A Labrador is a large, solid dog with a fairly short coat, most often yellow or black — though actually chocolate is common too, and people still call all of them Labs. The full name is Labrador retriever: they were bred to fetch from cold water, and they are famous for being friendly, food-mad, and eager to please. Families use them a lot; so do people who train guide dogs. The word is a name, so it takes a capital L. The dog is named after Labrador in Canada, and that place was named after the Portuguese explorer João Fernandes Lavrador, from Portuguese lavrador, “landholder, farmer,” which goes back to Latin labor, “work.” People mix Labs up with golden retrievers; they are both big, kind retrieving dogs, but a Lab has the shorter coat.