[nagdu] Chocolate labs as guides?

[lindagwizdak at peoplepc.com]

Hi Brent,
When I went to Seeing Eye in 1999, there were five chocolate Labs in my 
class - all sibblings! When I went in 2007, I don't think there were any 
chocolate Labs in class.

I think they still call that color "liver" in England. Yeah, I'd prefer the 
color being called chocolate much better than liver! CHOCOLATE YUMM! 
 Liver - well, not so yummy!  I don't mind liver myself as a food. I used to 
get liver pate from a good Jewish market near me when I lived in Boston. 
And I did enjoy liver and onions when I could still eat onions!

Linda and Landon
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brent Reynolds" <burddawg at bellsouth.net>
To: <jenandnixon at gmail.com>; <nagdu at nfbnet.org>; 
<gdui-friends at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 5:56 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Chocolate labs as guides?


>
> 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"
>
>
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