The Humbling Power of Working Labradors (And The Cutest Puppy Alive)

Now, as a man who owns what I shall charitably call a small dog with no discernible volume control, a creature whose primary mission in life seems to be to test the structural integrity of my eardrums, it was a truly humbling experience. I mean, here I was, used to the crescendo of a canine tantrum over a dropped crumb, and then I met these four working Labradors.

They were magnificent. Sleek, focused, and possessed of a quiet dignity that suggested they'd all made head boy at whatever exclusive academy turns out these sorts of dogs (if Eton had a K9 department, these four would be polishing their prefect badges).

The thing about this line of work is that you never truly know what you're going to get when you point a camera at an animal. It can be a chaotic, tail-chasing palaver. But these dogs? Pros. The moment they delivered a polite, professional sniff of greeting, you just knew it was going to be a walk in the park, a very well-behaved, orderly, and beautifully illuminated park.

However, nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, could have prepared us for the frankly irresponsible cuteness of Digby.

Still very much a puppy, this pint-sized, bouncing ball of fluff was so ridiculously adorable he made a rainbow look like a tax form. He was sweeter than a candyfloss machine that’s gone rogue in a sugar factory, and within seconds, he’d mugged us all for our hearts.

The whole gang was here to show off their skills, and we quickly established that the idea of constraining these majestic creatures with something as tedious and dull as a lead was frankly an insult to their professional sensibilities. Leads are for dogs who attempt to debate the mailman. These dogs were here to retrieve, to perform, and to put on a show. And by Jupiter, a show they put on.