Good luck to you on finding a new pup. I have had two labs in about 3 years. The first was a yellow male whose great-grandparent was a Canadian field trial champion or something like that, and I trained the hell out of. He would handle very well and do 100 yard blind retrieves at 9 months old, the bad part was that he didn't seem to use his nose as much as he should and was EXTREMELY destructive. I know that young labs are hell on four paws, but I think this dog had a chemical imbalance. When we arrived at Holloman I bought a black female lab out of the paper and have actually been somewhat negligent in her training, but she has incredible instincts and will to please. So if you get anything from my experience, nature is just as important as nature.