2011 National Dog Show sneak preview: Labrador Retriever
The National Dog Show Presented by Purina is a lot of fun -- but it's a long day. Still, even though it appeared towards the end of the day, you can hear that the crowd gave one of its biggest hands to the Lab, a Sporting Group breed that gets more than a hundred thousand American Kennel Club registrations every year and is consistently one of the most popular breeds in the U.S. (What's the most popular color? Anecdotal evidence suggests that black Labs are registered the most frequently, with yellow/golden Labs in second place.)
In England, Labrador Retrievers must have working certificates in order to become champions at benched shows. But the breed is a sentimental champion already; he makes a great family pet, but is also one of the most frequently-used breeds in service and assistance work, serving as a seeing-eye animal and bomb-sniffer, among other jobs.
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2011 National Dog Show sneak preview: Labrador RetrieverCheers for the nation's most popular breed
The breed is also popular in film and TV. 'Marley & Me,' the story of a naughty Lab and the humans who love him, had twenty-two yellow Labs playing the Marley role in various scenes.
The AKC on the Labrador Retriever.
The dog-handler partnership.
Vetstreet rates the Lab according to energy level, cat-friendliness, and more.
