While at the dog park last week, I met a lovely couple, Chaelynn and Chris, and their two bouncy and bubbly (adjectives that are COMPLETELY appropriate to describe them) Labrador Retrievers.
Named Skippy (Yellow Lab) and Tootsie (Chocolate Lab), they were both from two different breeders in Mississippi. Tootsie is two years old, and Skippy is four and a half.
While Tootsie is a Chocolate Lab understandably named after Tootsie Rolls, Skippy's name had a more interesting background.
"His started out as Mr. Sippy, 'cause he's from Mississippi, and then somehow Mr. Sippy turned into Sippy, which turned finally into Skippy."
Owning a Retriever myself, I feel like there is always a camaraderie amongst Retriever owners, and general uniform consensus about how spot on their personality and temperaments are. They are literally bred to retrieve, and to love their humans. Chris and Chaelynn said their favorite activities are swimming in just about any body of water, as well as playing fetch from sunrise to sunset. They also love chewing everything, and have admittedly chewed up some of their own dog beds in the past.
We spoke a little bit more about the breed, and while on the subject of Retrievers, I often think about the age old question of, "Do different color Labradors have different temperaments?"
I wanted to do a little research since I've always wondered, and I was actually able to find a few interesting reads that debunked this theory. An article from The Daily Puppy explains:
"Some Labrador Retriever owners will insist that different colored Labs have different temperaments. Some commonly held beliefs are that yellow Labs are lazy, chocolate Labs are hyperactive and black Labs make the best hunters. The truth is that the color of a Lab’s coat has no more bearing on his temperament than a person’s hair color has on their intelligence."
Full Names: Tootsie & Skippy
Nicknames: Toots, Mr. Skippy
Tricks: While photographing Skippy and Tootsie, Chris pulled some treats from his pockets and was able to get them to, "Beg" or sometimes called, "sit pretty" :)
Fun Fact: They're both addicted to swimming, particularly Skippy. "Skippy found out what the undertow is at Myrtle Beach."
