[NAGDU] chocolate Labs as guide dogs..

[Danielle Sykora]

It is simply that there are fewer chocolate labs born as compared to
yellow and black. Lab coloring is caused by multiple genes. Put
simply, black is the easiest color to get, yellow in the middle, and
chocolate is the least common. Service dog programs also sort of have
developed their own lines by breeding mostly within their own breeding
stock for several decades. I've noticed one program in particular
seems to have more chocolates than the others, which is not surprising
considering how the breeding programs work.

You will find information out there that says chocolate labs are not
as healthy on average as black or yellow, but this is also an
oversimplification. Any time a breed has a less common color, you will
get irresponsible breeders who breed dogs exclusively for that color
with no regard to the health of the parents or puppies. So yes, if you
look at the population of labs as a whole, chocolates are more likely
to have health issues because they are more likely to be poorly bred.
The same could be said about the less common color in basically any
breed that comes in more than one color. That being said, this does
not apply to different colored dogs within the same breeding program.
A responsible breeder (or in this case guide dog program) will
carefully select parents who are free from health issues and have a
good temperament to the best of their ability. Therefore, all dogs
born in that program have an equal chance of living long healthy
lives. So if you had a black, yellow, and chocolate puppy in one
litter, the chocolate is no more or less likely to be a successful
guide or have a long healthy life compared to the yellow or black.

Hopefully that explanation made sense.
Danielle




On 11/9/23, Al Elia via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Chocolate labs are rarer, but the schools may now  be reticent to train them
> given a recent study suggesting that chocolate labs have, on avberage, a
> lifespan that is two years less than other labs:
> https://www.aaha.org/publications/newstat/articles/2018-10/study-coat-color-could-mean-reduced-longevity-increased-health-risks-in-some-labrador-retrievers/
>
> I don’t know if that is the case, but two years is a long time in guide
> life, so it would make sense to avoid training chocolates in order to
> maximize guide-span in a school’s dogs.
>
> On 8 Nov 2023, at 15:09, Mary Beth Metzger wrote:
>
>> Carol, my second guide dog, was a chocolate Lab.  My understanding is that
>> the gene for the chocolate color is recessive and must be carried on both
>> sides.  It's also my understanding that Labs of different colors can occur
>> in the same litter.
>>
>> Mary Beth Metzger
>
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