[nagdu] Chocolate labs as guides?

[Ann Chiappetta]

Hi All;
I know of a large Shepard breed called the Shiloh. They  originated from the 
South, not sure which State, though. They are black and tan and 
rough-coated. I think males were at least 90 lbs.  I think they are 
recognized in the UKC but not the AKC as a rare breed.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <lindagwizdak at peoplepc.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 6:48 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Chocolate labs as guides?


> Hi Brent,
> The White German Shepherd is recognised by the United Kennel Club (UKC) as 
> a seperate breed from the German Shepherd. Kind of like the real big 
> shepherds whose breed name escapes me! I found a book about the White 
> German shepherd at a second hand bookstore back in the early '90s.  I also 
> found a book about the history of Leader Dogs for the Blind in a book 
> stall at a local dog show.  Thier early dogs were Dobies. There is a 
> picture in the book taken around the 1970s of a Leader class and a student 
> had a White Shepherd Dog!  I haven't heard of any schools issuing a White 
> Shepherd dog.  Anyone else know of any?
>
> Linda and Landon
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Brent Reynolds" <burddawg at bellsouth.net>
> To: <sbgreenlaw 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?
>
>
>>
>> I don't think there really are any issues with chocolate Labs when it 
>> comes
>> to what does or does not make for good guide dog work, vis-a-vis Labs of 
>> any
>> other color.
>>
>> To say that it makes sense that chocolates may suffer from skin 
>> conditions
>> and allergy type things more than other Labs, and to confirm it based on 
>> a
>> sampling of two out of a population of three is quite a stretch.
>>
>> The chocolate Labrador from The Seeing Eye that I had shed less and had
>> fewer skin problems and less dry skin problems, and less scratching than
>> most of my other Labs, all of whom were black.  My current dog is a Lab /
>> Golden crossbreed and the Lab component of that cross was most likely a 
>> very
>> dilute yellow, since this dog's coloration has been described as, light 
>> tan,
>> beige, creamy vanila, and even white.
>>
>> While it may be possible that a goodly number of chocolate Labs may carry
>> other genes that predispose them to certain skin conditions, it is still
>> true that the genes that influence color in Labradors have no effect on
>> anything other than coloration.  To extrapolate a supposition or
>> unscientifically derived comparison across unrelated species, such as
>> squirrels compared to dogs, is not, well, is not good science.
>>
>> I would be more willing to speculate that you don't see very many
>> chocolate-colored Labs as guide dogs for the simple reason that the 
>> schools
>> just don't usually have very many of them in proportion to the other two
>> major colorations.
>>
>> Color is one of the easiest traits to breed into or out of a line of dogs
>> when several different colors are possible.  Now, that might take a good 
>> bit
>> longer in a breed such as the Rottweiler which comes overwhelmingly in
>> black.
>>
>> If you read the writings of Konrad Lorenz, who's work was considerably 
>> more
>> popular in the 1950's and 1960's than it is today, you can read that in
>> Germany, white was considered enough of a serious defect in the German
>> Shepherd Dog breed that white pups were routinely eliminated from the
>> populations, usually by unceremoniously drowning the newborn  white pups.
>> Yet, in the good old USA, fanciers of White German Shepherds have been
>> lobbying for years to get kennel clubs to recognize them as a separate 
>> breed
>> to be known as the American White Shepherd.
>>
>> Among the old-time duck hunters fifty or more years ago, it was a 
>> commonly
>> held conventional wisdom that among Labradors, blacks were the best,
>> smartest, and easiest to train.  Yellows were said to be somewhat stupid,
>> and chocolates, which they called "livers", were said to be somewhat
>> stubborn and harder to train.  Nobody ever produced any measurable or
>> otherwise verifyable proof for those gems of conventional wisdom.
>>
>>
>>
>> Brent Reynolds, Atlanta, GA  USA
>> Email: burddawg at bellsouth.net  Phone: 1-404-814-0768
>>
>>
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>
>
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