I have one Lab that sheds and one that does not. My Black Lab is an incredible shedding machine . . . her crate pad stays black with her hair, and if she sits in my lap watching Westminster (like she did last night, jumping up periodically to bark at the dogs on screen) my dress is black with hair too.
My Chocolate Lab blows her undercoat for about 10 days in March or April, I vacuum around her crate for that time and then the shedding is over, except for a little bit when you scratch her tummy. She sleeps on our bed and there's very little stray hair.
The Black is mostly field bred, the Choc half show and half field, so I don't know whether it's color-related or type-related. Interestingly enough, the Black has no undercoat at all, just a slick topcoat of very fine black waxy hair. The Choc has a longer, coarser topcoat and the finest, fluffiest grayish down underneath. It must be the Black's field breeding, because she was bred in Wisconsin and the Choc in Georgia! Go figure!
Thanks for the explanation on BOX and the information on Labs and shedding.
We had a Chocolate and her coat was as you described, compared to most blacks I’ve come across. However, she was a shedding machine 12 months of the year. That never bothered me at all but then I don’t vacuum often. The person who does was not amused.