Hi all as some of you know i have decided to add a Labrador to my family and i have read a lot of Labrador books and spoken with several owners and have been on a Labrador walk in my area , i have learned a lot about the breed and so far they seem perfect but i wanted to ask about one thing to see if its true. I wanted to ask how quiet are Labradors? I suffer from a condtion called tinnitus and loud noises make it worse including dog barking. Im fine with short term barking by this i mean my Tinnitus can handle a Lab barking at someone at the door ect as long as the Lab quitens down once i give a cue like thats enough or thank you and the lab then stops barking then i'll be fine, my Tinnitus would get worser if the dog barked all the time like how some terriers bark all the time. Owners i spoke to said i should be fine as Labradors are a quite breed and dont bark much due to there orgin as a gundog most owners said they were required to be quite so they didnt spooke a flock of geese as that would be of no use to the hunter and as there easy to train you can train a command so they will stop on que. I want to ask if its true that Labradors are a quiet breed? I have also done a poll so i can get an idea how quite\vocal your labs are aswell
Meg only barks if someone is at the door. We live in the middle of nowhere, so I like the fact she alerts me. She settles quickly once she knows who is is. I have not trained her out of this as I find it reassuring, particularly when I am on my own. Not sure where that fits on your poll
If she only barks when someones at the door ect and dosent bark at everything then id say pretty quite. How meg is ( only narks for a reason) my Tinnitus would be fine with that. My ears just cant take dogs who bark at everything they see or hear , my mom has a jack Russell who never shuts up and barks at everything he sees or hears. So i don't mind barking for a reason as long as they soon calm down afterwards I'll be fine. Also the labradors bark itself doesn't hurt my ears either. My moms JRT bark is high pitched and my ears physically pain me ( i also suffer hypercusis \ senstive ears) were none of the labs that i have been around that barked have ever hurt my ears as labs have a more deeper bark which is easier on my ears.
Mine barks out of excitement or frustration, but as he has matured (and he is still only young at nearly 1 year old) it has decreased a fair bit. I guess everything is no longer new and he has (slightly) better self control. So it can change (for better or worse) over the life of the dog. I think it does also depend a lot on the dog. From what I've read, working line dogs are less likely to bark because it's a disadvantage while hunting? Other users can correct me if I'm wrong as my only experience is with my show line pup.
Cooper does not bark at other dogs, or normally when she is in our yard, though she will bark at the neighbors cat. She has a high pitched indoor bark that she uses when she is playing, or when she thinks it is time for her breakfast. She also reacts to dogs and other animals on TV (the only dog we have had that watched TV) I would love to have "no bark" command for that, but so far we have not been very successful. In general she doesn't bark much. Tilly barks when she wants something. She will sit, and each time she barks her front feet will come off the floor. Sometimes it is not obvious what she wants but usually it is.
Hi my first lab was very quiet, she only ever barked when someone knocked or if she heard anything unusual during the night she would give a small growl to alert us but stopped immediately when we asked her to. My new pup also is reasonably quiet but as she's still so young she hasn't yet learned to be quiet when she's asked,if she barks when doorbell goes it's a work in progress!
The labs I've had were relatively quiet. However, when someone was around they didn't like their bark and growl was pretty loud and deep. Kind of scary if you didn't know them. The new one on the way, I'll just have to wait and see.
I had my boy for 3 months before he barked. I wondered if he could talk. Then again, we had a puppy for several months last year and he began barking from the night we got home. generally, labs are not known to bark. my boy only barks when he wants to manipulate me
Finn is extremely quiet! He barks like once every 3 months. But I think he is a bit unusual. He makes the most noise when playing with other dogs, which is a kind of barky growl. Even those are few and far between. I also think you can influence this to some degree....I gave Finn zero attention for whining. Whining and barking got him absolutely nothing as a puppy. So he just stopped. However, he doesn't really "alert bark" to people at the door, which is kind of unusual.
My boys rarely barked until they were 2 & 4 and we started to go to the dog park where other dogs barked in play, a lot. Now they bark when people come to the door. Reading your article explains why my hubby is so irritated when they bark, he has tinnitus too. So thanks for the ah ha moment. I hope you find a very quiet lab!
My current lab is quite noisy. He really only barks if he hears something but with his diminishing eyesight he hears a lot better and reacts more. His bark is quite loud too , he sounds like a bigger dog than he is compared to my beagle who has a high pitched bark. Our other labs never barked as much as Lucius.
My boy (7 year old neutered male) is quite vocal in that he kind of "warbles" (somewhere between a whine and a groan) when he is playing or nuzzling one of his toys. But the only time he barks is for a moment if someone comes to the door. And I can't really fault him for that...that's like his favorite thing in the universe! In comparison to other breeds, both labs I've had in my life have been very non-barky.
