We've had two Labs and they are wonderful dogs, extremely family and kid friendly, very loyal, excellent pets and hunting companions. They do however have a very long puppyhood/teenage stage and sort of stay goofy for a long while before settling into big black couch potatoes. Best chew thing I've ever seen in a Kong (you can also get the floating Kong for water retreival...a thing most every Lab enjoys). Kongs when thrown bounce erratically so it's great fun for a Labrador to figure out where it's target is landing (it always amazed me that my Labs could figure out the trajectory of things...except a Kong LOL). Most all Labs are dedicated retreivers and will play "fetch the ball" for hours on end. One of our Labs taught herself to toss the ball down a high set of stairs and retreive it herself when we got bored or too busy to play fetch anymore.

Probably my hands down favorite breed.

For training your pup, watch the Dog Whisperer. The man knows more about how dogs "think" than anyone I've ever seen. Labs really need to have a strong leader as they are bred to bond to humans and work for them. Give Lab lots of obedience training (they love it!) and lots of soft things to carry around. We never played tug with ours as we wanted them to stay very soft mouthed and to immediately give up anything from the mouth when requested.

Labs do shed a lot for a short haired breed so good grooming is a must with them as well as a good diet. Their coat is meant for water retrieving so it produces a lot of oils. A bad diet will result in a dusty looking Lab whose coat can no longer do it proper job (think duck like/water resistant type thing).