We just received our puppy that is supposed to be a cross between a pure bred/papered black lab and a pure bred golden retriever. She seems healthy and lovely, but has blue eyes and a tail that curls when she is playing/happy. Her fur is more a pinkish brown than yellow and she has patches of a little white/lighter tones on her paws and chest. Never seen a curly tail on a lab, but I don't have much experience with lab pups. Our last dog was almost a year old when I got her. I'm wondering if it's possible to have a lab/retriever pup with a curly tail and will it straighten out? When? Or do you figure that we have at least another breed mix in there somewhere?

Did you see her parents Claire? Where did you 'receive' her from, a breeder? Did you see her before you brought her home? I'm sure a genetic expert will be along soon, but sounds to me like she may have some husky in there..

I thought that too, just from the title.  When I read the post, I didnt think that the cross breed named would be in there.  I am thinking lab Husky cross.

Sounds interesting! Have you got a pic?

blue eyes and a curled tail are definately husky traits. I have a husky girl and even the colouring sounds similar, especially the white tones on her chest and paws. I would contact the breeder if I were you as the mix of your dog will have implications for training etc.

Husky is what I've been thinking too.

I have pictures of her, her mother and father. I'm not sure how I can post those.

She certainly looks mostly lab/retriever. I'll contact the breeder/seller and ask them directly. Thanks for your thoughts.

Must admit my golden retriever's tail curls over her back like a husky, she's not pedigree, but i know she is pure bred.

Ok I'm probably going to sound stupid here but I thought pure bred was just that - one type of dog - and pedigree was the family tree so to speak. 
Lucyand meg - do you mean she's not KC registered?
Confusing myself here!!

Right, a Golden Retrievers tail should not curl over their back. Also, the colour of the eyes just do not figure at all as they have brown/dark brown eyes, never anything like a blue. To me it sounds, Husky or even Border Collie.

I was thinking poss Border Collie too as some have blue eyes and many carry their tails curled.  Generally crosses of the most common breeds are most likely.

My friend has a puppy farm yellow Lab with a very curled tail that any spitz would be proud of! This dog is presumably unlikely to be from top lines so the tail IS possible but blue eyes#? Unless it is a very young pup and the eyes will change

Yes sorry, thats what i meant  she's the result of an accidental mating between two goldies and is not kc registered, but not pedigree either as she came with no family tree.

Two Goldens would produce a Golden Retriever whether or not the mating was accidental. Definitely a cross in there.

The bitch could well have been mated by more than one dog.

I agree with all other posters.

A Black Lab's most usual eye colour is brown, as is the Golden Retriever, sometimes eye colour in labs can go from brown, hazel, orange, never ever in my lifetime seen a lab with blue eyes, not saying it is impossible but it would be quite rare, genetically brown eye to brown eye should make brown?

So either one of the parents has possibly a Border Collie mix from I'd say no more than 2 generations to get a blue eyed dog, or one of the parents really is a Border Collie or Huskey type dog.

Can I just check how old your pup is?

When pups are first born they all have blue/ blue shade eyes which gradually over the weeks turns to their permanent colour, it is possible that this pups eyes have not completed their transferation, at 8 weeks the colour is usually set, is this pup younger?

Have a look on the Champdogs lab and Golden retreiver breeders/puppies pages, just go back to homepage and do a guided search, and see if your pup is anything like them, it will at least give you a gage of what your pup should be like. :-)

Well in New Zealand and America they have blue eyed Lab's and are breeding for them!!!  Plus Silver Lab's!!.  Just google and there are photo's etc.

What weim crosses, LOL :D

What weim crosses

Exactly !

There are silver lab breeders in the UK as well.
The breeding bitches look like a lab/weim cross, but the breeders say they are pure bred.
I think if you cross a chocolate lab to a weim you end up with whelps that are a lighter shade of brown, or in other words a dog that can pass as a chocolate lab even if on the light side. It could be seen as a silver lab.
When their eyes open they could be blue, just like a weim, but change to amber after a few weeks.
I suppose if continue to breed with the lab/weim cross on both sides you would end up with a pure bred silver lab.
Joe public is always sucked in with rarity in breeds, they never really find out the real truth what lies behind the colour, i dont really think they care.
As for price, £1k for a silver lab, £300 for a yellow dog on the breeders website.
It disgusts me that these people are able to get away with it.
The OP may have a weim cross, it would explain the blue eyes, undocked weims can carry their tails over their backs.

Curly tail?......no not a Husky.
Breed standard:
>carried over back in graceful sickle curve when dog at attention. When carried up, tail should not curl too tightly, nor should it curl to either side of body, or snap flat against back.<

You could start a Blog about your pup and then its really easy to upload photos. Just click on the Blue Blog... we're all curious now!!

Yes have seen one of the breeders and the pictures of the so called Silver Labs and the offspring are terrible in everyway not just the colour :-(

Oh yes an no mention of any health testing but they say they are registered with the AKC and the KC :-(

Defo weim crosses, just googled the 'silver' labs. Hmmmm suspicious. But all above board and AKC approved, apparently.

