I think it is detrimental to the breed where colour is very important. I`ve met quite a few `desirable` chocolate labs with no working drive at all. Of course, this could be the way they`re brought up? Or it could be a strain that are bred for colour, not temperament. Conformation and temperament has to take precedence IMO.

We have alot of varation in colour in our breed,Black brindle,brindles,reds,pieds,blues etc.

You do get breeders who have a certain preference for different colours.

We don't see many doing different coloured mating nowadays,it's usually black to black,red to red etc,according to the older generation you should put in either a black or red every now and again to keep the colours strong.

I know nothing about breeding or genetics so forgive me if this is a daft question!

I was told once that breeding a choc lab to a choc lab often produces a rather bonkers (more so than normal) dog. They said that choclates are always more boisterous and mental but especially so if both parents were chocs.

Is there any truth to this? I also heard about golden cockers and possible temperament issues.

Please excuse my ignorance, I have no idea if there is any value in what they said, sounds odd to me but what do you think?

the browns being more loopy is also true in newfs supposedly i have never owned a brown so couldnt say if its true or not, strange isnt it

Breeding exclusively for recessive colours in any breed eg chocolate in labs is not desirable IMO. Because of the way genes are linked , one is more likely to magnify deleterious genes.

Mary

Is that the case with just choclates or also breeding yellow to yellow or black to black?

Each breed has a recessive colour, in labs it is choc. In my breed sable is dominant, black is recessive, other colours fall in between (put very simply).

As I said I don't really understand genetics......what is recessive?

Recessive is the opposite of dominant.

Take a black lab (B) and a choc lab (c). Black is the dominant gene, it overpowers the choc gene. Does that make sense? I will do a wee table hang on...

Ah, erm, think I sort of understand. So which would be dominant/recessive in a yellow to black mating?