Had a 1/2 black lab and 1/2 blue healer, without question the best and smartest dog that I will ever have in my lifetime. Loved his family like nothing you ever seen, and he could run and play all day long........ loved to learn, you could teach/train him to do almost anything in just a few minutes. We got an old steel truss bridge over the Moreau River on the road behind our house, my son and that dog used to walk down there every day in the summer and catch catfish off that bridge, I'd walk down to check on them and there'd they be just sitting on the bridge waiting for the line to "twitch", the 2 best friends you ever did see. He didn't take to strangers to well, and did bite a couple of times when he was younger (not sure if that was the lab in him, or the healer) but he mellowed out big time as he got older and, especially, after we got him "fixed". He died last October (man, I'm choking up just writing that), we miss him every day. I also had a yellow lab several years back, another unbelievably smart dog and a great pet. Good luck with your search, they are a great breed. Sorry to be so wordy, your post brought back some great memories.