Re: Two tone fur I have had three black labs now. As pups they have all been jet black then after their first spring molt they have all had what you could call chocolate areas. My old lab had a lot. I was told its described as having red in them. The common factor between the three dogs is they have yellow lab in their genes. Scott and Scout's mum was yellow, dad dominant black so all the litter was black. My old lab Murphy had a couple of yellow grandparents. Scout has more 'red' than Scott.
Re: Two tone fur Albert is a very dark chocolate, one of the darkest I have seen. His dad was black and mum chocolate and there was one black pup in the litter. Albert was much darker than the other chocolate pups. We are in contact with one of his chocolate litter mates and his coat was much lighter with ginger streaks. He was being fed on one of the rubbish kibbles that are around and I advised his owner to change. Since the change his coat has now gone much darker. Not quite as dark as Albert's but not a lot in it. Will better quality food change coat appearance? I know it will help with condition. Jan
Re: Two tone fur Juno is a dark chocolate with a dark chocolate mum and a black dad. When she first came home with us the ends of her fur looked black while the rest was chocolate but she is now one colour and looks amazing when the sun shines on her. Also the top of her head and ears had a lovely coppery tone when she was little but that has now gone. She was from a litter of 10 with a mix of black and chocolate pups and we were lucky to have first pick of the girls so had a choice of black and chocolate. We'd always wanted a black girl until they were born and decided that we wanted chocolate......
Re: Two tone fur Jan - people do say that a better quality diet will darken a coat. I don't know of any evidence to support that, just anecdotal. Genetics determine the basic level of lightness/darkness though. And sun exposure will cause fading. The presence of black parents has no impact on how dark a pup is. Chocolate dogs have no genes coded for black. There are probably a host of other genes that modify the expression of chocolate though (and the same for yellow) and that determine how dark the chocolate is or, in the case of yellow, how dark the yellow is.
