A common condition in many golden retrievers and yellow Labs with black skin pigment is the phenomenon known as “snow nose” or “winter nose.”
A black nosed dog’s nose suddenly turns brown. In golden retrievers, one expects a panic, because brown skin isn’t supposed to exist our breed! (It actually does, but it’s quite uncommon to see a golden with a brown skin and the features of a liver or chocolate dog).
The truth is that goldens and black nosed labs, along with Siberian huskies and malamutes, are prone to having their noses turn brown in the winter time.
Don’t worry, golden owners. Your dogs’ nose will usually turn back to black by summer time. Very old goldens often develop permanently brown noses, though, but this condition I’m describing here is only temporary.
Is it basically tanning?
It isn’t really tanning in our sense or in the hairless dogs’ sense. The nose just goes from solid black to liver brown.
It is kind of like tanning, but in tanning the normal color isn’t darker. And it’s only the nose that gets brown. The lips and skin around the eyes remains black. If it were tanning, it would all turn brown.
Sunlight, however, does have something to do with it, but I guess no veterinary journal has done anything to find out the mechanism. It’s not a health issue, really. I just know that a lot of people get freaked out when their golden retriever loses its black nose in the winter. The golden retriever’s standard requires the dog to have a black or “brownish black” nose, which can fade to brown only in winter.
Here’s another site on snow nose.
http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/grooming/snownose.htm
In yellow labs, you can have brown skin pigment. It’s not preferred, but it’s not as big a deal as when it appears in a golden.
The yellow dogs with this skin pigment are a different color genetically. They are actually chocolates or yellows with yellow fur. A black pigmented yellow is actually a black dog with yellow fur. If you breed a black skin pigmented yellow to a chocolate or liver that does not carry the gene for yellow fur, you will get all black puppies.
A friend of mine tried to create some goldendoodles using a chocolate standard poodle as the sire. All the puppies were solid black.
I live in Australia along with my golden retriever ( 7 months old). His nose turns brown in the mid of hot summer. Is it normal to have a brownie nose in summer
I’ve never heard of that!
Maybe it’s a reaction to the sun.
It’s very easy to get a sunburn during heavy snow cover.
Maybe it’s a similar reaction.
!ow, thanks! I was so worried! I just read this after looking at my dog’s nose. It is February and winter time. Thanks so much.
Thank you for this info i was very worried when i noticed my one year old goldens nose starting to do this this week i wasnt sure what to do or if he was sick but this reallly helps:)
Wow! I am so relieved that its normal for a Goldens nose to turn pinkish or liver color during the winter! My Goldens nose is normally shoe polish black but right now (feb) its pink – of course he is still a total cutie pie but I was scared because I didnt understand. Thanks so much for the information!!
my golden retrievers nose is pink and its in the middle of summer. but how
It’s called a Dudley nose if it’s pink all the time.
I have a goldendoodle (golden retreiver/poodle) he is 7 months and his nose color is turning brown too but were also coming into winter so i guess its normal?!
Thank you for the comforting information about our baby’s nose!
Thank you for the information. My baby Cooper’s (1.5 year golden) button black nose was turning the exact color as the picture on this website. I thought he may be getting sick. This makes me feel so much better. We have an appointment with our vet in a few days so I’m still going to mention it to be safe but at least now I don’t feel like I need to rush him in early.