Labradors were intended to be working dogs from day one. When the Earl of Malmesbury imported the St John’s dog in the early 19th century and started the development of the Lab, it was as a working dog. He wanted to use these dogs for retrieving waterfowl that had been shot during hunting. They are still used for this purpose to this day.

There are however a large number of other uses that the Labrador can be put to due mainly to its extremely high intelligence. This magnificent beast is one of the most popular breeds to be used as a guide dog for the blind; they are used throughout the world for this purpose very successfully. When a guide dog is working, it takes its responsibility very seriously and is not easily distracted.

The next purpose that it is put to is as a drug smelling dog. Once again these dogs are used throughout the world by police forces and customs agencies to sniff out illegal substances, not only drugs, this could be almost anything that the dog has been trained to find. Believe me, if the dog is asked to find something and it is there, it will find it. These animals have a very good sense of smell, they are consequently used as tracker dogs by military forces.

Other uses that the military have put Labs is as bomb or explosive detectors. In the Vietnam conflict they were used to locate tunnels dug by the Vietcong, and then to clear those tunnels. They saved countless American soldiers lives this way.

These dogs make excellent rescue dogs; when there has been an earthquake for instance, they locate survivors in a far shorter time than it would take humans to do. So too for snow avalanches, in fact even more so for avalanches, due to the fact that all you can normally see after the avalanche is a flat expanse of white.

Labs, due to their lovable, soft nature, are favorites when selecting as therapy dogs. Children warm to them immediately and it has been scientifically proven that this has a beneficial effect on the individual’s health. This does not only apply to children; adults also show marked improvement when these animals are used. Unfortunately not all institutions allow therapy dogs to be used.

The diversity that Labs can be utilized for is astonishing; they are used to help people with almost any type of disability that you can think of. They help deaf people, paraplegic people and even quadriplegic people to live a more normal life.

Endal, probably the most famous Labrador ever, was a service dog in Britain, among his accomplishments are: First dog to use a chip and pin ATM card successfully, the first dog to place a human in the recovery position without training on how to do this. Endal, during a blackout, placed a man in the recovery position covered him with a blanket, retrieved his phone from under the car, went to nearby houses to bark for help and failing a response there, he went to a nearby hotel and summoned help from there. Endal passed away in 2009, but before he did he was awarded the PDSA’s Gold Medal for Animal Gallantry and Devotion to Duty.



By: Ian Surridge

About the Author:
The author of this article has owned Labrador Retrievers for the last three decades, the website www.labrador-retriever-info.com is dedicated to All the Labs that have been part of this history. We try to offer information on as many aspects of this magnificent breed as we possibly can. This information is being added to on a daily basis, please join us.



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