Black Labs are excellent retrievers, created for the job. They are well named “Labrador Retrievers”. I knew one who was named Detail. Turns out he repeatedly brought back to you anything
you dropped, paying close attention to the smallest details.

His owner, Jim, enjoyed duck hunting. He and Detail would set out at dawn and it really didn’t matter if they came across any
game. Both agreed that a day in the country was a special treat. Occasionally Jim actually shot a duck. The next move was to retrieve it. Jim would command Detail to “fetch” which he did…after he picked up the empty shot gun shells and gave them to his master. That being accomplished (and the area
tidied up a bit) he gladly sallied forth to find and retrieve the downed bird.

Some other Labrador Retrievers I know are owned by Rachael. She quite likes Labs and enjoys having them on the horse farm. At the time of this story Baxter and Sherman were the Labs in
residence. They busied themselves with: barking at visitors, sunbathing, climbing into water troughs, stealing horse carrots
and helping out around the farm.

There are many activities on the farm and the Labs observed them all. Day after day Rachael took the horses, one by one,
from their stalls and placed them in their paddocks. Later she’d bring them in. Baxter watched this ritual and decided to help while Sherman looked on. He felt this activity was a bit repetitive and preferred busying himself with guarding the farm from a prone position.

Twice a day Rachael would lead horses with a long rope (called a lead line) and Baxter would grab the end and walk proudly beside her. They made a pretty picture going along the driveway.

It became apparent that there was one particular horse (a pony actually) that Baxter enjoyed “leading.” This small pony was named Caramel. Over a period of time Baxter got so good at
“leading” that Rachael gave him the lead line. Baxter was delighted. He carried the line and led the pony up the driveway and into the correct stall.

And wouldn’t you know…a passerby saw the Black Lab and the pony. And he took a photo. Before you knew it the photo was in the local paper accompanied by an article about Sherman. (You remember Sherman…the dog watching everyone else work). Within days the Black Lab was famous. But all the notoriety didn’t stop there. A lady came to the farm and asked to borrow the original photo that had been presented to Rachael. The
woman returned with a painting of Baxter and Caramel.

Yes, Black Labs are retrievers. Some specialize in ducks, some in shot gun shells and others prefer ponies.

An excerpt from a collection of short stories by Winnie Stott, featuring her friends and neighbours