My friend owns a bitch who is predominantly black .. she was sold to her as a lab and she says she saw the parents .. AND all the other puppies have grown up to look like conventional Labs . I have been amongst working labs all my life and have seen white markings , curly coats and feathered tails but nothing like this dog . She is exactly the same body shape as my shortish coated collie , infact when you walk behind them and they are upsides apart from the colour it would be impossible to tell them apart . She has white on toes and chest .. , face ,muzzle and even in her ears . Her ears fold backwards exactly the same way that my collies do and can come forward an flop upright when she is running and excited , and she has a very marked ridge down her nose .. she loves water like a lab ... but so does my collie . She fairly hard bitten and very very sporty looking , long legged , lacking in heavy bone , deep in the chest but narrow at the waist and in the width of her chest , seriously intelligent and much more willful than a lab and to be honest she is lucky to be in an experienced home as she would be a real handful otherwise .. even in temperament she is just like my collie ( a line I have had for 6 generations ) Her owner admits she is totally different and more difficult than any of the conventional labs she has ever owned ( and like me she is in her late 50's )... but SO much fun ! When I was young there were often collie lab crosses because they were they country breeds that tended to roam about and she is the spitting image both in looks and temperament to these dogs who were amazing in the right homes and neurotic and quite nasty in the wrong ones . I call her a Colliadour and would take a bet another dog caught the mother when she was in season and mated to the father lab . She obviously takes my teasing in good faith , but would like her to be a lab as she cost quite a lot of money . She keeps quoting the St Johns dog to me and having read Pippa's interesting article ( especially interested in the reference to the similarity to a collie 200 years ago ! ) Is this dog the most AMAZING throw back ... or is it a cross ? Please believe me that I am not running this dog down .. she is absolutely amazing , but I am a working collie owner and she to me is collie cross to the bone ... What does anyone think .As I say I have seen most of these traits in labs .. but never all in the same dog and never the white in the ears ( where my collie is blond in black ears ) or the ridge on the nose .. nor any of the other traits as extreme even though I have been amongst working labs most of my life .... Oh and she fairly much has a coat the same as my collie which though it isn't quite single is certainly three quarters of the way there ! I have NO idea how to attach a photo though I have loads of her .. if anyone could tell me I will add one
