My lab is a female and has all colors in her background and I really would like mostly chocolate pups. I have someone interested in breeding his male black lab with yellow and black in his genetics.. I am thinking I might get mostly yellow and black with no chocolate. Am I correct?
Hi Cheryl and welcome to the forum . Here's an article to help you figure out what coat colour combinations are possible with different matings. Labrador Coat Color Inheritance. If you scroll down you'll find grids with different possibilities for each combination of coat. You might also like this article which gives you an idea of what's involved in breeding a litter of puppies
Chocolate dogs are "bb" which simply means that they have two recessive B genes which shuts off their black gene. They could be the product of a black to yellow breeding where both adults have Bb - which means they both carry the recessive gene responsible for chocolate and your girl got a "b" from each parent (or she is from two chocolate parents but either way, she carries only the "b"). Even though your friend's black dog may have a chocolate in his own ancestry, he may be BB which means he will never produce a chocolate puppy or Bb which means he COULD produce a couple of chocolate puppies with your girl. The DNA test to determine what the Black Lab is is not expensive and results are quickly obtained.
The only way to be certain of chocolate pups is to breed a chocolate dam with a chocolate sire. A DNA test can tell what colours are carried by each dog but that doesn't give any guarantees on the colour pups will be. What us more important than colour of puppies is that both sire and dam are fully health tested (not just a health check at the vets) to try and ensure healthy pups. Health is far more important than colour.
A bit more on the DNA testing. Depending upon the individual dog's genes, DNA can tell you what colors will be produced....examples bbEE will never produce yellows or blacks if bred with another bbEE or a bbEe - all puppies will be chocolate. Neither parent carries the "B" and you need two "e" genes to produce yellow. BBee to Bbee will ALWAYS produce yellow puppies with Black pigment. Neither parent carries the "E" so all puppies will be yellow with black pigment. The variable is when a BbEe is bred to a BbEe for example.....this breeding can produce all THREE colors which is when you cannot predict how many of each color you will have from the breeding....and it may produce both yellow with black pigment and yellow with liver pigment (commonly referred to as a Dudley). In your particular case, your chocolate is bbE* which means until she is either DNA tested or bred several times to several different colors to see what color puppies she throws, you cannot predict what that second "E" gene is. The black you state you are interested in breeding her to is B*E* meaning you don't know if he carries chocolate or yellow unless you again DNA test him or he had never produced in any breeding a yellow or a chocolate puppy.
