I believe a truly nice dog will always stand a chance. I have a more moderate dog with an old fashioned coat (short and hard) that finished easily but I would not show to certain breeder judges that like massive (a word that should never be used to describe this breed) dogs - there is no point. There are breeder and all around judges that do appreciate a correct dog.

Some dogs of the past who were nice in their day would not be competitive today because structurally we have improved the breed since then and they would not be competitive. However, there are several dogs from the past who would certainly be competitive today and probably more so because they have not lost head or coat type.

As a "new" person to the breed, let me just ask, aren't breeders perpetuating the path away from the STANDARD by breeding to the "flavor of the month" stud dogs? Picking a stud dog should be about improving what your bitch can produce not because he's the #1 dog at the moment.

That's why we are looking at dogs so overdone and downright fat in the ring, that's what's winning. It's one thing to vary from the Labradors of the past, but it's another to not have a mind of your own and just jump on the "flavor of the month" bandwagon. Leave it to humans to mess things up. I stopped showing when I saw this happening, waste of time and money.