A friend of my mom's has Labradors and they're expecting

Blah blah blah your mom's friend is a shitty BYB if she's not doing extreme vetting + health testing etc. If she's a legit breeder then cool.

If you're getting a puppy for free then eh, why not? If your mom's friend is a shitty BYB and she's gonna make you pay, don't. It isn't worth it to support shitty breeding practices and get a pup that will likely have health issues. /an/ will tell you to always adopt, but if you're getting a dog for free there's little harm. You can find puppies in shelters, you can find purebreds in shelters, and most dogs in shelters were surrendered because of shitty people (he's too energetic! I'm moving! I'm having a baby! grandpa died and no one wants the dog!) rather than aggression. aggressive dogs get put down.

Anyway, labs are a pretty good first time dog if you're actually willing to commit to having a dog and not just a decorative fixture. They are dogs that were bred for a specific, high-energy job, so make sure you're willing to commit to exercising every day.

Five minutes of exercise for how many months old a puppy is, twice a day. So 4 months = 20 minutes of exercise twice a day. Most dogs top out at an hour when they're adults, but some can go longer. A well-exercised dog is a well-behaved dog.

Exercise is also important for labs because they're really, really prone to obesity. Why? They live to eat. They will eat well past the point of fullness, and they aren't picky. Do a caloric requirement calculation and measure out their food, and buy a high-quality food. If you're willing to put more brain power into calculating macronutrient needs, do so. A really really hardworking dog needs higher fat content in his food; a lazier one, not so much. Because they eat so much, they get really fat, and they become barrel-shaped. Many people haven't ever seen a lab at a healthy weight so they think labs *should* be barrel-shaped.

>>2352306
cont.

training a lab is a little harder than a golden but not by much, because they will do *literally anything* for food. if you held a handful of dried chicken bits in your hand and said, "Buddy...destroy," New York would have fallen before you could have pointed at it to tell him which way to go. They're that obsessed with food.

You can go to any website to learn about puppy training, but I highly recommend the crate and advise highly against puppy pads--they just teach puppies to shit in the house and then they become confused when you suddenly don't like it anymore. look up crate training before anti-crate fags try to convince you it means caging your dog all day and never letting him out.

make sure someone has time to spend with the puppy for a long time. the rule for how long they can hold their bladder is 1 hour for every month old they are. 3 months = 3 hours. this means you will be getting up every three hours, every four hours, every five hours, etc. for at least 3 months.

if you've got the time to potty train him, the energy to exercise him, and the self-discipline not to overfeed him when he looks at you with the big ol' puppy eyes, a lab is a great first-time dog.

>>2352310
a note about the exercise: it's really important. I know I said most dogs top out at about an hour of exercise at a time, but that doesn't mean an hour of lazy walking, that means an hour of running, jumping, fetching, swimming, etc.

luckily most labs are pretty dumb though, so as long as you have a good strong chew for them, you don't have to worry about mental exercise in addition to physical exercise like with a husky or collie

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Labs take about 5-6 years to finish being puppies and mellow out. They are particularly mouthy, so you'll probably need to train them not to chew on furniture/ect.

For when the puppy is older and done with shots: find a creek/pond/other body of water near your house. They will love it. Check out your local dog park too.

>>2352306
>>2352310
>>2352313
>>2352317
Thanks for the info anons, I really appreciate it!

Not OP, just curious. Why are Labs so damn popular?

I've worked as a pet sitter/dogwalker for many years. All the Labs I have known have been hyper, mildly aggressive, difficult to train for anything except hunting, and not very bright. I just don't understand why they are so extremely popular as family pets.

Whenever I hear somebody talk about getting a dog, 19 times out of 20, they follow it up with "We should get a Lab" like they are the gold standard of family dogs.

How the hell did that meme get started?

I'm not to trying to discourage OP. Cause free puppy. Just know that he will probably need a fuckton of play ad obedience training, and will eat, chew, and jump on everything in his path.

Don't pay for a shitty breeder OP
If you get it for free then just enjoy your new puppy !
Have fun and don't let it on the side of the road

>>2352740
>I've worked as a pet sitter/dogwalker for many years. All the Labs I have known have been hyper, mildly aggressive, difficult to train for anything except hunting, and not very bright. I just don't understand why they are so extremely popular as family pets.

you being a petsitter/dogwalker is the answer

if these people got a dog without thinking about how to adjust their work schedules, why would they put any work into training or exercising them when they got home?

I ain't saying all people who use dog-walkers are lazy pet owners, but many of them are, which is why you've met so many shitty labs.

also, they're popular because of their reputations as being very friendly, which, if properly trained, they are.

>>2353072
easy beginner dog for first time owners
seconding this

>>2353072

Actually, most of the people I work for only need me on a temporary basis. They need to travel one or two weeks out of the year, or they have a brief scheduling conflict something like that keeps them at work for long hours during one part of the year.

One of my clients was actually a Lab breeder, who bred and trained working dogs. She worked from home, but hired me to have an extra hand around the house to play with the dogs and walk them and give them company. They were not kenneled, and had a pretty kickass life.

Honestly the kind of people who drop a lot of cash on a petsitter or dogwalker aren't the ones you should worry about. They are usually already very concerned with their dog or cat's quality of life. The folks who leave their dog alone all day just ask a neighbor to throw some food over the fence when they go out of town.