I don't think I have ever seen a Lab without a double coat. Are you just suggesting less noticeable, or not at all. All of the labs I've seen have guard hair with a soft under coat. Coopers guard coat is coarser and stiffer than Tillys, but both have double coats as does ever other Lab I've seen. I also am happy with the variation in Labs. It seems like it gives us a larger genetic pool to work with. Your mention of strong jaws reminded me of a photo of Tilly's dad swimming in with two ducks in his mouth and one under his chin.
I've definitely seen labs with a silky, quite soft single coat. And I would LOVE to see a picture of Tillys dad manoeuvring three ducks through the water!!!
Unfortunately that breeder is out of business, and their website is gone. I wish I had copied it when I first saw it. Tilly's guard coat is fairly soft, but it is definitely different from her undercoat. Cooper has a very long stiff guard coat, which sheds water better than Tilly's, and the the best example of an Otter tail of any of our dogs. It will clear full pints off the table. FWIW, Tilly looks a lot more like a Show style dog, and Cooper more like a Field style dog When you see a dog with a soft single coat, do they still blow their coat like a double coat dog blows their undercoat? Our labs shed so much undercoat that we have a daily "Naming of the Dust Bunnies" ceremony. I think we could knit a new dog every week or so. It is worst in the Spring and Fall, but it continues all year. Sometimes it seems worse than our friends Sammys, but it is probably just the color.
A single coat is no guarantee of limited hair loss. I thought Riley was bad until I got a clumber spaniel! Oh my good lord I've never seen hair like it!!!! It gets everywhere!!!!!!
After reading more about Single Coats, I wonder if people who knew would say Tilly has a single coat. She definitely has two kinds of hair, Straight and Brown guard hair with a soft undercoat, but the Guard Hair is much softer than Coopers or our previous Lab Ginger. She does not shed rain as well as Cooper. She definitely sheds the fine undercoat more than the guard hair. The Naming of the Dust Bunnies did not start with Cooper, we have had the ceremony since we had Ginger. I think for me the thing that defines Labs most of all is their temperament. Almost every Lab I meet is friendly, non aggressive and dependable. The seem to love to play more than most dogs. That coupled with the desire to go places with us the relatively easy training, and the low maintenance are the main reasons we have Labs. (every time one of our friends talks about going to the groomers, or to a doggie bath place I kind of roll my eyes) In the Field vs Show description, I'm sure everyone is aware that the American standard is an inch taller than the rest of the world. I don't know all the politics behind this, but I expect the Hunting Retriever organization had a hand in it. I know there was a lot of concern that Labs would go the way of some other breeds and cease to be focused on the job of retrieving. I'm sure that is why the US Lab Club requires hunting or field trial credentials before a member can use CH as part of a dogs title. After our first Lab, I wanted to be sure we got a hunting line dog, just for the agility and drive. I did not expect to hunt Tilly but I wanted the higher energy level that I thought came with field dogs. Ginger had a show dog shaped body, but not head. Tilly is much more of a square head, but not not one of the super blocky headed labs. Cooper's head is kind of in between. She is too tall, even by the American standard, and she stands like a Chesapeake Bay Retriever.
It funny you say this because our local breeder sends all his Labs to USA for sale. All are trail/working Labs.
