From finding a puppy to caring for your elderly chocolate labrador, we’re going on a journey of discovery! We’ll look at the origins of chocolate in the Labrador Retriever breed, and at some of the myths and truths about these wonderful companion dogs.
I’ll also give you some great tips for finding your very own chocolate Labrador Retriever!
What you’ll find out about chocolate Labradors
We’ll be looking at:
Where chocolate labs come from
How chocolate labradors get their stunning coat color
Chocolate body shape and temperament
Chocolate labradors in the show ring
The chocolate lab at work
Famous chocolate labs
Finding your chocolate lab
Rescuing a chocolate labrador
Buying a chocolate lab puppy
Training and exercising your chocolate labrador
Caring for an elderly chocolate lab
and more!
All labradors are beautiful, of course, but chocolate labradors will always hold a special place in my heart. In fact I am unashamedly biased!
You see, I am lucky enough to share my life with Rachael, a three year old chocolate lab from a mixture of show and working lines. This is Rachael as a puppy
This article is a celebration of what is for me, one of the most beautiful dogs in the world, a little tribute to Rachael and a thank you for all she has taught me.
We’ll hear some more about Rachael later. But first of all, we’re going to take a little trip back in time.
Where do chocolate labs come from?
Labrador Retrievers were recognised by the UK Kennel Club in 1903 and by the AKC in 1917. But they had been around for some years before that.
The Labrador breed was developed mainly by a couple of English aristocrats in the 1800s, from dogs they had imported from North America. You can read more about this chunk of history here: The history of the Labrador Retriever
Although our early Labrador Retrievers were predominantly black, some of these original dogs carried the genetic information required to produce chocolate puppies. Just as some also carried the information required to produce yellow puppies.
Sadly, a hundred or more years ago, it was commonplace to ‘cull’ puppies that were not a desirable colour. Black was the ‘in’ color for labs, so this meant that mainly black dogs survived to adulthood and mainly black dogs were bred from.
If mainly black dogs were bred from, you may wonder how any chocolate lab pups were ever born! To understand that, we need to take a peep at the genes that carry the code for coat colour in the Labrador retriever.
How is the chocolate color inherited in labradors
You probably know that the instructions that tell your dog what to look like generally, and what color to be specifically, come packed in genes, and that genes come in pairs.
This is true for the gene that determines whether or not the Labrador will be brown (this gene is called b) or black (B). Every Labrador has either two genes for a black coat (BB) or two genes for a brown coat (bb) or one of each (Bb)
The color black in Labradors is dominant. That means that if a Labrador has one gene for the color brown, and one gene for the color black, the dog will be black.
This is because his black gene switches off, the brown one. The brown gene just sits hidden inside him doing nothing in particular, while the black gene takes control of his coat.
What about chocolates?
The poor old brown gene only gets to be in charge if it is paired with another brown gene – like this ->(bb).
So for a chocolate lab puppy to be born, he needs to have those two chocolate genes, one is not enough.
However, a black labrador can sneakily carry a brown gene (Bb) and pass it along to his children. This is how the color brown can and did remain hidden in generation after generation of black labradors.
Why were chocolate labs not wanted?
So if there were always brown genes in our Labrador population, there have always been occasional brown puppies.
All that was required to produce a some brown puppies was for someone to mate a black dog carrying brown (Bb) with another black dog carrying brown.
And hey presto, half of this litter of puppies are brown!
And of course in the days long before DNA tests, and in a time when no-one would ever have bred from a brown dog, there was no way of knowing for sure that a black dog was carrying brown, until he had made some brown puppies.
By which time it was too late! These brown puppies were not bred from and no doubt some were quietly ‘disposed of’ without a second thought.
We don’t really know why the chocolate dogs were so disliked. It seems bizarre to us now, in a world where chocolate is such a popular color in dogs. But in the early 1900s only black would do.
By the way, if you are curious to know how we get yellow pups, click on this link: Coat color inheritance in Labrador Retrievers
Chocolate delight!
