The Versatile Labrador Retriever

This book was recommended by the breeder whom I acquired my Labrador companion. I found this book to be very thorough and precise. Some of the text did become overwhelming for an average fancier such as myself. Overall, this was a GREAT material for those who truly loves the breed!!!

In my opinion, this book is the best of the books on this breed published in the last 5 years. It is an extremely comprehensive book. People deeply interested in the breed would probably appreciate some of its points more than those who are "just looking." In particular, this book has a lovely, detailed overview of what exactly we do know about the development of this breed in the 18th and 19th century. She does not attempt to formulate a single theory out of the information, but presents it, contradictions and all. This book also goes over the basic show and field history, as one would expect of these types of books. But in addition, there are detailed chapters on the versatility of the Labrador Retriever. Extensive chapters on Search and Rescue, Narcotic detection, Guide dogs and the amazing variety of other things Labrador Retrievers can do. Sports are covered as well -- there are chapters on obedience, tracking and flyball. There are also some extensive chapters on health problems in this breed. The book is very well edited, cohesive and comes highly recommended for those who are seriously interested in the breed. The only way to improve this book would be to add more pictures (of which it nevertheless has a decent sampling of). As you can tell, I enjoyed it quite a bit.