OP, thanks for your post. We were thinking of a lab, but now, we will stick with doodles.

We furminate our hound every other day and I'd say it cuts down on the hair, tremendously. He loves it too! Make it a habit to furminate outside, as often as you can. I think you'll see a difference.

Yes when they die

They shed all the time. But do not shave the dog without speaking to your vet. Labradors have double coats of fur. The under coat essential works to keep them at a relatively even temperature, so it helps protect them from heat in the summer and cold in the winter.

Dandruff could be from dry skin. We have that issue with one of our two labs and we switched her to food with more fish and it cleared up.

Washing your dog with shampoo may be making his skin worse. The dog's natural state is to produce oil for its coat, if you are shampooing twice a week, you are stripping that oil right out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a retriever poodle mix and he doesn't shed.

that is called a goldendoodle. why didn't you just use that name?

Doesn't matter. The post wasn't helpful and no one cares what that kind of dog is called.

Anonymous wrote:We have a retriever poodle mix and he doesn't shed.

that is called a goldendoodle. why didn't you just use that name?

We take our Golden retriever to be shaved by a groomer twice a year. Spring and late summer. She loves not being as hot. We love not having all the long dog hair everywhere.

We adopted a yellow lab/retriever mix from lucky dog rescue as well, I am sorry to say the shedding never seems to end. We do have 2 dogs, similar colors so not sure which one is worse.
We have a baby so pretty much vacuum the living room rug every other day.

We shave our other one every summer, she is a shepherd mix. Next year were getting them both done. At least I will have a few weeks with less hair.

We have a retriever poodle mix and he doesn't shed.

Pretty much, yes. There are certain conditions and times of year that it's worse. They're worth it though!

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5914746_golden-retriever-hair-loss-heat.html

We got a 3 yo black retriever mix from Lucky Dog Rescue last month and he's absolutely fabulous. He's a great fit with our family and we couldn't ask for a better first family dog. For those of you with retriever/labs, can you tell me, do they always shed this much? I'm not a neat freak by any means (and with 3 youngish kids I'd go insane if I were) but I'm vaccuming tons of hair every day. We have a Furminator we use on him once a week and a slicker brush we used at least every other day (he's brushed outside). We've already emptied the central vac canister twice because it was full of dog hair. His coat looks really good (mix of long and short hair), he's got some dandruff but gets a good quality dog food and we've bathed him twice with dog shampoo. Would having him professionally groomed make a difference? Is this just the way of the retriever mixes? Thanks!