By the 1920s and 30s a few brown or liver labradors as they were then called were making an appearance on the shooting field but for some years more, brown was not widely acceptable to Labrador enthusiasts.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that brown Labradors, began to really grow in popularity, and the word ‘liver’ began to be replaced by the word chocolate.
You can still register chocolate Labradors as ‘liver’ in color by the way. And I actually prefer the old fashioned term. But that’s another story.
And if you are interested in delving deeper into the fascinating archives of Labrador Retriever gene pools, you may enjoy a visit to Jack Vanderwyck’s site Labrador.net
Chocolate labradors in the show ring
The first chocolate English Show Champion Labrador Retriever was Cookridge Tango in 1964.
The 1960s was a turning point in the popularity of the chocolate lab, but interest grew slowly at first.
Gradually, the public began to demand more chocolate puppies, and gradually breeders began to produce them.
Over the next few decades, Chocolate Labradors became increasingly popular both in the show ring and as pets.
Yet in the shooting community, where Labradors were expected to do a job of work, the preference for black continued throughout the late 1900s, and even continues today, particularly in the UK, where black is still favoured by working Labrador enthusiasts.
The chocolate lab at work
A demand for chocolate labradors as shooting companions is only just beginning to emerge in the UK, but in the USA, the chocolate lab has now become more established in the working community.
Here in England, it is still quite hard to find a chocolate labrador from good working lines, and we have yet to see chocolates doing well in field trials in any great numbers.
The situation is changing gradually, and there are now people working their chocolate Labradors in the shooting field. However, many of these dog, are from show lines, or like my Rachael, from a mixture of show and working lines together.
In fact, the majority of chocolate Labradors here today are still either from show lines, or bred as pets.
So how has this history affected our lovely chocolates? Is there any truth in the stories that chocolate labradors are somewhat challenged in the ‘upstairs’ department?
Or is the ‘chocolate labs are stupid’ claim, a scurrilous lie. Let’s have a look
Chocolate lab body shape, mental ability, and temperament
Just like you and me, every dog is a product of both his environment, and the genes he is born with. We have seen that many chocolate Labradors come from show Labrador lines, and these bloodlines tend to have certain characteristics in common.
Show Labradors (also known as Bench or English labs) are often more heavily built, and somewhat slower and physically less agile than their field bred counterparts.
They are also more likely to have a chunky Labrador head and thick otter tail. And while some feel that the chunkiness of the skull has been taken too far in show lines, there is no denying the beauty of a classic Labrador head.
A chocolate labrador is more likely to be from these show types of bloodline and are therefore more likely to share these general characteristics.
Smarter or not?
Field bred (also known as American labs) tend to be not only physically faster and racily built, but more ‘sensitive’ and responsive to training.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that field bred labs are more clever, but they may be more trainable, and more likely to be black. They may also have more intense retrieve drive, or urge to chase and retrieve things.
Add to this that serious, experienced, working gundog enthusiasts are less likely to buy a puppy that is not from working lines, and you end up with a preponderance of successful working labradors all dressed in black.
I have found my own chocolate lab from mixed lines to be a lot more ‘playful’ and interested in other dogs, than my working bred labradors generally are.
She has very intense retrieve drive, but is less naturally keen to share the outcome with anyone. I’ve heard others report the same observations, but I don’t know how widespread this characteristic is.
There are of course other less complimentary claims that you will have heard about chocolate Labradors…
So are chocolate labradors stupid?
It is quite common to hear people state that Chocolate Labradors are stupid. How much truth there is in this statement is very debatable.
But it is most unlikely that there is any distinct difference in intelligence between dogs of the same breed that happen to be a different color.
Let’s be practical here. Even if there were a difference in learning ability between different colored dogs, it’s important to remember that an association, or correlation, between two things does not mean that one caused the other.
Being chocolate does not make a dog stupid.
The answer lies in the behaviour and temperament of dogs from different bloodlines, not in the coat an individual dog is wearing. Working bred labs may appear smarter, simply because they are more sensitive and co-operative, and chocolate labs are less likely to be from working lines. So you can see how the myth got started
Chocolate labs from working lines are just as easy to train as black labs from working lines. But you are less likely to meet a chocolate lab from working lines at the moment – in the UK at least.
