Black Labs, Male vs. Female

[Rob]

Were are going to be buying a black lab in the next month or so, Both its parents are Labs, and the pups are 7 weeks old. Were just not sure whether to get a male or female. Any advice? all I can think of is that one will pee on the corner of the couch and one wil pee on the floor. If we do get a female we would have her fixed. Thanks Rob

[oldtimer]

Rob, I owned labs for 30 yrs and I would recommend the female. Any lab is a great dog but we found the females ( we had 3 over the years ) to settle down quicker than the males. I see in your avatar a little munchkin- You wont find a better dog with young kids than a lab. Enjoy Mike

[mtnmax]

Over the years groing up we always had females and when I moved out I got a female,,always excellent, no problems. We now have a female and a male,,,,the male was a little monster,,more so than any female I had. He didn't colm down till he was almost 2. Now he is great like the rest.

My 2 cents

[Ajsawden]

i've had two labs. One i grew up with, and the one we have now. Both have been females and both have been excellent. The girls can be hell raisers too. The dog I have now, Sam, can be pretty crazy sometimes, as all dogs have their puppy moments.
My uncle had labs all his life, and they were always males, and some of the best hunting dogs i've seen. I think the males have a tendancy to be less family oriented. They still treat everyone including kids well, but perhaps, ignore them more often.

[bruin]

I have had labs since before I was born, we have had males and females. Personally I found the males to have more instict when it comes to hunting and seem to be more obedient. But as you can see people have differing opinions. We also have tow males right now, one is very calm and a fantastic bird dog, I use him for pheasants, ducks geese or whatever. I couldn't have asked for a better dog. The other is younger and more high strung, harder to train, shorter attention span etc. I think personally that you might want to concentrate more on the demenor of the parents and spend some time with the pups to see who has more natural instinct for chasing, and retrieving, yes you can tell at 7 weeks. I would go with a male.

[Marc]

The thing with a male lab is they think with two heads. Until you get him fixed he'll be thinking from one to the other. If there is another dog around he'll be more interested in the other dog instead of the task at hand.

I prefer the look of a male lab with the blockier head. My male was an awesome retriever and only lost 5 ducks in the 9 years I hunted him. One bird he burried on me and I couldn't find it and two being my fault for not hitting them properly.

[browningboy]

I would agree with Marc, my male lab was always trying to escape, dig holes etc. to get out to get some, well you know and once I fixed him he just got fat and lazy, I'd go with the female.

[OOBuck]

Go with a female... I have a male now and we fought tooth & nail to see who would rule the roost. Dogs are domesticated but keep in mind they were once pack animals and males will always try to rule the roost. My females never gave me a problem.

I remember coming home one day and my wife telling me not to go out in the back yard,,, why seems the dog desided to due some excavating while I was at work one day!!! The holes that bugger dug must have been a foot deep and ten feet long...

[25hunter]

My last Yellow male was the best dog I have ever seen - Inteligent, Great with kids - never dug BUT he ate the couch, ate the carpet, ate kitchen chairs and I'm sure a few other things I can't recall. Spent very little time training him on birds he was a natural.

Now I have a male and a female from the same litter - thought 2 would be better for each other double trouble The male is better than the female as far as settling down and listening to commands. I all but gave up on the female - stubborn.
I would choose the male if doing it again.

[Chuck]

Imo, a fixed female is smarter than a male and a lot calmer too, but that's just my experience with dogs. I don't know why, but that doesn't apply to any other species I'm aware of...or does it?