http://xoomer.virgilio.it/matesser/spott.htm

errr discuss!!!!!!!

i think theyr nice . :D

well so do i! dunno what the lab peeps will think though!

Very unusual, like someones thrown a pot of black paint at him :D   Nice tho!

Don't like it. Looks wrong like they are mistakes.  I suppose it's what you get used to but to me Labs should be one of the three colours only.

He looks like he needs a bath! Not a bad dog otherwise. :)

How peculiar
Can it really happen?
It would irritate me, looking at him - I'd want to keep scrubbing, but then I'm used to self coloured dogs

There are other lab mismarks here.

thanks for that link JG very interesting!!!!!

Oh Dear ;)  now I really shouldn't say this, but that is actually a good looking Lab such a shame about the mismarks....

Have to say,  of mismarks, this has to be the best of some that I have seen....at least they look like Labs, not like some of the Rottie or Dobe lookalikes that I have seen....

I WANT THE ONE WITH THE BLACK EAR, HE IS SOOOOO CUTE!!!

In the first link they're all pictures of the same lab! ;)

The first few black and tan's look like lab x rottie/dobe - quite bizzarre!  Its amazing what the 'gene pool' sometimes throws up

While some of the photos of 'mismarks' do look rather like crosses, some are very lab like.  The one in the first link does look like a nice lab too.  I often think, no matter how much research we do, no matter how much we think we know - mother nature always has the last word :)

Mmmm nice looking Lab but very peculiar

He does look although he has had a bad accident with some black paint :D

any genetic experts...to tell us how yellow & black could work together like that?

Might be better asking a decorator :D

My background is human genetics, but if a gene for piebald coloring is recessive and solid is dominant (a quick google seems to imply this) and both dogs were heterozygous for solid and piebald genes they could have offspring that got two copies of the recessive piebald gene. This would allow that gene to express itself. There's some information on this site <a class='url' href='http://skyway.usask.ca/~schmutz/dogcolors.html'>http://skyway.usask.ca/~schmutz/dogcolors.html</a> and I'm sure you could find loads more but you would have to wade through gene names like Melanocortin Receptor 1 gene (MC1R) (red/black coloring). Genes frequently have really complex interactions so you never know what to expect. I have dark brown hair and hazel eyes but am packed full of blue eyed blonde genes!

Next google down has information about labs in particular http://www.labbies.com/genetics.htm

I came here to post almost exactly what you have written.

One word - Awwwwww!  Its amazing how black the black looks when on a yellow lab isn't it!

you can also get mismarked poodles and they are so pretty
carol

I had a look at a well bred litter of RRs a while ago, and the nicest dog pup had a splodge of black on one of his hind legs.  It has diminished as he's got older, but it is still there.  Very odd.

Gorgeous!! I imagine those in the breed wince at the mismarking, but I think it's cute!! :-D

You can also get mismarks of my breed :d  For the first time in 13 years I had a litter in November, one of the tri's was absolutely gorgeous, the other one looked a bit like a terrier and his coat was wiry but he's now getting a really curly coat.

Do Poodle people still get rid of their mismarks, I used to think it so sad years ago when I was told that they were culled for being the wrong colour, I think that's awful when the least thing in my eyes that anyone should worry about is a colour, surely the health of a dog is the most important?

I'm wondering if this Lab could be a chimera? Would be the most obvious explanation? Happens in other animals too.

I think they are lovely, guess just shows no matter how careful the breeding some times things can go wrong...

No - it's not a chimaera - that's an amalgamation of two different animals.   In this case, it's a mosaic pattern, which is not heritable at all.    For some reason the coat, which would probably be BBee or Bbee, should be yellow, as the yellow over-rides the other loci, and prevents expression of the black.  However,  in patches it hasn't has any effect.

Now don't ask me why!!!    

Jo and the Casblaidd Flatcoats

Thanks Jo. :) Mosaic did cross my mind but those that I have personal experience of in other animals usually only have one small patch of the differing colour, such as a cream with one patch of black.