You can read more about the division in type between the working lab and the show lab in this article: Which type of Labrador makes the best pet – work or show?
50 shades of chocolate?
Not really! Unlike our yellow Labradors – which come in a wide range of shades, the color chocolate is pretty consistent in puppyhood, and most chocolate Labs are quite similar in color.
The color of your adult chocolate boy or girl’s coat will however vary depending on whether the coat is newly grown after a moult, or is about to shed. You can read more about shedding here: Shedding Labradors
As the old hair dies it starts to lose some of its colour, and the dead hair is much paler than the glossy new coat that will soon appear.
And though some chocolate labs are darker than others, even when taking the stage of moult into account, variations between individuals are fairly small, with one very contentious exception. The Silver Labrador.
Where did silver come from?
Silver Labradors have a gene which dilutes the color chocolate and makes it a pale, silvery shade. Some people find this very attractive, while others regard it as an abomination.
There is no doubt that a hundred years ago, there was no coat dilution gene in our Labrador Retrievers. We know for sure that this gene has appeared quite recently. What we don’t know for sure, is how it got there.
The strongest theory is that the gene arrived through cross breeding a Labrador with a dog that carries the dilute coat color gene. A breed such as the Weimaraner for example.
The other explanation is that the gene causing the silver coat was some kind of genetic ‘accident’ or mutation. This seems rather less likely. But you can read up on the whole silver controversy in more detail here: All about Silver Labradors.
The Kennel Clubs of UK and USA are currently willing to register silver labs, despite the dispute over their ancestry, but they can only be registered as ‘chocolate’. Not as silver itself.
We’ve just begun!
Throughout history, there have been a number of famous black labradors, and we tend to associate yellow Labs with the all important role of working as assistance dogs.
Bill Clinton’s chocolate Labrador Buddy was famous simply for being the president’s dog, but it is harder to find examples of chocolate Labradors who have distinguished themselves.
This is not because they lack the qualities or abilities of black and yellow dogs, but simply because the popularity of the color is a relatively recent phenomenon.
There are as we speak, plenty of chocolate labradors serving in the military, working as assistance dogs and in the shooting field. Their story has only just begun, and as time goes on, we’ll be hearing more of their exploits.
Maybe you have a story to tell about your own chocolate friend, or maybe you are just starting out on your journey to finding a chocolate lab to share your life. If that’s the case, read on. We have some tips for searching in the right places
Finding your chocolate lab
There are two main ways of bringing a chocolate labrador retriever into your life. And many people will tell you that the very best way, is to rescue a dog from a shelter or dog’s home.
The other way, is to buy a puppy and raise him yourself.
I can’t tell you which is right for your own family, though I will say that it is not as clearcut an issue as some will tell you.
There are pros and cons to both rescuing an older dog and raising your own puppy, I go into these in some detail in my new book “The Labrador Handbook”.
It may well depend on what stage of life your family is at and on how experienced you are with dogs in general, and with labradors in particular.
If rescuing appeals to you, and you are ready for the challenges and the many benefits of giving a dog a new lease of life, there are plenty of rescue societies that specialise in Labradors.
Rescuing a chocolate labrador
The first step is to make contact with your local Labrador Rescue. Most rescues don’t rheum dogs outside their own ‘catchment area’.
You can find details on Rescues in the UK and the USA on this page: Labrador Rescue Societies
Many people expect to be able to go along to a shelter and chose a dog. But it doesn’t work quite like that.
The first thing that happens, is that the rescue society will want to check out you, and your family, to make sure your home and lifestyle is suitable for one of their dogs. This means that they will probably want to visit you at home. Once you are accepted, you’ll be able to meet your future dog.
Many rescue dogs live with ‘foster parents’ rather than in a large kennel compound, so you’ll be able to see your new friend in a real life family situation.
Rescuing can be a wonderful and fulfilling way of bringing a chocolate Labrador into your life, so do consider it thoroughly. You can find lots more information here: Is a rescue Labrador right for you and here The right dog for you- Puppy or Rescue?
