My dog, is a year old now. The only time he barks is when he senses someone coming up the stairs to the house. He thinks all cats are potiental friends and doesn’t bark when they go into attack mode and swipe at him. :s Tonight a street dog tried to attack him, and he just stood there looking at the dog, wagging his tail. Arrrrgh, is my dog a practicing Buddist or just a whimp? 
Your dog’s got a lot of Lab in his genes, which explains all of the above. 
So labs, are the Dalai Lama’s of the race? 
If you want a psychotic dog that won’t hesitate to attack anything and everything on sight, I suggest you get a dachshund.
I’d second Maoman’s remarks. Ours is a labrador too and he’s exactly the same, sometimes downright embarrassing, but still better than the opposite as Dr_Z pointed out … they’re just happy, friendly dogs!
Yea embarrassing it is, and some what worrying because I am concerned with whether or not he can defend himself. Can labs become aggressive when needed?
So what’s the problem? I’d rather have a friendly, tail-wagging dog than a vicious cur any day. Sounds like he’s not a wimp; he’s just well-behaved (except for barking when people come up stairs – I hate that in my neighbor’s dogs).
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]
So what’s the problem? I’d rather have a friendly, tail-wagging dog than a vicious cur any day. Sounds like he’s not a wimp; he’s just well-behaved (except for barking when people come up stairs – I hate that in my neighbor’s dogs).[/quote]
I love it when it gruffs and barks(never loud enough to bother anyone, just to warn me). And he is very well behaved, but I am concerned that he can’t defend himself if needed…
We labs are lovers, not fighters. Defence is running the hell away from whatever is dangerous to us. We’re pacifist dogs to the core. Woof. :scooby:
I guess you’re not too passive to use the PC when your humans are working, huh? 
We’ve had one instance so far (ours is also only one year old btw) where he became really angry: a repairman was sitting on a ladder fixing something on the neighbour’s house on the other side of the garden wall and he (our dog) became positively pissed, seemingly because he thought this guy was climbing the wall to “intrude” … or so we like to think, no idea what really went on in his handsome little head!?
As for other dogs, his major defense against aggressive or over-sexed (!!)street dogs is wagging his tail like really really hard, he goes into “propeller mode” as his tail seems to go in circles rather than wag from one side to the other, very funny, but not very effective in chasing away the street gangs … 
By the looks of that pic you’re gonna have a hard time keeping the ladies at bay 
At least your dog stands its ground. My dog runs in terror from cats, craps herself if another dog has a go at her an pees anytime she thinks I am picking her up to something she doesn’t want to. She starts to shake at the vets and shakes if I try to take her out in the rain. I think my dog is a far greater wuss than yours.
My Cookie wins this one. She joined Chocolate, my other young dog, in the chasing of a cat. Chocolate chased the cat onto a raised area, and Cookie excitedly split from the chase to head the cat off on the other side of the ledge.
The cat came flying off the ledge like a cat out of hell with claws, whiskers, fur and tail a-blazing. Cookie (19 kg) screamed in fear - I kid you not - turned tail and ran for her life. Worse than that, she was actually cowering as she ran, with tail so far between her legs it could touch her ears, which were curled pathetically under her chin. If you’ve never seen a cowering, screaming dog run, I can tell you, if it’s yours, it is an embarrassment.
The cat ran past her onto some stairs then turned and hissed at Chocolate while taking a swipe. Chocolate then decided to retreat, thankfully, for the sake of family honour, without screaming and his tail at half mast, not between his legs.
We are in training though, and Cookie can now stand her ground against a toy rabbit I purchased to help toughen her up. 
Without a doubt, my dog is far more wimpy than your dog. :raspberry:
My chocky never shys away when the cats go into attack mode. Just stands their wagging that tail of his back and forth. When he knows they serious then he’ll back off, but just enough to give them distance.
Stay dog, how do you train a dog to be aggressive, like in your post. I’d like some ideas to do with my Chocolate…
As much as I love Labs, it seems to me they’ve been bred too far to the passive extreme. Time for injection of a bit of Rottweiler or something, no? A little mixture is healthy.
Unless you’re always in complete and total control of your dog’s behaviour, you do NOT want to train your dog to be aggressive. If your dog doesn’t obey “sit”, “stay”, “come”, etc. with 100% reliability, you do not want to teach him to be aggressive. A poorly-trained, aggressive dog is a nightmare, a lawsuit and eventual euthanasia waiting to happen. If you want a dog that is naturally more aggressive, or naturally more territorial, or naturally more independent, you shouldn’t have gotten a dog that has so much labrador retriever running through his genes.
My cat is a pussy
Maoman, this is what I was refering to:
[quote=“Stray Dog”]
We are in training though, and Cookie can now stand her ground against a toy rabbit I purchased to help toughen her up. 
Without a doubt, my dog is far more wimpy than your dog. :raspberry:[/quote]
But that’s what makes em great. You can step on them, and they won’t snap at you.
My previous dog had some lab blood in her too, and she was the nicest dog ever. Never ever snapped at me for anything. I could stick my hand in her mouth while she was eating if I really wanted to.
It’s just good to know that a dog of a certain breed will have characteristics like these. Like if you have children, you would not want the dog to be agressive towards them, even if it’s a reflex.
It’s just bred out of them. Big safe doggies. 