Akita vs Labrador Retriever — Side by Side

	Akita	Labrador Retriever
Lifespan	10-14 years	11-13 years
Size	Large	Large
Weight	70-130 lb	55-80 lb
Energy	Moderate	High
Grooming	High	Moderate
Shedding	High	High
With kids	Not ideal for young kids	Good with kids

What actually separates them

Less brushing with the Labrador Retriever. More with the Akita.
Calmer of the two is the Akita. The one that needs more exercise is the Labrador Retriever.
Akita tends to live longer — 10-14 years against 11-13 years.
With young children, Labrador Retriever is the safer default — Akita is listed as "Not ideal for young kids".

The honest downside of each

Akita

The AKC's own breed standard warns that Akitas 'may be intolerant of other dogs, particularly of the same sex' — that's not a rare temperament quirk, it's written into the official standard, and it's a major reason the breed is refused or surcharged by roughly 4 in 5 home-insurance breed-restriction lists.

Labrador Retriever

The 'always hungry' Labrador stereotype is partly genetic, not just bad training — about a quarter of the breed carries a gene variant that leaves them feeling less full on fewer calories, which is why this breed gets dangerously overweight more easily than almost any other.

Read the full pages

Akita · Labrador Retriever
Health problems, origin and what living with each is actually like.