CHOCOLATE LABRADORS

[holy grail 0]

Labradors, of any colour, are in my opinion the best retreivers and family pets. my family has had labs all my life and we have always used them for duck shooting. we even trained one of them to follow our directions (as in 'go left' 'go right' straight) and so fourth. Labradors are the only breed in existance where you can mate a cream with a black, and the dam can throw chocolate. not to mention the pet side to a labrador. they dont come any more faithful. the photo below is of our current lab 'King'. he's 9 this year and has been the best gundog weve had. he now knows to sit beside us and wait/watch the ducks drop and if he misses one we direct him to it. hope you end up getting a lab mate, the only thing you may not like is the increase in the dog food bill.

the old saying 'as full as a labradors dish' wasn't made for nothing.

[staffiretrieve 2]

Thanks for all the great replys, I'm 99.9% sure that within the next few months we'll be looking to buy our first lab! In response to the colour thing, its purely to keep the other half happy, personally i wouldn't care if it was bright green ha ha, so long as it was happy healthy and works well for me. But like i said the other half adores the chocolate ones so thats what we'll be looking for.

 

Thanks again

SR

[Dawn B 212]

Labradors, of any colour, are in my opinion the best retreivers and family pets. my family has had labs all my life and we have always used them for duck shooting. we even trained one of them to follow our directions (as in 'go left' 'go right' straight) and so fourth. Labradors are the only breed in existance where you can mate a cream with a black, and the dam can throw chocolate. not to mention the pet side to a labrador. they dont come any more faithful. the photo below is of our current lab 'King'. he's 9 this year and has been the best gundog weve had. he now knows to sit beside us and wait/watch the ducks drop and if he misses one we direct him to it. hope you end up getting a lab mate, the only thing you may not like is the increase in the dog food bill.

the old saying 'as full as a labradors dish' wasn't made for nothing.

MMmmm you need to be very careful when breeding for chocolate. NEVER ever use a yellow to produce chocolate, NO responsible breeder will do this. Resulting chocs will have poor pigment and eye colour and the yellows will have brown/pale pigment and pale eyes. blacks of course can only have black pigment, but their eyes are often pale. To breed good chocs, use black to black breeding with both parents carrying choc, then outcross to a choc from time to time, never introduce yellow to a choclate breeding program.

 

Thats a lovely fella in the pic, typifies the breed.

[mackay 3,346]

Labradors, of any colour, are in my opinion the best retreivers and family pets. my family has had labs all my life and we have always used them for duck shooting. we even trained one of them to follow our directions (as in 'go left' 'go right' straight) and so fourth. Labradors are the only breed in existance where you can mate a cream with a black, and the dam can throw chocolate. not to mention the pet side to a labrador. they dont come any more faithful. the photo below is of our current lab 'King'. he's 9 this year and has been the best gundog weve had. he now knows to sit beside us and wait/watch the ducks drop and if he misses one we direct him to it. hope you end up getting a lab mate, the only thing you may not like is the increase in the dog food bill.

the old saying 'as full as a labradors dish' wasn't made for nothing.

 

Might be wrong here mate but I think it can happen with poodles.

[Guest k9wpg]

See I dont agree with that The BIGGEST percentage of Labs bred are black, then yellow, then chocolate. So, it stands to reason that blacks will be more popular for any work really. Chocolates were frowned upon years ago and were culled just because they were chocolate, if they were used as much then, I expect you would see them working in stronger numbers now.

Dawn.

 

Problem is Dawn black and yellow are more popular and do have proven Field trial ability as do reds..you buy a dog and train and you find its no good for the job you want it to do then your stuck..Fox red labs are becoming more popular but i think theres only one stud dog as yet in the uk which has cleared all screening checks..druimmiur in scotland..

 

Until a brown wins a field trial you wont see as many on the shooting field ive only ever seen one on the shoot field and it performed fine but that to had show blood in it .

 

regards steve

[dogga 1]

See I dont agree with that The BIGGEST percentage of Labs bred are black, then yellow, then chocolate. So, it stands to reason that blacks will be more popular for any work really. Chocolates were frowned upon years ago and were culled just because they were chocolate, if they were used as much then, I expect you would see them working in stronger numbers now.

Dawn.

dawn if you read my post right i actually said take an average so therfore is makes no difference whether there is a bigger percentage there is just less dogs to use to get your statistics but you still can get fair ones!!!

[Dawn B 212]

K9wpg and Dogga.

Fair comment, both of you.

 

When I first started working with dogs, 20yrs ago, I worked at a show Labrador kennel. Their very first Lab was a "should of been culled" chocolate, some 60 odd years ago. He was working bred and he was literally "saved" as he would of been culled ifn they hadnt expressed the fact they were not concerned with colour. The breeder, a gamekeeper said chocs were no good as they were not an allowed colour, he offered no other explanation for killing choc puppies.

