My parents bought me a chocolate lab for my 16th birthday. For the first couple years, they did a pretty good amount of taking care of the dog. In my 2nd year of college, I took him with me. After college, I moved cross country and they kept him for a year, then I flew him down with me when I was around 21-22. He was 5-6 at the time, and I had him until he passed away at 13, three years ago. My wife and I did often mention before he passed that, “once he passes away, we’re going to enjoy some time without the responsibilities of a dog and travel and all that stuff that we had been delaying.” It was less than two months after his passing that we picked up an 8 week old German Shepherd. It only took about two weeks after his passing that we knew we were immediately ready for another dog.
Some people are dog people, and others absolutely are not. There’s a LOT to consider before making the decision, and I would consider the idea of fostering or other options before making a 10+ year commitment.
As others said, the breed matters. Big and high energy is a LOT more work. Those types of dogs you often get out of them, what you put in, and if you don’t put in much, you may be very very miserable. While labs are some of the most popular breeds, they certainly still require a good amount of training and work.
Our German Shepherd is in a whole different world than our lab was. As mentioned earlier in this thread, they are very assertive, high energy, and a lot of work. Our GSD has been a ton more work than our lab ever did, but the return on many of his traits is also infinitely higher. His drive for a ball, when playing games, catching things, is out of this world. If that drive isnt’ harnessed correctly, it could be a disaster. One of our dogs brother is so high strung (and likely poorly trained) that they can’t take him out in public because he’s so bad around people and dogs. Our dog, on the other hand, we don’t hesitate taking him through crowded people with other dogs. In fact, his ball drive is so hard, we can take him to a packed park or beach full with other people and dogs, and he can be off leash, and as long as I have a ball in my hand he will ignore every single other distraction around him.