LAZY DAVE AND ACTIVE BEN

“Ben was always very active, always wanted to do stuff, to work, to be out running, and having fun,” recalled Katie Burns of Macclesfield, Cheshire, comparing her Labradors. “Dave just wants to sleep.

His record for sleeping is about 22 hours in a day!”

Katie speculated that the dogs’ breeding might explain this difference. “Ben was very much working stock; Dave, I think, is cobbled together stock!”

Both rescue dogs participated in activities, but their reactions were very different. “Ben was very frightened. He came from a bad background. Flyball scared him because there were too many other people, and it was too loud, so he did agility and gundog work.

“Dave’s done agility and flyball. Dave only has one good run in him all day. He’ll come out and be really excited, set a great time for the team, and the rest of the day he’ll be bored and just trundle up and down.

“On one occasion, having had his one good run of the day, Dave actually fell asleep at the side of the flyball race, happily snoring amid the excitement and noise!”

Dave had two homes before coming to Katie. “They found him unmanageable — he was too energetic for them, but I’m not really sure why; he’s the laziest dog in the world!”

Both dogs enjoyed their food. “Dave’s basically been on a diet his entire life,” explained Katie. “Ben used to eat almost double what Dave did, but he would never put on weight. Dave looks at food and gets fat.” Katie always managed the dogs’ weights so they looked similar.

“For so long, at flyball competitions, people assumed I had one Lab. Dave’s very enthusiastic and loves to hug people. He puts his paws around their waist. Ben was quite stand-offish, and people would go to give him a hug (thinking he was Dave) and I’d have to shout: ‘No, it’s Ben, leave him alone!’”