I have had yellows and blacks my entire life. I just bought a 4 year old chocolate in September. I have had her to SD 15 days this year and getting ready to go back again. She is dynamite. I have also had hunting partners who have had them and they were also good dogs. I think what that is really all about is the fact that there are not many chocolates out there, the yellows and blacks probably make up 85% of the labs. Therefore, there are only 15% chocolates and of that only a portion that are good or excellent. It may be the same percentage as the yellows and blacks, its just that there are fewer of them. Mike Thyen of Castlewood, SD has a 1 1/2 old chocolate female you may want to check out.
Labrador color
- Thread starter Timwald144
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I have had yellows and blacks my entire life. I just bought a 4 year old chocolate in September. I have had her to SD 15 days this year and getting ready to go back again. She is dynamite. I have also had hunting partners who have had them and they were also good dogs. I think what that is really all about is the fact that there are not many chocolates out there, the yellows and blacks probably make up 85% of the labs. Therefore, there are only 15% chocolates and of that only a portion that are good or excellent. It may be the same percentage as the yellows and blacks, its just that there are fewer of them. Mike Thyen of Castlewood, SD has a 1 1/2 old chocolate female you may want to check out.
I think the chocolate colored lab was kind of a fad, city folks who don't hunt but want a nice pet. My experience with a choco was not good. He had no retreiving instincts even as a pup. My 10 yr old yellow male (both parents choco) had the same problem, but worked out fine in the field. My 3yr old black female has more natural instincts (so far) than either of the other two mentioned.
FWIW, I think the best bet is to buy a BLACK lab from a breeder that has always had BLACK labs. Some folks feel that breeding for all of the various color phases has "dumbed down" many of the current labs out there.
Blacks have dandrif
Yellows shed badly
Chocos stink (more oil in hair)
FWIW, I think the best bet is to buy a BLACK lab from a breeder that has always had BLACK labs. Some folks feel that breeding for all of the various color phases has "dumbed down" many of the current labs out there.
Blacks have dandrif
Yellows shed badly
Chocos stink (more oil in hair)
bang bang bang....F&$K!
New member
Get a yellow lab, call him Ace!!!
Timwald144
New member
I have never even consider a yellow lab for some reason that I don't know why. I have always leaned toward the blacks and have always talked my self out of chocolate labs which I don't know why. I do have another Q for you all how do you pick your dogs registered name cause their are some funny ones out there.
chocolates
Just be sure to buy from proven stock. My sense is that there are alot more backyard breeders who have bred chocolates with a focus on color (as other mentioned) and not on other more important traits (marking, drive, desire, trainability, conformation, etc). There are not as many litters out there from proven stock as there are in blacks and yellows, so you will need to be more selective in your search process
Just be sure to buy from proven stock. My sense is that there are alot more backyard breeders who have bred chocolates with a focus on color (as other mentioned) and not on other more important traits (marking, drive, desire, trainability, conformation, etc). There are not as many litters out there from proven stock as there are in blacks and yellows, so you will need to be more selective in your search process
henhenROOSTER!!!
New member
What's up with this new "silver" lab thing I've been hearing about lately??? I've owned & worked with labs for the last 25 yrs & never heard of such a thing until recently. 
All my labs (both black & yellow) have been purchased from top-notch hunting kennels - first & foremost for their drive, birdiness, training ability, marking abilities, temperament, conformity, ect. - color is secondary. While there are a few good individual chocolates - there are simply no chocolate lines or this new "silver" out there with that kind of long history & proven track-record...
BTW, I did own a couple cheap newspaper dogs early-on in the game (one chocolate, one yellow)...ABSOLUTELY NO COMPARISON whatsoever with the good stuff - difference is night and day, same as little league & the majors!!!
All my labs (both black & yellow) have been purchased from top-notch hunting kennels - first & foremost for their drive, birdiness, training ability, marking abilities, temperament, conformity, ect. - color is secondary. While there are a few good individual chocolates - there are simply no chocolate lines or this new "silver" out there with that kind of long history & proven track-record...
BTW, I did own a couple cheap newspaper dogs early-on in the game (one chocolate, one yellow)...ABSOLUTELY NO COMPARISON whatsoever with the good stuff - difference is night and day, same as little league & the majors!!!
1pheas4
Moderator
I stated in an earlier post that I'm on my third Chocolate Labrador. I've had black Labradors too and had great success with them. My latest Labrador addition is another Chocolate lab. Out of all my labs he's been the easiest to train and contains the strongest drive for pheasants/hunting I've had in a dog yet.
Not one of my Chocolate Labradors, nor any of the other Chocolate labs my hunting partners own differ in a negative way from my black labs or hunting partner’s black and yellow labs. Don't get me wrong, I've seen a screwy Chocolates here and there, but then again I've seen all the more screwy Blacks and yellows just becasuse there's simply more of those colors out there.