If now is not the right time for you to rescue an older dog. Or if you are getting a Labrador for a special purpose – as a hunting companion for example – you may be better off with a new puppy. Let’s see how that works
Buying a chocolate lab puppy
Labrador puppies are ready to go to their permanent homes at around eight weeks old.
If someone wants to sell you a puppy much younger than that, alarm bells should be ringing. You also need to make sure you buy your puppy from the right place.
This means choosing the right breeder. And avoiding puppy mills and pet stores. If you want a puppy for hunting, you need to go to a breeder that specialises in field-bred dogs.
If you want to get involved in the world of showing, you need to go to a breeder that breeds labradors for the show ring.
It is possible to train a show dog for work, though he or she is unlikely to get far in high level field competitions, but it is not normally possible to succeed in the show ring with a field bred dog. Bear this in mind.
In the UK, only a few kennels are breeding chocolate Labradors for gundog work. Look for names like Styleside and Grangemead in the pedigree if you want a dog with retrieve drive and trainability.
A healthy puppy
Labradors of all colors suffer from inherited disorders.
Please, please make sure your puppy is from health tested parents – it may all end in tears if you omit this important step
You can find out more about health issues in Labradors in this article: Health screening for Labrador Diseases
And there is lots of information on finding a good breeder here: Labrador breeders – how to find a good one
Training and exercising your chocolate labrador
My advice for training and exercising your chocolate Labrador is to figure out what type of lines your dog is from and adjust your expectations accordingly. Then to follow a good positive reinforcement training programme.
If your chocolate friend is field-bred, treat him like any other field-bred lab. Make sure you exercise his mind as well as his body. Even if you never intend to take him hunting, he still needs a job to do, retrieves to complete, toys to find, streams to cross and so on.
Training him isn’t just necessary, it will be a whole lot of fun.
If your dog is from show lines, he too needs training and plenty of exercise, but he may also need plenty of play. Toys and games, and other dogs to interact with.
Even at three years old, Rachael still loves to play with other dogs and with people.
Pay extra attention to proofing your show bred dog’s obedience in the presence of people and other dogs – you may find he is intensely friendly and rather distractible so this aspect of his education is important
You will find lots of training information and advice in our training section here: Labrador training articles
Above all, treat your chocolate labrador like an individual. He is far more than just a product of his breeding and environment. He is a unique character, there will never be another quite like him
Caring for an elderly chocolate lab
As the years pass by, we leave behind one set of challenges, puddles, chewed up shoes, and boisterus behaviour, but they are replaced by new ones.
Failing eyesight, stiff joints, and declining hearing.
However, these senior years can still be happy and fun filled for many dogs, especially if you keep your dog slim.
If your chocolate friend is quite heavily built as many chocolates are, you need to be extra careful to keep an eye on his weight as he ages. More body weight means more stress and strain on joints, this can aggravate problems like arthritis in older dogs
I personally think that elderly chocolate labradors are particularly beautiful, with their greying muzzles and kind eyes.
Of course, you will want to make your old friend as comfortable as you can, and we have plenty tips and advice for those that share their lives with older dogs in this article: caring for the older labrador
What is so special about chocolate
I have been writing about Labradors for many years now, and there is no doubt in my mind that they are all wonderful dogs. But the chocolate labrador is special.
It is hard to explain why to those who don’t share their lives with one of these beautiful dogs, but if have one, you’ll know exactly what I mean!
I’d love to hear about your own chocolate labrador, so do drop your story in the comments box below, or post his or her photo up on our Facebook page or in the forum. Tell us what is so special about your chocolate labrador and why you think chocolate labs are the best.
Further information
If you have a Labrador in your life, or are thinking of adding a Labrador to your family, you might enjoy my new book: The Labrador Handbook
It’s inspired by the community we have built here, and is full of wonderful photos of Labradors of all colors and all ages.
You can pre-order it on Amazon if you want to get to the front of the queue.
You can find out much more about my own wonderful chocolate Labrador by reading Rachael’s journey.
Don’t forget, you can comment below, or on our Facebook page, or in our forum.
The post The Chocolate Labrador Retriever – Myths, Facts and Fun appeared first on Pinsit.