Almost all dog owners do so for the sake of having a pet and among those are ones that acquire a labrador puppy using the same criteria to select their breed of choice as everybody else.
The realization comes later that labradors are a very busy lot, so to speak, and may even prove hard to keep up with. A look deeper reveals that retrievers are by nature hunters and thus love best of all to be where the action is instead of leisure.
Take the function of their jaws that is put to work almost all of a constant time, because instinctively as natural hunter dogs par excellence, their drive is to retrieve. And they have the motivation, the power and even the stamina to beautifully sustain the in-built instinct to swim afar if need be in tracking fallen game, retrive it and carry it back to you the hunter.
The sharp hunting dog insticts and drive are even well demonstrated as the labrador retriever sharply focuses, chases a tennis ball or frisbee, for instance, and fetches it.
The strength of their jaw proves the fact that they are hunting dogs and they also retrieve, hence their tendency to keep their mouths occupied by grabbing on any object in sight for putting in the mouth or chewing upon. A retriever is therefore a perfect match for an active dog owner who enjoys catch and fetch games and is indeed a handful and a misery for someone who chose a labrador breed unaware of the demands of activity and the time consumption required on a daily basis.
If you were firstly aware of the nature of the Labrador retriever breed, and still want to have one as a dog pet and do not hunt, then specific obedience and training lessons are called for in addition to making sure that your property is reasonably dog-proofed against chewing tendencies by your labrador puppy, and even as it matures.
Against the background of what you have just read, if you seriously want a retriever for a house pet, it goes without saying that you need to commit to a routine of retriever training, supervision and somewhat vigorous playtime activity day in day out, a neccesity for the labrador retriever healthy and wellbeing.
