After my Lab gets her Seasoned HR title and her Excellent agility title, I'm going for a Candlewoods pup. (I keep forgetting to write Mary Howley, who owns Candlewoods, but I need to.) The best field trial dogs in the country -- over a 15 year period, she bred something like 9 or 10 national champions. My Lab's mother is a Candlewoods bitch, daughter of a national champion Chocolate. (Her dad is a show dog - a Canadian champion and the son of two American champions - but still just a show dog. I'm not getting any more show Labs - they've gotten too short and too fat, and most of them can't find a bird in a phone booth.)
Chocs can be a little hyper, but you have a good chance of getting a REALLY sweet dog! For all my girl's performance drive, she is as affectionate and gentle a dog as you will ever meet. And she has a good sense of humor.
You're right about show Lab's being too short and fat. They look like hogs with a dog head stuck on it. But the part about not being able to find a bird in a phone booth, now THAT was funny!