Popularity of Lab Colors

It seems to me that Chocolate labs are a lot more common on this forum than they are in the US population. Is this representative of the UK or just the Labrador Forum?

In the US Black Labs are the most common, followed by Yellow and finally Chocolate. The percentage of Chocolates has been increasing, but I don't believe they have caught up with Yellows yet, and certainly not Blacks.

Personally I prefer the Chocolates just for appearance, although I find ours are hard to take good pictures of. They always seem to be on a brown background and blend in, or in snow and look pretty much Black because of the contrast.

 

That's an interesting question - I have no idea about the overall number of Labs by colour in the UK. I wonder if the kennel club publish the figures? I suspect Chocolate, although popular, will still be the smallest number.

 

For me its once you go black you never go back I wasnt really fond of chocolate but some dogs are starting to chance my opinion. In Macedonia we have few chocolates. Most of them are black and yellow. People seem to be more fond of yellow because for some reason they are afraid of black dogs.

 

I think that yellow is the most common colour in Australia, possibly followed by black but I wouldn't expect chocolate to be far behind. We don't have the big gundog community that exists in the UK and US, so most Labradors here are of the pet variety and are of show stock origin somewhere down the line.

 

In my village ( absolutely representative of all of Canada, NOT) Oban is the only black Lab. There are several chocolates and yellows. A few years ago there were several blacks. For a wider area I guess too that CKC registration records would be needed to tell the numbers.

Somebody in the hunting, trialing, testing group were with has a saying:

All dogs want to be Labs and all Labs want to be black.

 

Well, don't tell Obi but black is my favourite Labrador colour.

I do like the gradations of colour you get in the yellows and choccies though. And yellow faces can look a bit more expressive (than black anyway) because the components are not all the same shade and small movements (eg eyebrows) are more obvious. And black is really hard to photograph...

But black is still my favourite

 

I have no idea what the numbers are, but if I had to guess, I'd say that black and yellow would be fairly evenly matched in the UK - although maybe with regional differences, I've heard that black is the colour of choice in Edinburgh (?! no idea where this came from). I would hazard a guess that chocolate is still rather in the minority, but is increasing all the time, probably limited now simply by the availability. Away from this forum, I've heard probably six or seven people recently saying "I want a chocolate Lab", and not one person saying they want a yellow or black!

 

On the other hand, the whites of Willow's eyes show far better against her black than Shadow's do, so when she's having a mad moment, she looks even madder! Also, both she and her sister Annie (yellow) have inherited the welcome "smile" from their mum, but Willow's shows up far better because of the contrast of her black snout and white teeth

I must get a photo of her smile one of these days!

 

Many of you may know that Bill Clinton's dog Buddy was a Chocolate Lab. Supposedly this was because after the M.L. issue his spin doctors wanted to improve his image and felt that having a dog would help. A lab was the obvious choice since they were the most popular dog in the US. Blacks were ruled out because they disappear in photos. Yellows because they stand out too much, so they selected a chocolate as the ideal neutral colored Lab.

The only reason there are other breeds is so we have something to compare our Labs to.

 

BLACK is best!!

The hairs show far less and so does the mud!

 

When we were getting our dogs we always say that we want a black male/female dog, and yes they don't show the dirt the same as a yellow one

 

I do think that Chocolates are more popular with pet owners than with show or working people - although you do see a few in the ring and on the field. So since the forum is mainly made up by pet owners I suppose that's why we seem to have quite a high number of choccies.

For me, although I like the expressions on yellows very much particularly where the face markings are a strong black, and I think some black dogs also have good eyes, Chocolate Labs are just the most beautiful. A well coloured Chocolate is very, very, pretty I think. To get a good face expression on a chocolate dog is a little harder than the other colours though. Light eyes and light eye rims can make that challenging - this matters to me a lot, because I think that proper Labrador kind happy face is just so very appealing.

 

I'm on my third chocolate - goodness knows why, they've all been idiots in their own way , this one more than the others.
Next time I'll get a black (but only if someone promises me they are easier to train ).

 

Yellows show up better in amateur photo-snaps. I would hate to have to choose a colour for my puppy. One of each please...

 

Absolutely

 

The first Chocolates I met were working as picking up dogs and very nice and sensible dogs.

 

I`ve owned two black and two yellows , loved both equally . I didn't care much for chocolates when they first began to become popular, but I believe that over the years, their breeding has become much better , such pretty dogs now , in fact if I were to ever have another Lab , it could well be a choc , hypothetical really as I wont be having another Love them all .

 

We have owned a black and then chocolate. The black was pure coincidence he was a rescue dog and just so gorgeous. When we looked for another lab I can across a picture of Mabel's mum and just fell in love with her. Hence I waited two years for Mabel. All labs are beautiful for me it's just personal choice.

 

I love the blacks. You just can't beat the shine on a healthy black lab's coat.

 

Choccie shine....

Red charlie by julieandcharlie julieandcharlie, on Flickr