I do love the traditional black and tan of the GSD - but now I have a fluffy Blonde who is a real head-turner among non-GSD people. So no - colour doesn`t matter to me.

Definitely food for thought.

If they did research though, I would like to see whether the ones with health/temperament issues are where the breeder was specifically breeding to obtain a particular colour (take merle to merle as an extreme example) rather than the colour resulting as a 'natural' result of breeding for health/temperament or even working ability.

It's my blue/white BC that has the best temperament of my 4, I'd trust her with anything, she really is the sweetest little dog.

I think the problems come when breeding specifically for colour and not considering other implications.

Totally agree.

Definitely! That would be my guess too.

Yep, I know the standard and that dogs that are not standard are not shown in the ring, but my question, re-phrased, is basically why you only see the black saddle plus tan or red or gold combinations and not say solid black, sables or bi-colour shepherds in the ring (bar of course the odd sable exception). These colours all fit the standard and, in theory, are just as acceptable as the black saddle colouring, yet no one really bothers with them, and they don't win.

Thank you ladies!

The relationship that coat colour and temprement/health might have has already been highlighted. I had read somewhere that chocolate labs were more prone to health issues than yellow/black labs, again because selection for that colour also unwittingly selected for certain health problems. Can anyone confirm this?

I have also read that the temprements of cocker spaniels can vary according to whether they are roan or parti-coloured or whether they are solids, with the solids being more prone to temprement issues with the red solid being the most problematic in this regard. I think the temprement problem was called cocker rage syndrome, but I remember talking to a cocker breeder who said that the solids temprements were a lot better than they used to be with a much reduced incidence of rage syndrome, is this true?

Oh what an interesting thread well the Gordons come in black and tan only but there are Liver and Tans (and they are pretty sweet looking too!) but think people now test to check for the liver gene so they aren't as common.

A white flash on chest (like the Irish) is permissable but no other white - and no black in the tan but that is something that seems to be appearing more and more too.

Temperament is always first with any dog when I went to visit Charlie's litter we were actually after a tri-colour but I feel in love with the orange belton (and have to say it is now my fave colour!) so I guess I do probably have a colour preference.

I can't confirm from official research but certainly someone I know who has spent years with working dogs distrusts cockers full stop; though he admits that much of his views are down to a few bad breeders in his particular area. I said to him that I thought the problem was restricted to solid colours and particularly the reds, but he said that in his area, the same bad temperament is showing in other colours too, due to these breeders breeding from the bad lines.

As an aside I have seen brown and tan rotties on the internet, but remember someone saying that they were plagued with health problems too.

We had a blue roan cocker and a golden cocker at the same time, the roan boy was a real sweetie...the golden had rage syndrome and would be happily sitting on your lap one minute, then turn towards your face snarling the next It wasn't his fault bless him, he never knew he was doing it. It transpires he was a brother to sister mating....we are talking over 20 years ago so we didn't know about puppy farmers etc at the time, we wouldn't make the same mistake again. I do think the good breeders worked long and hard to resolve this issue and, apart from the BYB who don't care about anything other than the money, I think the breed is pretty much sound in temperament these days regardless of colour.

I prefer very dark brindle Boxers, with as little white on them as possible....

I am not a huge fan of red/whites; however, a lot of the Boxer people I know prefer red/white than a red/brindle.

We were lucky in that both litters there were dark brindle boys in, and we had almost first pick with Max's litter. Out of both litters, out of the other pups, the reds were the first to go, with the darker pups languishing behind.

Obviously there is a stigma (still) attached to white Boxers, which is a shame, because they are not all deaf, and are not all prone to more health problems.

If I was to get another pup, I would still go for the darkest brindle I could find, as I would (hopefully) have that choice. Were I go to for an older rescue/rehome Boxer, generally the colour wouldn't matter to me, as I'd be after temperament/personality first with an older dog (all very general here, but I'm assuming that a pup would be from a good breeder, who had health tested etc and I liked the temperaments of both parents).