[nagdu] Chocolate labs as guides?

[Brent Reynolds]

Chocolate Labs as guides?  Sure!  The Seeing Eye has them occasionally.
Colors in labs have been something of a fashion statement over the past 30
or 40 years.

If you check the 1977 edition of the American Kennel Club's "Complete Dog
Book,"  in the article about the Labrador Retriever, they state that the
color distribution was 70 percent black, 25 percent yellow, and a mere 5
percent chocolate.  Several decades before that, that redish brown color was
referred to as, "liver," but at that time, it was mostly hunters, sportsmen,
and other working dog enthusiasts who were mostly interested in Labradors.
That descriptor, "liver," was though to be a bit too yucky for the
pet-oriented urban crowd, so the more appealing "chocolate" became the
fashion word for that color.

According to an article I read in the mid 1990's, a statement was made that
the color distribution, black, yellow, and chocolate was almost evenly
proportioned in the breed, roughly one-third each.  You can breed for color
in Labradors.  The genes for color affect only color, and not any other
characteristic in the Labs.

Since early in this decade, the fashion has swung more toward a popularity
for lighter-colored dogs of just about any breed, so more and more Labrador
breeders nationwide have been breeding more for the yellows, and the lighter
the better.  The chocolates have become quite rare in the last few years.

I got a chocolate Lab in late February, 1990 from The Seeing Eye, but after
about 1995, you did not see many of them coming out of that school, lots of
blacks, and quite a few yellows.

Being out in California, Guide Dogs for the Blind, (GDB) has been influenced
by the movie and television crowd.  Since GDB is close to their area, you
often see GDB featured in television programs and documentary segments on TV
about guide dogs.  The producers prefer to have yellow Labs in the pieces,
since they show up better and are easier to photograph and film and stand
out more in the pictures than the blacks.  Any good photographer will tell
you that, especially if the dog is lying down, it is hard to get a good pic
of a black Labrador that does not come across in the end result more like an
amorphous black blob.  And of course, you'll be more likely to get that,
"What a Beautiful Dog!" exclamation from General John / Jane Q Public, if
you have a yellow Lab than if you have a black one.

I don't think The Seeing Eye has deliberately set out to breed the chocolate
color out of their Labrador blood lines, they just don't get very many of
them.  Then again, when that color was all the fashion rage, they did not go
out of their way to increase the percentage of chocolates in their lines
either.

Back to GDB, I have heard more than one person, including several who have
had, and still get, their guides from there, refer to GDB as, "the yellow
Lab school".

Brent Reynolds, Atlanta, GA  USA
Email: burddawg at bellsouth.net  Phone: 1-404-814-0768

"What is your favorite color?" "Blue - no - yellow"