male vs female

Question
Hi
I was wondering if you could answer 2 quick questions,,,Is there any difference in the behavioral traits of males vs females regarding trainabilty, calmness, excercise needs,obedience or anything you want to opine on the matter of personality differences.

Also what is the average life span for each gender?
thanks for your help!
Brian

Answer
The personalities vary greatly from dog to dog and overlap between the sexes.  The strong willed, hard to train Labs are more common among the males.  The males also tend to be more affectionate.  On the other hand, several of the females I have raised have been as bad or worse than the males.  One of my males, Prince was a royal pain.  I saw a lot of his brother Dawson from the same litter.  Dawson was much more manageable.  

I thought I would have an easy year this year with a female Lab/Golden cross.  Apparently nobody told Sheba that she would be an easy dog.  At 2 months, she is driving my 11 year old Lab out of the best sleeping spots.  She fights the leash more than the other 14 puppies I have had since 1991 including all 4 males.  

On the other hand, the stronger willed dogs, once trained, stay on task better.

You can check out the parents, and hope any puppy will be much like them.  You really can't count on anything when the puppy grows up.  

Life span is a big varible too.  Much of it depends on care, lean dogs live longer.  Most Labs will happily eat their way to an early grave.

One of the best sources for dogs with a predictable personality is the rescue
dogs.  These are dogs that lost their home, but were taken into a foster home
to be retrained as necessary and placed in the right home for them.   You may
find a rescue near you starting at
http://www.akc.org/breeds/rescue.cfm