Friday
Moderator
Probably me. The things you were describing needing... lots of downward weight bearing; standing up, sitting down, chairs/bathrooms/etc, plus leaning on whilst standing/walking... would destroy most labs’ backs and hips within a couple years, Max. Labs are super strong forward/back, but very weak up/down. Lean on a lab’s back, the way you were describing, and it would create hip dysplasia even if they didn’t already have it, although the breed is incrediably prone to it; & damage their spine, which in turn would KO their kidneys. As labs’ kidneys nearly always go, as soon as their back does.An English lab is at the top of my list and likely what I will go with if I have a choice in the matter. Someone took me off of labs for some reason in this thread. Not sure who or why but still at the very top and not one has made it above them yet
Or it could have been the fur & oil issues, as labs are inherantly very ‘dirty’ dogs; as they were bred for swimming off fishing boats in arctic waters, they have a super oily top coat & perpetually shedding downy undercoat. Even with daily brushing & weekly bathing/grooming, you’re still looking at needing to sweep/vacuum daily, and wash the floors/walls/furniture in a small space most likely on a weekly basis. On a thousand sqft house I did it weekly, along with my Jeep (or here would be a brown streak across every wall about 3 feet up, 18 inches wide & slippery carpet from where he laid down. Meanwhile the entire Jeep would be an oily/gritty mess). I did the floors every morning (sweep & wash), and the walls/furniture once a week. On a 3,000 sqft apt I could do it once a month, if I could tolerate the smell (meaning I still did it daily/weekly), but I seem to recall you live so where more the size of my house than my loft? That level of maintenece would be difficult for someone with preexisting mobility issues, unless you hired it out. But it’s also something of a pointless expense when you couldn’t use the dog to sit/stand/walk anyway, and there are dogs with non-oily short single coats similar to Choppers.