Is there a best labrador color? The shooting fraternity prefers black ones, judges love yellow, and the trends are bringing back fox red. Some even buy Labrador retriever puppies for sale. But for some people, the performance of the labrador will always be above their coat.
However, the discussion of the best labrador color will probably always continue.
Prefer Black In The Field, Yellow In The Show Ring
They generally answer black if you question those in the shooting field about the best labrador color. But if you ask in the show ring, they will answer yellow as judges like yellow. Also, one of the lab’s colors that is becoming extremely popular is fox-red. Some of the owners are even choosing silver labs in America.
Some might also say chocolate labs are unsuitable for training, but is that really the reason? So which color is the best: chocolate, yellow, golden, liver, or fox red? This article gives you knowledge about the best labrador color.
Best Labrador Colour
You may know the saying that a good horse can’t be bad in color, but some people accept that this principle also is for labradors. When it’s about the color of the labrador, the common rule among the shooting fraternity is that black is good, yellow tolerable, but chocolate surely is for the show bench. Among other things, black has always been the ruling color in the shooting field and trials. A telling data in The Best of the Best, a history of the IGL retriever championship, is that in 1909-2011, 1,790 black labradors qualified to run, compared to just 367 yellows.
All the labradors were black in the start, which with the dog means the later year of the 19th century. The appearance of one of the first two yellow puppies was in a litter bred by Captain (later Major) CE Radcliffe in the year 1902. One was a dog called Ben, and the other was a female. In general, there is a belief that all yellow labradors are descendent of Ben and his son Neptune. There are no color pictures of Ben, but some black-and-white shots that survived portray a dark-furred dog, suggesting that he was what we now call fox-red.
Soon, yellow became famous as the best labrador color, even in Kennel Labrador Canada, which was boosted in 1924 by the foundation of the Yellow Labrador Club, which is still active today. The purpose of this club was to encourage the breeding of pure-yellow labrador retrievers and to preserve the best kind of working dog, to which the principles remain faithful. It even holds a novice, an all-aged, and an open-qualifying stake every year, with its trials reserved specifically for yellows. And with the labrador, discrimination due to their color is still acceptable in the world of dogs.
