Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Raising a litter of Labs ?

Youngest son has a very smart yellow lab male and his gf has purchased a yellow female from established blood lines. My old black male is getting on in years and is basically retired. So I'm in the market for a new pup, as is oldest son and a couple of nephews. Question is: Are there any color combos that when crossed tend to produce undesirable traits ? I've heard such stories from local experts but doubt their basis in cold hard fact. What say you experienced dog people ?

Alot of what you hear is anectdotal....for instance I am not a fan of chocolates...but the next guy is, so you have to consider the souce.
From a factual, scientific genetic viewpoint, yellow is reccessive and crossing a yellow to a yellow should result in an all yellow litter....
And of course, neither the yellow, nor the black is a bad thing...
From the scientific standpoint the only difference is a gene that determines how pigment is kept in the hair...

If you mix a black and Yellow you might get a Deadgrass Chessie! that would be a win/win.

Not that simple when it comes to recessive genes.

So if you really don't know what you have (recessive genes), then the color ratio of the litter could be anything.

To understand more on this issue get the book The NEW Complete Labrador Retriever by Helen Warwick.

Brains and conformation make the dog and not the color. Color is mostly what you like to look at.

I don't like orange dogs.

The head, ears, tail and tail set on a Lab are very important to me. If all this fits and it has smarts you are truely blessed even if it has spots;-)

Back to the color thing. Pink skinned Labs tend to have skin problems, so look for yellow Labs with dark skin.

Only breed the best to the best. Please do not add junk to the dog pool.

Do not buy into the idea that a hunting Lab should not have excellent conformation. What B.S.

BTW NO FAT DOGS!!!!!!

Agreed - Only to add that labs are not pointing dogs. If you want a pointer there are lots of good pointing breeds to choose from without contributing to the ruin of another breed. **Would have no problem with pointing labs if they had to be registered as something other than a Lab.

Short answer is no. To know what two dogs will produce requires testing both parents. Though to say the genes that control color only have a bearing on color I am not convince of. Take the Russia study breeding foxes to become more domesticated. Not only did their behavior change so did their appearance. Go to any retriever Field Trial and you will find greater than 90% of the Labradors are black.

Thanks for the replies. I know from breeding/raising qtr. horses that breeding for color is futile and not exactly the best way to acquire a quality specimen of the breed. I just wondered if any color combination yielded more confirmation,skin or temperament problems than another. Color of the pups means very little to me. In my limited experience bloodlines and solid basic training trumps all else in the quality of dog you end up with. Also,I tend to think of labs as the cadillac of retrievers and am not interested in the pointing labs for my use.

In the simplest terms:

What you see is what you get.

Best advise:

Buy from a known breeder of quality dogs that excell in what you want it to do; because you will be in it for the long term.

Best wishes.

One thing to keep in mind, labs tend to have large litters. My parents bred their chocolate with my dads best friends large black. They hooked up twice, one day apart and had 12 puppies.

Don't forget that the cheapest part of owning a dog is the purchase price. No such thing as a free/cheap dog!

Oh you got that right. Cost of the purchase for pup, started dog, and even finished dog is pennies compared to the cost of the dogs lifetime! Well worth it to me but expensive.

About the only thing I can add to this is that my black Lab can't handle hot days. A chocolate I had could take the heat better.

I agree, yellows better still, yet some don't believe it.

I live in Casa Grande, Az... Right between Tucson and Phoenix.. 100* during the summer is the norm. My lab does well. I usually keep him inside, but when we go and chase the ball I have to bring him and kennel him. He doesnt mind the heat.