Pippas post on facebook about some show winners in the USA provoked a lot of contraversy about weight but also there was a lot about American/English labs. Now I'd heard of American labs - I thought they were different again from our "field" or "working type" although what they generally call "English lab" means what we call show type I've seen labs advertised in the US as "English" because of their English Field Trial heritage! (a few of Rusty's litter mates ended up in the US) So my question is - is an "American Lab" the same as our Field lab? By coinicidence today through my work I've been introduced to the lady who runs labradors.com . My colleague described me as owning two beautiful English labs - which is true - they are English but they are Field type so to her are they American????
Re: English /American / Field? It's bizarre if you ask me...... Do the US think labs in the UK don't work and resemble small coffee tables? This seems to be the suggestion on the thread : And what would you call our Scottish and Welsh friends?.... (apologies for my flippancy! and I certainly don't mean any offence to our US lab loving friends) I wonder if it's something to do with the desirability of things from far away. English is old, with heritage and wins awards but Americans work hard and do a good job. A cultural thing perhaps? I find the facebook threads far more heated, judgmental, opinionated and considerably less accommodating of others views unlike this lovely forum.
Re: English /American / Field? Can you point me to the FB link please. Just had a look but couldn't find it.
Re: English /American / Field? In the USA a lot of people call show/bench labs 'English' and work/field labs 'American' I have noticed that creeping in here too, and posted about it a little while back Our FB page does have a lot of US members and US pet owners still seem very keen on these terms. Over on the American Retriever site, they seem to have got their head around the facts. Which are of course that both US and UK labradors are split into two very different strains. However, I do think it is a shame to see this misleading terminology creeping into posts in the UK.
Re: English /American / Field? [quote author=David link=topic=4450.msg54204#msg54204 date=1392379308] Can you point me to the FB link please. Just had a look but couldn't find it. [/quote] Shared onto your fb timeline, just delete once you've waded through it all
Re: English /American / Field? [quote author=editor link=topic=4450.msg54219#msg54219 date=1392383122] That doesn't include the posts I deleted either [/quote] Oh crumbs!
Re: English /American / Field? All a bit rude, I think (just read them). Unlikely our lovely forum. "Show dogs are fat" does annoy me a little though. Loads of labradors I see in Wimbledon are over weight, and most of them (the owners tell me very proudly, while failing to recall them from the park squirrels and ducks :) are all from super duper field lines. All very lovely dogs that I'm glad to meet out and about - but not all thin!
Re: English /American / Field? Do you think there is just a group of particularly nasty people on FB that maybe have nothing better to do with their lives but stir things up? This is similar to should cross breeds be allowed on the Labrador Site posts the other week. All very upsetting and totally uneccessary Thank goodness I don't have facebook I much prefer to spend my tea breaks on our lovely forum xx
Re: English /American / Field? Slightly off topic - I enjoy the lab links on facebook but I must admit this one made me cross. I did actually type out a comment that stated how shocked I was that there was so much swearing and nastiness involved. My dad always said to me that the second you swear or loose your cool in a debate, you also loose your credibility. But I deleted it without posting as I didn't want never ending notifications.
Re: English /American / Field? I must admit when I saw some of those comments Pippa how many you had to delete! It will be interesting to have a dig around on the US labrador site to see if it has been discussed there. I'm about to be talking to them as my colleagues are arranging for Grief Recovery to have a section to write about Pet bereavement and as the Lab owner in the team guess who is going to have to do the writing?!!
