Thanks! Yes I don't like to say former either but he was 11 and just got to be more bad days than good. I have a similar picture that sits on my desk and the dock is on my wall! Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk
Here are the breed standards, the pictures you saw are some of the best examples of the breed standard. Mind you the breed standards in the UK are about 2" shorter but of similar qualities. http://www.thelabradorclub.com/subpa...Breed+Standard Here is the Sire of one of the dogs I had but couldn't get back in my divorce from my first wife. http://www.belquest.com/aaron.html He earned a JH somehow considering he traveled to dog shows nearly his entire life. I saw him when he was 12 back in 05. He was the number one Lab in the US in 97, 98 and 99 which can't be done if you aren't within the breed standard. My girl from him was an excellent hunter, she caught the first 12 gauge shell I fired in front of her and retrieved Pheasant, Dove, Goose and Ducks with minimal training. The shorter legs, big thick tail, wide head and thick chest with mild temperament are what the breed was truly bred and meant to be. When they were brought to America we tried to make them taller, faster and more energetic while in turn increasing the health issues that many have come to know about labs. The Labs most people are familiar with are not truly the Lab that was bred from the St. Johns Waterdog and loved in the UK before coming to America. The breed itself is less than 200 years old, a very new breed of dogs compared to many. With all this being said I can bring it back to the original argument while tying in the dogs we breed in the US today. Many labs are not truly a breed standard animal but are pure bred, the same can be said for Silvers even though genetically it is not possible for Chocolate to dilute to silver without the Weim genes somewhere in the dog. The dogs we call Labs that are often taller than the English Labs have also likely had genetic boosts from other breeds over time as the Tails are not thick and heads are often longer and narrower. This can also be from breeding the biggest dogs over and over for generations so what was said previously may not be the case but I would say is likely caused by both. I love the history of the breed as it relates to Newfoundland and then England. I would only buy an English Lab if I were to spend money on a dog because they are the true Labrador Retriever. We are animal rescue advocates and have a couple of Lab mixes. I think it is absurd that people will pay thousands for a Silver Lab because it is realistically a boutique dog and not an animal a breeder is breeding to preserve the hunting or Show qualities of the breed. I wish we had two breeds of Labs in the US, Field Labs and English Labs and if we did I'm still not sure Silver would have a place in the breeds. Here is my Black Lab mix on the right, most people never know she is half lab, half Black and Tan Coonhound unless she decides to open her mouth. Some people see her tail and think she might be mixed but she is very laby, though extremely lazy. Here is an old picture of my English Lab I had When she was almost fully grown.
This is no surprise as the Yellow is a recessive gene carried in Chocolate and Black labs. Two yellow labs cannot produce anything but yellow. Yellow is caused by a recessive gene that masks expression of both black and chocolate colors. Two black labs bred together could potentially produce any color of puppies, depending on what, if any, recessive genes they may carry. Two chocolates cannot produce a black puppy, but could produce both chocolate and yellow, depending on whether both parents carry a recessive gene for yellow.
