i know slightly less than nothing about labs but am asking a question for a work colleague.he has a yellow (i hope this is correct term) lab female that he wishes to take 1 litter from to keep a pup then get her spayed, however he seems to be adamant that he should only use a yellow dog ,i on the other hand can not see any problem using a black, chocolate etc as long as it is of sufficient quality.also the female is from ireland and really there is nothing in the pedigree that i have seen in any peds over here so odds are he would be making something of an outcross.any advice welcome

My own feelings are that yellow to yellow and there is a very good chance of loosing pigmentation. That said, if you want to breed then there is rather more in it than just finding the right colours and putting them together. Look for any info on hereditary defects carried by either side, this could rule a number of dogs out. Try to find something which compliments the dog. If the puppies are destine for pet homes then I would steer clear of working dogs, they could have too much brain for the average pet home.

Regards, John

Is your friend taking a litter from this bitch just because he belives that it is best for a bitch to have a litter and because he wishes to spay the bitch he must let her have a litter. This was a commonly held belive but is not true, a bitch does not need a litter whether or not she is spayed.
Ja:)kie

no jackie he wants a pup from her to work.she is quite useful herself.

Hi - I'm from Australia, and I just found this board - I'm only answering because that I know a bit about Labradors LOL. If you want to know more about Labrador colour genetics, then please visit http://www.labbies.com/genetics.htm If you mate a Yellow to another Yellow lab, then you will ONLY ever get Yellow pups. As for the "loosing the pigmentation" I assume you mean a yellow carrying choc lab that appears yellow, with a choc nose/mouth/eye rims, and yellow eyes like a choc. This dog will only occur in a Yellow (choc & black) X Yellow (choc & black) crossing, which will only be 1/4 the litter will turn out this way. Also Yellow (choc & black) X Yellow (choc) where half the pups will turn out this way. Hope I helped you out a little bit.

Welcome to the forum :-)

Hi, the first thing to ask your colleague, is the bitch Kennel Club Registered, if he says no, or if its Dog Lover Registered tell him its not advisable to breed this bitch, Im not saying this applies to this dog but in my experience a lot of dogs that come over from Ireland are from puppy farms and are sold in this country to what we call dealers, who then sell these pups to the unsuspecting general public, this might not be the case it might be from a good kennel in Ireland, but, if you dont recognise any names or affixes in this country, then I would be wary, also ask if they have changed the k.c. registration document into their ownership. I got caught out with this once, when someone asked to use my dog, it wasn't until I gave her the green form to register the litter I found out she had not changed ownership into her name, so she had to wait until that was done before she could register the litter, I had only asked if the bitch was k.c. reg. Have they done all necessary testing for labs in this bitch? i.e. eye testing, hips etc. if not tell them to get it done asap. and to look for a good quality stud dog as long as the bitch is a good specimen of the breed.

yes the bitch is registered now but up until recently only had irish papers as the owner thought these were the only ones neccesary.it was sorted by sending the irish papers plus an official irish kc pedigree form to the british kc.he has had the tests done too and all is well in that respect..the bitch is a nice looker, to me at least and a useful worker although possibly slightly smaller in height than a lot of show folk would prefer.thanks for the help folks.

I presume from this, your colleague does not know any working Labradors to form a decision on. In that case I would suggest a look in Shooting Times or Sporting gun. There are always stud dogs advertised in those mags. Drakeshead and Willowyke are just two. The pedigrees of quite a few of the dogs advertised in those pages are available on the internet if you do a search on Google so you have a chance to see how the pedigrees look. If all look well, phone the stud dog owner and arrange to see the dog, (possibly working on dummies at least) and make a decision when your colleague has seen enough.

Regards, John