Does your Labrador retrieve if so what colour, when I say retrieve I mean bring an item back to you such as a tennis ball and with enthusiasm. Just to see if there is any correlation.
Hiya, I have a yellow lab and he LOVES to retrieve, anything at all. He also works a little and picks up ducks, geese, pheasants etc.
my black lab retrieves too and has started bringing presents to greet us with (pssst i suspect that there may be some correlation - the clue is in the name...ahem... )
Just bear in mind that of the 45k labradors registered with the KC annually, the vast majority of those are black, followed by yellow followed by chocolate. So, it is difficult to put any meaningful stats together. Of those, the vast majority of working labs will also be black, they are the preferred colour, there is an old wives tale that choccies are not so good but this is due to %ages in my view and not due to the innate colour. I have seen crap blacks and fabulous chocs.
It’s just all the yellow labs I’ve owned have been quite lazy, even my current yellow whose sire is a FTCH is quite unenthusiastic to retrieve, yet I get a black lab from some council estate and he’s a enthusiastic retriever.
I have a black and yes he will retrieve naturally. All depends on the dog and not necessarily the breeding. One of the most enthusiastic retrievers I knew was a very heavy boned 100% showbred yellow bitch.
I've answered yes black, but I am yes to both black and yellow/cream-red, as I have a fox red dog as well. Both my boys are worked regurlarly on game (down to OH being a gamekeeper!) and absolutely love it, but are more than happy to retrieve anything! Hamish (Fox red lab) has retrieved gloves I've dropped on a walk. He is mad keen on it!
One of the most impressive dogs I have seen working recently is a yellow lab who tracks and retrieves to die for.
I strongly believe ability is something that is bred into a dog, but I also know from training my two half show bred Labradors, that you can instill an enthusiastic retrieve, in the way you train. Tau was not an enthusiastic retriever to begin with, and yet now she's more so than Indie, and that's down to the training I've put in. If your dog isn't obsessed with retrieving or tennis balls, then you need to make the retrieve of value to them, so that they want it. An old working trials way of getting a dog to retrieve unusual articles that they may be expected to pick up, is to carry it in your pocket for two or three weeks, take it out and fuss it, then put it away, don't even let the dog(s) sniff it. You then set up a retrieve that makes it look like they've managed to find, or you drop the article, and fuss the dog for picking it up, don't try and take it back from them at all until they've had a good fuss. Often enough, the dog will put the article back in your hand if you train retrieves to have value. Both of mine will pick out one piece of scented gravel off a gravel driveway, all done using this method of adding value to a retrieve.
No, I appear to have a retriever with no desire to retrieve Dexter is a yellow Lab and we've all tried really hard to find various ways to get him retrieving. My brother's yellow Lab, Lucky, also refuses to retrieve. He is from a top breeder, and my Lab is a rescue, and neither want to know
I just sent an email to drakeshead Labrador, to ask if they see any difference in coat colour and -eagerness to retrieve, I doubt they will reply but it’s worth a try. The guy at dreakeshead has been dealing with labs for 45 yrs, and is captin of the English gundog team.
