Sam is absolutely jet black , his sire carried yellow and his litter mates were a mix of black and yellows . His pedigree is 6 generations with no chocolate anywhere . He is moulting at the moment and I noticed that just some of the dead hair has a brownish tint to it , is this just because its dead hair ?
Re: I think this has been answered before ? In my experience yes the old hair does take a brown tinge compared to the lovely new black stuff
Re: I think this has been answered before ? Yeah, it's just a bit faded It's lost a bit of pigment as it's old fur. Totally normal. My old black boy was the same. Nothing to do with chocolate genes.
Re: I think this has been answered before ? Ok I'm going to disagree on it being old hair but I'm happy to be proven wrong. I've now had 3 black labs with yellow in their DNA. Scott and scout had a yellow mum but dad was dominant black so all pups were black. All 3 of my dogs have had brown/ chocolate in their coat. Usually their summer coat. Murphy my old lab had and scout has brown in their muzzle all the time. Scott has less brown. With his first summer coat scout had a triangle of brown inbetween his shoulder blades although not last year. I was told the correct term for this brown colouring was red, so I have black Labradors with red in their coat. I was also told that was how they bred chocolate labs using black labs with a lot of red, although I don't know how true that bit is. I do know that Chocolate labs were bred from black labs though or that's what I read in a horse and hound years ago. Sorry if I've caused confusion Jen
Re: I think this has been answered before ? Chocolate is a mutation. Black and chocolate are alleles on the same gene. That is, in that locus, all dogs are one of the following (one dose from each parent Black/Black (black dog) Black/Chocolate (this combo will give a black dog as black is dominant) Chocolate/Chocolate (this combo will give a chocolate dog) Chocolate s really just a dilute version of black - so if you fade black fur a bit you get chocolate. Some black Labs can have actual brown hair - some can even be slightly brindle (from registered parents....one of my friends has one). That is another thing entirely, probably due to the operation of an entirely separate set of genes.
Re: I think this has been answered before ? When I was planning getting my lovely lab about a year ago, I looked into the whole colour/genetics thing a bit. One of the more helpful explanations was this one: http://www.oakhillkennel.com/library/color.html Although as with many things in genetics (like human eye colour) there's the simple explanation, but that doesn't take into account the times when other recessive genes start showing their effects, as with the brindle Rachael mentions above or coloured points which you also sometimes see. It's all very interesting though.
Re: I think this has been answered before ? Ain't that the truth. Would be great if colour genes played by the simple rules in the textbooks
Re: I think this has been answered before ? My oldest girl 'Kes' is Black, her father is Fox Red and mother Black And in certain light she definately has a red cast to her coat, and nothing to do with shedding. Now 'Bella' is black her father black and a mother who is yellow. She is as black as a coalhouse.
Re: I think this has been answered before ? my black boy jasper had black mum and choc dad, when we first got him as a puppy we saw a cast of brown, we dot see that now, he is just a lil black boy
Re: I think this has been answered before ? Just to clarify , its only the dead hair that needs brushing out that has the brownish look to it , at all other times he is black as a raven
Re: I think this has been answered before ? Then your right Kate it's just faded black hair. My point was its not necessarily old hair. Black labs can have actual brown hair in their coats that isn't shedding. My two were jet black as pups but have developed brown in their coat as they've got older. As I said its mainly their summer coat although at the moment Scott has brown on his flanks in his winter coat.
Re: I think this has been answered before ? Riley is completely black, my friends black lab (who has bolo spots) also sometimes has a brown cast to her coat. She thought it was due to having a yellow parent but Riley carries yellow and there's no sign of brown......quite a few grey hairs though, I think he's going to go grey early
Re: I think this has been answered before ? Sorry Barbara I can't remember how old Riley is. ??? Murphy started to go white on his chin and muzzle when he was 3 and had an obvious white beard by 4. Scout has some white stubble on his chin and muzzle now so looks like he's going the same way. I was told by some gundog handlers that it was caused by the hair follicles being damaged through sniffing. Don't know how much truth there is in that although being a hairdresser I do know human hair can go white if the follicle is damaged so maybe although Scott does the most sniffing. He has a few white flecks on his chin but not as much as scout. ???
Re: I think this has been answered before ? Riley is two and a half and he has quite a few grey hairs on his chinny chin chin ;D
Re: I think this has been answered before ? I pulled a stray blonde/white hair off Sams chest one time , cruel Mummy that I am
