[My back yard]

I am familiar too with the problems of Labrador conformation and field trial standards. I see in that picture of the lab a dog that just could not do the job, beautiful as he is. That dog won't hunt. If you took that dog and put him through a rigorous physical training and leaned him up 10 pounds he might could. But that would limit him in conformation, and that is not right. The standard for a lab should be to the best in his category, which is 'working', still.

[HairOfTheDog]

You don't think that dog up there could hunt? - I think he could, according to his purpose, which is really close hunting, and retrieving in very cold water. That dog above is really the ideal standard I would look for today, and will in the spring when ecurbh and I go get our pups.

The function of a labrador was not the long legged field dog.... those pointers and runners would run on ahead. The Labrador is the 'gentleman's hunter and companion', that would always remain in gun range, the dog that in it's origin, remained at heel or close-in if pointers or spaniels were used. He hunts at the trot. Small enough for a hunter to pull back into a boat, and quiet enough to want to sit in one all day.

In recent years, they began breeding the legs into them to do the "all in one flushing and retrieving dog" on upland birds. These new dogs were also wired all the time, like a pointer, wanting to run rather than trot. They started breeding them taller with a body bred for endurance and distance. They also disregarded or bred away from, the heavy double coat that would keep them warm in cold water, because in running the field, they would overheat if too heavy. But that was not their original function. And the big tall labs of today could not fit or want to sit still in a boat.

[HairOfTheDog]

All that being said.... Change is also a constant in dog breeding, and if the classic Labrador no longer is what people want, a branch of the breed will create a new one, that fits a new purpose now in demand.