There is a wellknown cat in the US who is a chimera. As you know only female cats can be Tortoiseshell, although occasionally you get an odd one with different chromosomes which turns a male Tortoiseshell -and infertile. However this one in the US, a Maine Coon, is a very interesting Tortie and white  because it is not the normal red, black and white, it is red, BLUE and white.  Blue is a dilute colour and can NEVER be found on the same cat as a dominant colour like red -a dilute Toirtie would be blue and CREAM as all the colours would be diluted. Which is why it was concluded that this cat was a chimera (not sure if any actual tests were done) and in fact when bred from, he works as if one of his colours did not exist, I think he works like a red and white.

Fascinating stuff.

Another case for Julie V, I expect, together with Sherlock Holmes maybe...

Jo

"Do Poodle people still get rid of their mismarks [...]"

That's awful if it does happen especially as them dogs could go to a loving pet home - we'd def have a mismark as a companion for our little Sheltie girl (when she's a bit older)! :)

I used to think it so sad years ago when I was told that they were culled for being the wrong colour

Me too. I can understand to a certain degree, but I still can't justify it as the colour doesn't make them any less a brilliant companion. Plus if the aim is to keep it out of the gene pool, it's nothing not registering the pup and selling on a neuter contract won't solve.

You get mismarks of all sorts in shar-pei from black and tan, brindle, saddle patterned and 'flowered' which are a white background with coloured patches and ticking. Some people deliberately breed for it and charge a whopping price for the puppies... double the price of a good show quality red fawn. That's just wrong in my eyes.

I remember a very famous top winning sire in the USA producing two black/white flowered puppies. Rumour has it the owner of the dam was offered silly money for them, but she turned it down and the dogs were neutered. It's not allowed in the standard, but ironically the foundation male of most of our Western pei was flowered himself.

I've recently found out that the male that throws tri's in my breed is in about 90% of the dogs pedigree's in the world so there will always be a chance of it cropping up.  Took 13 years before I had a litter with them in :d  I just sold them for less and told their pet owners that they couldn't be shown or bred from and they signed a form to agree with this.

Yeah I've seen a picture of a black and white toy poodle - black body white head.  It was absolutely gorgeous!

in the Anne Roslin-Williams book Advanced labrador breeding, she discusses mismarks and the probable causes for them.

My golden retriever has black hairs :P No way near as much as the pics up there ^

But they are there! Just the odd little black hairs, it's kinda cute :D

I'd never ever cull a mismarked puppy - in my limited experience with friends' litters, the mismarked one is always the first to be picked, because it's cute / unusual! :-)

I also have a Golden Retriever 14 months old with black spots on his back and down his sides.  We were told when we bought him that they would moult out but they are still there.  We also bought him because he was unique.  We love him to bits.

Our yellow lab boy has a black spot on his face. I call it his 'freckle' as that is what it looks like! His breeder said that it's quite common and if they were going to show him they would just pluck it out. OUCH! as it is high on his face just under his eye.

strange thing (and i don't know much about the complexities of the genetics) is that he has a pinkish nose and brown skin, does that mean he doesn't/shouldn't have the black pigment?

that will be his flat coat roots coming through

that was supposed to be a reply to me n perro

My black lab bitch has slight chocolate highlights - only shows up in the sun- and her son, also black, has a couple of white hairs on his back. The bitch is much admired for her lovely glossy coat, and if people notice the highlights they're considered rather attractive too. :-)

My sister's chocolate girl has highlights but it's because she's a California, surfer girl and you can't help getting sun lightened hair there. She's so lovely.

Carene, Interesting that many people, who have a black who show chocolate 'highlights' at certain times of the year, sometimes ALL year round on their ears, jump to the conclusion that their black 'carries' the gene for chocolate (I know you did not - just a general comment).

Infact, on black labradors, the correct undercoat colour is a mousey brown kind of a shade. Therefore when the dog is going out of coat and coming back in, the undercoat is pretty clearly visable, and so the brown shade creeps to the surface whilst the 'top coat' is thin and patchy.

Its just a ploy for us chocolate fans to take over the world for a few weeks a year on all those pesky blacks! ;-)  ;-)

Di