What Color are Labs? Ask a Labrador Breeder!
You may be surprised with the answer you get!
Everyone knows there are just 3 colors of Labs; Black, Chocolate, & Yellow, right?
First off, you should know that all Labrador Breeder! dogs have to be one solid color to be registered. You can’t have a Dalmatian patterned Lab or one with white “boots”, etc.
The recessive genes for “white spotting” which occur in many breeds are believed to be absent in Labradors [2]
That fact established, let us list the colors of Labradors that we hear about
Black –Black, Gray / Slate, Silver
Chocolate -liver (chocolate) [4]
Yellow – Yellow, Butter, Golden, and White
Brown – Brown, Light Brown, Red, Fox Red [3], Tan
Photo Credits: Blue Knight Labs
Breeding Examples for Color Outcome
Let me say that this gets a little confusing for the novice, ( & me!) but the colors of pups can be predicted, albeit not the exact quantity of each color, or for that matter the quantity of each sex.
Examples:
If a black stud which was known to have sired chocolate puppies (genotype Bb) was bred to a chocolate bitch, results would be half black and half chocolate pups.[2]
chocolate + yellow breeding is expected to produce black pups and yellow pups[2]
When breeding of two yellows the only combination possible in the puppies is yellow
So yellow + yellow breeding yielding black pups indicates a mis-breeding [2]
Coat Color Inheritance [5] has some wonderful pictorial tools at his site for illustrating the “color” outcome of breeding selected color parent Labradors?
Black
Photo Credits: LabradorBreedersBlog.com Josey
This is often to be the most common color Lab. Actually the most common color for a Lab is yellow “golden”, due to owner’s choice. IE voting with their dollar.
Fox Red
Photo Credits: Farm1
These are puppies of two Yellow Labs parents. Breeders of “true fox reds” will quickly point out that some yellow Labs professed to be “fox-red” are really more dark tan than red and are therefore, not “true fox-reds” [3]
Yellow
Photo Credits: labradorretrieverpuppiesblog
Medium yellow is probably the most common yellow coloration observed in Labs. The ranges in the shades of the yellow coloration, however, can be quite extensive. [3]
Although the “white” color is considered by most Lab breeders to be a very light shade of yellow, this color may be quite distinct from the yellow shade that may represent cream-colored yellows it should still be grouped with the other yellow variations [3]
Did you notice that the yellow Labs’ ears are always darker than their bodies, even when they have no shading on their bodies!
Extremities, like the ears, are usually a cooler temperature than other parts of the body and as a result more pigment in produced in this region. [3]
Puppies with tan points on the ears, muzzle, and above the eyes can occasionally be whelped to pure-bred Labrador parents!
Brown
Photo Credits: labradorretrieverpuppiesblog
Silver (Chocolate)
The silver coat color in Labradors has gained much attention recently and is a very controversial topic. The trait is not considered as being representative of the breed. The breed standard describes chocolate as ranging in shade from Sedge to Chocolate
Photo Credits: Sliverlabs
Early Common conclusions on Silver Labs state “with any Lab that may express an undesirable hereditary trait, a silver lab should be placed in a pet home without registration papers or with Limited Registration to ensure that the fault is not passed to offspring”.] The origin of the silver coloration in Labradors remains uncertain at this time. [4]
DNA testing and mapping of silver labs was done …and meticulous investigation of each silver labs ancestry was conducted by investigators from AKC. All conclusions were the same, i.e., “there was no reason to doubt that the dogs were purebred Labrador Retrievers,”
In 1987 the American Kennel Club and representative of the Labrador Retriever Club of America examined the dogs that were registered as silver. Both parties were satisfied that…the dogs were purebred Labrador Retrievers… and it was felt that the dogs could more accurately be described as chocolate than as silver.”
Did you know a dog can be “two colors”?
Example: Labby
A Yellow Lab with brown noses and eye rims and yellow eyes are disfavored under the breed standard …and are both yellow and chocolate. [2]
Consider a breeding of a sire and dam, both of which are black but known to throw both yellow and chocolate pups. Out of sixteen pups (breeding twice) we expect nine black, three chocolate, and four yellow, one of which has a brown nose and light eyes. The “normal” expectation is seven colored pups out of sixteen, or nearly half. [2]
What color Labs can you register with the AKC, LRC of Am. and UKC?
The AKC standard for the Labrador specifically states: “The Labrador retriever coat colors are black, yellow and chocolate. Any other color or combination of colors is a disqualification.”
BUT, the registry of the American Kennel Club is based on parentage and not the coat color of a member of any breed. [4]
Pure Breeds vs. Inter-Breeding
In regard to interbreeding, it is important to understand that purebred development was frequently based upon crossing one breed with a different breed to bring in desirable traits from that different breed. (i.e. introducing “foreign” genes).
Through careful breeding programs, early breeders were able to select for the desirable traits of the “foreign” dog while breeding out the other obvious, non-standard traits characteristic to the “foreign” purebred
Some purists may be alarmed by this information, however, from a genetic standpoint, the selection and cultivation of “Labrador traits” and the elimination of traits foreign to the breed over subsequent generations has assured the genetic integrity of breed as being “Labrador”, even in the presence of such historical crossbreeding [4]
Summary:
What color are Labs? You really do have to ask a Labrador Breeder!
References:
1. Silver labs, Silver Star Kennels, http://www.silverlabs.com/
2. The Genetics of Color In Labradors. by Amy Frost Dahl, Ph.D.
http://www.oakhillkennel.com/library/color.html
Copyright © 1998 Oak Hill Kennel
3. A Detailed Examination of Coat Color Genetics in the Labrador Retriever
http://www.labbies.com/genetics2.htm
4. Do Silver Labradors Really Exist?
http://www.labbies.com/silver.htm
5. Coat Color Inheritance
http://www.blueknightlabs.com/color/coatcolor.html
References and pictures were included as a way of giving a link sites with good info, I thought you should visit. Usage is in accordance with fair copyright standards, but extra effort was made as a courteously.
Sep 09, 2008 | | Labrador breeder