearly food, things that are debatably food, and things that are definitely not food by any reasonable definition. If you’ve owned one for more than a week you already know this. The question is why — and whether it can be changed. The answer is partly genetic,
Nail trimming is one of those dog care tasks that sounds straightforward and turns out to be genuinely challenging — especially with a large, wriggly Labrador who’s never been properly introduced to the process. The good news: Labs who’ve been desensitised to nail trimming from puppyhood will sit calmly for the whole thing. The realistic
“Drop it” and “leave it” are the two most practically useful cues you can teach a Labrador — and two of the most commonly confused. They’re related but different: “leave it” means don’t pick that up, and “drop it” means release what you’ve already got. Both need to be trained separately, to a level of
If your Labrador puppy launches into frantic circuits of the living room at 9pm, crashes into the furniture, and then collapses like nothing happened — welcome to the zoomies. Officially called Frenetic Random Activity Periods (FRAPs), zoomies are one of those things that look alarming until you realise they’re completely normal, and then they become