 

What I am tryin to say, is there is no difference in a choc Labs ability, just that folk that work them dont breed them, probably due to many generations of black and yellow breeding alone.

 

The "reds" you speak of are yellow, just very dark, again years ago this was a common colour like in Golden Retrievers, but the lighter cream colour gained favour and is now a dominant colour. personally I like the Fox red yellows, Id like to see more of them.

[Dawn B 212]

Some chocolate and fox red yellow working Labs at stud, with all relevant health tests.

 

http://www.champdogs.co.uk/stud-dog/6809.html

 

http://www.breedersonline.co.uk/dog-stud.asp?studid=438x4

 

http://www.breedersonline.co.uk/dog-stud.asp?studid=438x3

 

http://www.breedersonline.co.uk/dog-stud.asp?studid=438x1

 

This kennel is responsible for a couple of the dogs above, TRUE gundogs of ALL colours.

http://www.threevalleysgundogs.co.uk/

[Guest k9wpg]

K9wpg and Dogga.

Fair comment, both of you.

 

When I first started working with dogs, 20yrs ago, I worked at a show Labrador kennel. Their very first Lab was a "should of been culled" chocolate, some 60 odd years ago. He was working bred and he was literally "saved" as he would of been culled ifn they hadnt expressed the fact they were not concerned with colour. The breeder, a gamekeeper said chocs were no good as they were not an allowed colour, he offered no other explanation for killing choc puppies.

 

What I am tryin to say, is there is no difference in a choc Labs ability, just that folk that work them dont breed them, probably due to many generations of black and yellow breeding alone.

 

The "reds" you speak of are yellow, just very dark, again years ago this was a common colour like in Golden Retrievers, but the lighter cream colour gained favour and is now a dominant colour. personally I like the Fox red yellows, Id like to see more of them.

 

spot on i do like the chocolates looks and cannot justify any reason for the chocks to have been culled in the past..chocks are gaining in popularity ,and a premium is now charged for there pups, sooner or later one of them may get to ftch then the predudice may be broken in the field as with last retriever champ being a golden...

but for now ill stay with me black and yellow

 

regards steve

 

 

[Dawn B 212]

Nice puppies there.

 

I know what you mean about the price, its a shame that many are poor quality bred purely for the colour and the money!

[outshooting 0]

I am a terrier man myself but after reading all these post i just want to say that i have a shoot & one of guns that come on the shoot brings along his dogs, two chocolate labs, now i don't know a lot about labs but from what i have seen of his & what they do in the field i cant see where the problem is, the only reason dogs have changed is because of humans, terriers are working dogs but because of humans 60% of them are now lap dogs, & from the number of fat labs i see i would say a big percentage of them are never worked, if your going to get a working dog, then work it & if your not then get a cat.

 

Nearly went off on a rant then

 

cheers

Lee

[v-max 2]

Hello i would have to agree with DawnB on chocolate's as iv see a couple ok & potentual there just not brought out by the handler.Many breed's have been damaged by man & ££££££££(money) was the key.It take's 1 byest breeder/owner of a dog to put it together & produce bad pup's or 9 out of 10 bad/poor training.I myself can be lazy & not train my dog's to there potentual but enough to do me.I qutie like a golden-retrievers in a dark red colour.I dont like white lab's but that's me black/red or yellow i have each of but prefere black.

[flak88 0]

I have to agree on most of the replies. most of the choc labs (at least in Holland) are bred as pets/showdogs and do not work very well. A lot of them are even too dumb to train properly. There are some rough diamonds to be found however; In the dog school I am currently training a choc lab that was originally bought as a pet but turned out te be smart and a very enthousiastic worker with stamina. it came to my dog school because it was said to be a "prolem dog" but it just had an attitude and a lot of passion so it requires a bit tougher training than usual.

 

So if you insist on having a working choc lab be sure to look around, inquire a lot and with a little bit of luck you may just find yourself a real good one!

[barraboy 28]

i have read various items in the sporting press that there are several chocolates being run in trials, and doing reasonably well. several more trainers are taking them on and doing quite well. chocolates like any other are only as good as the man/women training them. mine, he is mediocre because of my faults not his, but he does reasonably well on our walked up rough shoot. might have gone overboard with the pics...sorry.

 

i have probably put thses pics up before but:

 

 

 

not the best grip

 

 

 

 

with my mates black bitch:

 

favourite dummy:

 

posing:

 

would he win a trial..NO but then i know a few blacks and yellows that wouldnt either. does he do a job for me yes, am i happy with him, yes,,,cant ask for more than that.

Edited November 12, 2007 by barraboy

[Dawn B 212]

And a very good looking one too! Super dog!