I really don't believe there's a lick of scientific evidence that points out Black Labradors (the one and only true Labrador color) yellow, chocolates, or whatever color differ from one another in a negative way. How can fur color on a Labrador affect its abilities and personalities in a negative way? Breeding? Of course. So get a Labrador from a good breeder/line. I really don't think color maters in any way what so ever. --1pheas4
Not one of my Chocolate Labradors, nor any of the other Chocolate labs my hunting partners own differ in a negative way from my black labs or hunting partner’s black and yellow labs. Don't get me wrong, I've seen a screwy Chocolates here and there, but then again I've seen all the more screwy Blacks and yellows just becasuse there's simply more of those colors out there.
I really don't believe there's a lick of scientific evidence that points out Black Labradors (the one and only true Labrador color) yellow, chocolates, or whatever color differ from one another in a negative way. How can fur color on a Labrador affect its abilities and personalities in a negative way? Breeding? Of course. So get a Labrador from a good breeder/line. I really don't think color maters in any way what so ever. --1pheas4
My family raised black labs for the blind when i was younger and we always had atleast two labs that were our family/hunting dogs. I agree that choc. yellows, and blacks are basically the same intelligence wise. Though i must second the statement that yellows shed more. I feel like through my exp. with them that they shed way way more. Its kind of ridiculous come spring time. We would brush and bathe them to no end, take them to groomers, and two weeks later, the yellow hair was everywhere again. I feel like chocolates are of a higher activity level but this could be purely based on the dogs i owned. labs are big happy ass dogs who love to be with you and that i feel is hard to beat.
dead pheasants forever
Member
When you prioritize any trait over intelligence/hunting ability in your breeding, intelligence/hunting ability will necessarily suffer compared to breedings where intelligence/hunting ability are first priority. As a recessive gene, breeders must breed for the chocolate color. That's not to say that you can't breed for chocolates and get intelligent dogs; you're just lowering your odds. When chocolates were rarer, I'm sure the intelligence concerns were more justified because of the more limited gene pool. Now that chocolates are more prevalent, breeders have a more diverse gene pool to select intelligent chocolates from, so the odds are better than before.
If you ever go to an AKC field trial event, you'll notice that many of the top labs seem kind of wiry and ugly. I'm sure that's not intentional, it's just that elite dogs are bred for ability, with all physical characteristics taking a distant second. We all think we have the perfect dog, but there's no such thing. With breeding, you often have to rob peter to pay paul.
If you ever go to an AKC field trial event, you'll notice that many of the top labs seem kind of wiry and ugly. I'm sure that's not intentional, it's just that elite dogs are bred for ability, with all physical characteristics taking a distant second. We all think we have the perfect dog, but there's no such thing. With breeding, you often have to rob peter to pay paul.
While it's true that color alone should not be a factor in whether a lab is a good hunting dog, taking a great "known" bloodline and interjecting color just for the sake of color can introduce bad genes to an otherwise great stock. That's EXACTLY what happened to a "former" breeder where my family bought dogs for years. Whereas all of the black labs from that kennel were top notch, his introduction of chocko's began to produce dogs with little to no retrieving instincts. Needless to say, the results of that chocko fad was him getting out of the dog selling business.
I'm a little late on this topic but...in my training days I had always heard blacks were superior to other colors with choc. being the worst. In my research I found that there may have been some truth to this. When labradors were first "invented" as a breed they were only black. For some reason, (most likely due to other breeds being mixed in) a yellow or very rarely a choc would show up in a litter. Those colored ones were culled (killed) because they were not black. As time went on those "rare" colors of yell and choc became a bit of a novelty so some were kept and bred to others of same color. Now they were bred solely for their color and may have lost some of their natural instinct. So, in the past I think this may have been true that blacks were superior.. but nowadays with some good breeders out there I don't believe there is a difference anymore as long as you choose a reputable breeder. I have owned all three, make it four (had red too) colors and all came from very good lines and all are/were great dogs.
I personally do not believe that some colors shed more or are smarter. A lab is a lab--they are the same dog just different coat color. Each is an individual and have issues just as us humans. (I do not have any scientific evidence to back up the shedding issue though)
I personally do not believe that some colors shed more or are smarter. A lab is a lab--they are the same dog just different coat color. Each is an individual and have issues just as us humans. (I do not have any scientific evidence to back up the shedding issue though)
Uncle Buck
New member
Bingo!!!!!
Uncle Buck
New member
My comment was attached to a quote that for some reason did not tag along.
There is a lot of breeding wisdom in the thread if it is winnowed out. Specific good and bad genes may follow a color. If you are very selective and breed only the best to the best, I beleive any color could be brought up to specs. It might take a great number of generations to do so. Backyard breeders going for color alone will create an inferior dog. There could be one outstanding dog in the litter, but that would be a matter of luck of the draw.