My chocolate lab would never hurt anyone. She absolutely loves everyone. Personally, I have never met a lab or golden retriever that was anything but very friendly.
My lab is a cupcake but i would never let him in the hen house
Feathers will fly
One of Cesar Milan’s worst bites was from a Yellow Lab:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vm3dOFb5K4
A couple of my employees have had bad contacts with other labs.
I had a Chesapeake that could be ungodly fierce.
I would concede that it is largely the owner.
I own a Golden Retriever, a male dog who is a terrific watchdog. He will try to rip your face off if you enter our house or fenced yard. He has a high prey drive and we are looking to re-home him before he kills one of our cats.
A lab took a bite out of my wife’s leg while we were walking down the street outside the fence where the dog was. For some reason, a girl opened a gate, he darted out. thrust his nose against my wife;s pant’s leg. Never made a sound nor opened his jaws so far as I could tell. Then ran back through the gate. My wife said “he bit me!†I did not believe her until she touched her ants leg and came up with blood on her hand. I look and saw a v-shaped tear in his pants leg and flood coming out. Finally got the girl to bring out rg to use to press the womb. The took my wife to the hospital to get her wound treated. The hospital reported the incident to the German authorities, but we chose not to make a charge. But the owner was really sweating it, because the Germans were serious about animal bites. He would have been put down. The owner not only agree to pay the medical build but to biy my wife a new pair of pants and brought a very large bottle of very good wine. All dogs bite. My wife guessed he smelled our dogs sent on her, even though we did not have the dog with us. All dogs bite. Even our cocker, but her jaws were too weak to break the skin on your hand.
No offense but there is no such thing as being completely sure that your dog would never hurt anyone. That’s not to say that your dog isn’t a wonderful, gentle creature but even the best of dogs can and have had incidence that are out of character, for whatever reason (not feeling well, getting old, too rough in play or perceiving wrongly)Chances are your dog will never hurt anything or anyone (and especially not you) but I have seen it happen with a very calm and loving Retriever/lab mix when they perceived play with their pack child as a threat. Nothing major, just a pinch/bruise before the owner came out and called the dog away. I’m not blaming the dog, I get along with him great now:) I just make sure he’s put in his house before I run around and play with my nephew.
That said, a Pitt bull is on a whole other level. When THEY get upset and attack, they aim to kill not just wound.
Sorry but I’m not a fan of labs. Their aggression is displayed by their being overly affectionate... to the point of wanting to sit in my lap and always be the center of attention. They are puppies most of their lives. I’m sure that one who is well trained and I mean really well trained would be okay. Our cattle dog wanted to play frisbee with everyone but when we told him to leave the room he did. I’ve never seen that trait in a lab. OK, flame away lab lovers.