lol, piggiemom... I've been told that for as smart as labs are, they DO NOT have brains at all until turning three.
Which reminds me...
In that list of pets I've adopted, I mentioned a Huskey... well, where she came from... just... ugh.
Three years ago when I started working where I'm at now, one of the VP's got a shitzu puppy for her daughter. Within a few weeks, the daughter was bored with it, complaining about it being a 'little wimp dog' that she couldn't rough and tumble with like she wanted... so she gave it to one of my coworker who still has it and absolutely loves and spoils the little thing. Well, a few months later, what does the VP do? Get a huskey for her! They got her at a store that sells *only* puppies. A friend of mine used to work there, and says it's horrible - they got puppies from 'puppy mills' and they often got there when they were *way* too young, sick, and full of lots of other problems. Well, she got lucky with this one, as she was pretty healthy and happy.
BUT, now, you have to think about this: The lady is a VP for a large company, as is her husband. They work long hours and are hardly home. When they're *not* working, they're vacationing at some exotic place for weeks at a time. The daughter is one of those preppy 'always doing extracaricular activities at school/church' and is *also* hardly ever home. Which meant puppy never got attention or training. Within a few weeks she was destroying their home. A few months later, she was posting signs up at work, asking someone to take her in. I told her that if no one else took her, I would. Someone *did* take her, but a couple days later they called and begged me to take her. She was just too nuts. I went and got her, and took her home. At first she started trying to destroy, but I patiently redirected her attention every time she tried to get into trouble. I also took her for several very long walks, and let her vent some energy running around at a dog park. She proved to be *very* intelligent and egar to please, and by the end of the day I had her doing 'sit' and 'shake'. I spent the night with her on the futon, and she actually woke me up twice to go to the bathroom by tugging very gently on my arm then directing me to the door.
Now, my SO's parents had just lost their dog of 15 years a few months before, and had been hinting around about wanting another dog. They could give her a much better home than I could, since they have a yard, and the mom doesn't work and is at home all day. They're also used to taking a dog with them *everywhere*. I brought her over for introductions... and now a year later she's still with them. She's still got a few quirks - mainly that she *hates* to be left alone, and eats *everything* she can get her mouth around, and has almost died and went blind for a couple weeks once from something, so has to constantly be watched... she's very sweet and loving though, and my son absolutely loves going over there to play with her.
In the mean time, that VP lady has bought, and shortly gotten rid of, two more dogs. It just pisses me off every time I think about it. Rawr!