But then again the wonderful AKC also go along with the 'coloured' pugs. Brindles, 'true' silvers and whites. Either someones telling porkies or a bunch of officials in the AKC are truely guliable or plain stupid.

Unless some smart arse scientist somewhere has rewritten genetic codes for purebred dogs..... ;-)

Color
The Labrador Retriever coat colors are black, yellow and chocolate. Any other color or a combination of colors is a disqualification. A small white spot on the chest is permissible, but not desirable. White hairs from aging or scarring are not to be misinterpreted as brindling. Black--Blacks are all black. A black with brindle markings or a black with tan markings is a disqualification. Yellow--Yellows may range in color from fox-red to light cream, with variations in shading on the ears, back, and underparts of the dog. Chocolate--Chocolates can vary in shade from light to dark chocolate. Chocolate with brindle or tan markings is a disqualification.

The problem is that they are registered as Chocolate and the interpretation of light chocolate is then taken to it's extreme.

How they can be registered when a mating with a Weim has so obviously taken place unless subsitute dogs have been used in registrations :-(

Ho Hum
Definately think the latter myself.
Pimping your legit stud dog, if that is not immoral i dont know what is. But then again these so called breeders have absolutely no morals, they are only interested in moneeeeeey!

>Curly tail?......no not a Husky.

I know a standard poodle with a tail carried tightly over his back, so a husky with very poor tail carriage wouldn't be impossible!

I think a Husky woudl fit most peoples idea of curly tailed, as in any tail carried over the back.

I suppose the lucky thing in all this is that you knew you were buying a crossbreed/mongrel, and the lottery in looks and temperament that provides, (and hopefully paid a price that reflected it), so will just be able to enjoy your little girl for what she is.

M.

Aaaah.. I see! (I am a victim of semantics! annoying being bi-lingual sometimes!)

I'd had thought the definition of Curly was to form a coil so I think Pigs and Pugs and Elghunds!!
My Sibes I think of as Arc or Curve ( in definition) in the tail carriage, never touching the back :-D

Nope the general public talk of curled tail as any tail that is carried up over the back, be that sickle, or tight curl. 

Some old time dog folk consider it a sign of the mongrel to have such a curled tail, and a famous lady in dogs was known to have said to one of my breed doyennes, why would anyone want a breed with a tailed curled over like a mongrel, LOL :D :D

I can assure you she is still very much a golden, she just has a tail that curls up when she holds it up instead of straight out. She was the result of a brother-sister mating that was seen and the bitch wasn't mated by any other dog. Her siblings look just like normal retrievers. Her parents were working bred so she looks a little differnt than show goldens anyway.  Like all matings anomalys can appear, thats why all dogs look different. (Obviously as long as some of the genetics are there in the first place. ) Especially in her case when the parents are really too closely related, hence why she has a genetic defect that makes her partially sighted.

>when the parents are really too closely related, hence why she has a genetic defect that makes her partially sighted.

The parents' relationship is irrelevant. She is partially sighted because both her parents carried the gene for the problem; they could have been entirely unrelated but if they'd both carried the gene (that's why people test ;)) then the pup would still have inherited the problem. If only one parent (or neither) had carried the defective gene, even in they were litter brother and sister the pup wouldn't have inherited the problem, because the parents didn't carry it to pass on.

how do you test for carriers of micropthalmia and bilateral cataracts occuring at an early age? I know yu can test fr pra, cea (in collies) etc, but i wouldn't have thought that is ne of the routinely tested for problems. Surely if they are closely related it makes them more likely to both be carrying a defective gene, particularly as they have such a similar genetic make up, otherwise it wouldn't be so frowned on? Any possible problem they could be carrying is magnified.

In a litter with both parents not carrying a problem the offspring will also be free of a problem and if mated together will not produce a problem. 

If the parents of a litter carry a problem gene this will be passed on to some of the offspring, so if two carrying the problem are mated there will be a problem, but two unrelated ones both carrying the same problem gene will also produce a problem.  It isn't the relationship itself that causes a problem.

In fact mating close can be a good way of showing whether there are skeletons in a closet (half brother sister on the parent you are trying to check) which outcrossing will mask for some generations, and it will come out down the line eventually.

Problems with no tests can only be avoided by pedigree research and a good dash of luck.

We had a foal born once with micropthalmia - it was so obvious, and distressing to all that you needed no test for it!     Also babies are sadly born with the condition occasionally.    It is often put down to environmental influences - in our case we put it down to a cocktail of sprays that a next door neighbour had sprayed his barley with the day the eye buds were forming in the foetus.

I don't think, but could be wrong, that there is any genetic predisposition to it

Don't know about bilateral cataracts. though.

Jo

In response to lucyandmeg. Sorry, got you confused with the original poster who said it was a mating between a black labrador and golden retriever.