Answer:
The silver coloration never existed in Labrador until it was crossed with the Weimaraner.
The silver coloration in Weimaraners is a diluted liver color. It’s not that different from a solid liver German short-haired pointer.
Solid liver shorthair. Actually quite common in Germany.
As we know, liver and chocolate dogs are dogs with the recessive brown skin and coat pigment genotype b/b. This is the same color that appears in the “red” Dobermann (just it has tan markings, which are recessice to solid liver). Dobermanns also have a dilution gene for their colors. It is also recessive. If a black Dobermann gets two copies of this gene, you get a blue Dobermann. If a “red” one gets this genotype, the puppies turn out fawn or “Isabella.”
Weimaraners have the black color in their genotype but no dominant gene for non-dilution. As a result, there are faulty blue weimaraners. In Germany, all the native pointers (the broken hair, the wire-hair, and the longhair) can come in black or black and white. It makes sese that blue weims would exist, because the black gene could come through these dogs. And it’s obvious that the short-haired weimaraner has some relationship to the German short-hair and the long-haired weimaraner has some relationship to the German long-hair. (The black and white German long-hairs are the foundation of the Large Münsterländer).
The two diluted colors that appear in the Labrador are exactly like the Weimaraner’s dilutions. Silver Labs are clearly the same color as the Weimaraner and the Isabella Dobermann. It’s a diluted liver. Charcoal lab is a diluted black, and it’s not that different from a blue Dobermann or a blue Wiemaraner.
It is pretty obvious to me that the silver coloration is the result of crossbreeding, either intentional or unintentional. And it was most likely with the Weimaraner. It is another gun dog. It has retrieving instinct. It has bird sense. It’s also big. I’ve often noticed that Silver Labs are on the large and lanky side of Labradors, which is very much in keeping with their Weimaraner heritage. They also have hound ears, which did exist in the Labrador for a time and sometimes appears today. But this color with the houndy ears in the same dog is just too much of a coincidence.
Don’t gray Newfoundlands exist? Yes, but they aren’t this color. They have black skin and gray shading on their coats. The reason why this question is asked is because if Newfs are gray, then this color may have always existed in the St. John’s water dog. It does not.
Another breed that can be ruled out as the ancestor of that coat color is the often mentioned Norwegian elkhound (the gray one for those of you who know that there are two Norwegian elkhounds, a gray and a black). Norwegian Elkhounds are a type of sable. If you crossed this with a Lab, it’s very likely to produce black puppies that can produce gray sables if backcrossed. Gray sables, not silvers. It is possible that Elkhounds were crossed in clandestinely to increase the Lab’s coat and build bone, because the early hunting Lab had evolved more along flat-coat lines as it developed from the St. John’s water dog. It had been crossed with flat-coats and pointers (maybe also foxhounds) to give it a more gracile frame for running.
The silver Lab is very likely a result of Weimaraner and Labrador cross breeding. The silver color does not exist in any other retriever breeds, and it doesn’t exist in any of the other descendants of the St. John’s water dog. The Weimaraner has to be the source.
A friend of mine has a lab she describes as a “champagne lab”. Very pale yellow, light nose and eye rims, and hazel eyes. The general structure of the dog looks odd to me — her depth of chest reminds me of sighthounds. IMO, she does not look well-bred, but she is deeply loved (and altered).
Does this dog have a pinkish nose? If so, she has a “dudley nose.” Brown-skinned yellows, sometimes have these noses, and judging from her eye color, she is a brown skinned yellow. It’s a major fault in the breed. Yellow Labs can have brown skin, unlike golden retrievers. However, they can’t be dudleys.
http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/yellow-pigment.html The dudley is at the bottom of the page. I bet that you’ll find chocolates in this dog’s pedigree. Most Lab breeders don’t breed yellows to chocolates, just so they can prevent dudleys from being bred.
The sighthound body is the result of breeding the fastest Lab to the fastest Lab. This is why Labs dominate field trials. They have become “water whippets.” My guess is that this is a field type Lab that is showing an exaggeration that results from the decades of breeding them for field trials. The young males, especially the yellows, can become quite wild.
The “champagne lab” as described is more likly a “Dudley lab” which lacks pigment and is a result of chocolate and yellow bred mixing. A dudley lab is not a desired color or markings with AKC and can not be showen in the ring. Goggle “Dudley lab” and I am sure a picture of her dog will appear. Some breeders are selling this Champagne lab at a high end cost when in fact it is a genetic fault.
Never breed e/e’s of any breed to chocolates or liv ers.
Dudleys have pink noses, but just a brown-skinned yellow isn’t a dudley.
Of course, in Chesapeakes that a “legal” color, which is called “deadgrass.”
I’m not sure if she has a dudley nose or not (haven’t seen her in a couple of months), but her nose is not nearly as pink as the (faulty) pink spots sometimes seen on Aussie or BC noses. The Aussie standard disqualifies a full Dudley and penalizes pink spots by size. The lab has eye color very similar to the dudley nose dog on the page you mention.
Although this girl may have field lines in her background, her general conformation and her owner’s somewhat proud and naive description of her as a “champagne lab” lead me to suspect her parents were bred as much, or more likely more, for color as anything else.
That’s very possible. In Labs, sometimes, there is a bit of an argument about whether the nose is brown or dudley. If you go to the wikipedia page on Labs regularly, there is a deep debate about whether certain Labs are browns or dudleys. In Chesapeakes, this color and nose is allowed in what are called “deadgrass” dogs. These dogs are genetically light yellows with brown skin.
It’s very likely that she has chocolates crossed in with yellows, and in Labs, the fancy has tried to breed out the dark color in yellows. In fact, there are dark red Labs (they are called “fox reds”), but these are very rare in the US. Ironically, they are more common in Britain, where that exact same color is rare in golden retrievers.
Breeding field lines as pets? Of course. If you’re familiar with the book Marley and Me, the author buys a yellow Lab, knowing nothing about its background. (The fellow is a bit of a fool when it comes to dogs). The dog’s dam is a show-type Lab, and the sire is from field lines. The puppies were being offered as pets. And the puppy tore his house down, because he failed to recognize that 1. field-line dogs need more exercise and 2. you have to train them and focus their energy. You can buy a show type (English type is the actual type in Labs– this body type is called a Bentley Labrador for some reason), and you don’t have to worry about exercise as much. (You instead have to worry about hips and elbows and possible temperament issues.)
A very light colored dog with this pigmentation and eye color were often mistaken for albinos. There was a line of goldens (that is now extinct) that were registered as Russian retrievers. The foundation of the line was a dog of pale gold color and pale skin pigment. My experience with most light colored goldens today is that they have very dark skin pigment, and most don’t even exhibit snow nose.
Back in the 60′s, I knew an experimental breeder in the Chicago area who was purposely crossing Labs w/ Weimaraners to establish a new breed.