Thread: My last dog couldnt swim so now i need a new one.

Originally Posted by username

Yeh thats how i feel but a mate has a 6 month old and it just loves retrieving stuff. He chucked a gumboot one day and with no training it ran over quietly picked it up and brought it back and dropped it at his feet. you cant beat that. Its not what you are after but it gives me a dilemma. get the perfect dog that i really dont want or get a dog i want that thats a great natural pointer but cant be assed leaving the mai mai to jump into the pond with icebergs just to get a bloody duck because its retrieval instinct is week. Im 50/50 lab/brittany.
Please dont abuse me cos I havent chosen a lab yet.

If you are stoked with the dog, you will put way more effort and time into it than if you aren't. I'm kinda the same, username, and I'll admit its silly. But I see labs all the time: fat and slobbery like BH describes them - I don't see the side of them from good lines as good hunting dogs. So when I compare video/photos of a mean looking athletic HPR breed, I feel that even though a good lab from a good line would be as good (or maybe even better), it wouldn't have the same novelty and excitement as an HPR and therefore I probably wouldn't have the same motivation to put heaps of hours of training into it. I think I probably shouldn't get a dog until I don't have this fallacy. But surely, seeing a mint as lab at work would cure it, I just never see that.

When it comes the time to look for an indicator dog, I'll mix with a few guys who have different breeds and ask if I can see them at work. I wouldn't be surprised if its the lab that comes out on top for me, but I'll have to see it with my own eyes before I really get stoked on one.

Am I making any sense?