Silver Labs??

[ogburg]

I got into a pretty good agrument the other day when someone told me they owned a registered Silver Lab. Has anyone ever heard of a Silver Lab and are they a registered breed?
Thanx in advance!

[allinthehands]

definitely not recognized by the AKC or any other breed organization that i'm aware of. i'd side with you on that argument...

[fuzzdomestic]

This is a fun issue. Labs are not my favorite for a few reasons I won't get into right now, so I don't know much about their history or what colors might pop up. One thing I do know is that Labs do NOT come in "silver" and any breeder selling them labeled as such is a BYB. Here's a couple sites that might help you out. I really suggest you go to Woodhaven first as they are the best resource I've found.

http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/silverlabs.html
http://www.blueknightlabs.com/articles/silver/silver.html
http://www.labbies.com/silver.htm

Okay, I'm feeling really stupid for not doing this before, but I looked up pics of silver labs. That's not silver. That's a really light chocolate. Have you ever noticed that some yellow labs are so light they seem white, while others are nearly red? It's the same concept. It's simply a different shade of chocolate. I think AKC's original forms allowed you to just fill in the blank for color, rather than selecting from a list of accepted colors for that breed. Perhaps someone thought their pup looked silver and registered it as silver. An AKC representative came out and verified that both parents were Labradors and that the dog looked silver so the dog was registered as a color that does not actually exist in the breed. BYBs saw some of the offspring of one of the dogs registered this way and decided to market it as a rare color. This is the most logical thing I can think of. I don't know the breeds that were used to make the Lab, so I don't know what colors might reappear after being hidden for generations or how long ago these silver labs have been popping up in litters, so I might very well have overlooked something.

[valwhalen]

No, silver is not just another shade of chocolate. Do a bit more research in those pedigrees on whether there was anything in common between the kennels that most of the silvers advertised go back to... notice what other breed those kennels bred and the handful of silvers that were tightly linebred to produce silvers? You are also wrong in how the current practice began of registering silvers as chocolate.

This subject is discussed over and over at great lenght on all of the Labrador forums, so the correct information is out there for those who care to research.

[fuzzdomestic]

Then how did it begin? You keep telling me I'm wrong and you never actually explain why.

[fuzzdomestic]

*bump* Where'd you go? I was very interested in hearing exactly how that practice came about.

[valwhalen]

You're wrong in that someone could register a Labrador as silver, so it didn't start that way. Yellow, black and chocolate are only accepted colors for the breed.

[valwhalen]

"An AKC representative came out and verified that both parents were Labradors and that the dog looked silver so the dog was registered as a color that does not actually exist in the breed."

Again, AKC never granted a way to register them as silver, a color that is not recognized for the breed.

[valwhalen]

"Then how did it begin? You keep telling me I'm wrong and you never actually explain why."

There has been repeated discussion on the various Labrador forums. Most recently on the Wiscoy (Labrador) breeder forum. Hope this link works for you.
http://pub12.bravenet.com/forum/976632990/show/617278
Scroll about half way down the page and you will see an email quoted from the Labrador Retriever Club (the parent club for the breed) with information (that came from the AKC registration dept.) which explains exactly how the practice of registering silvers as chocolate came about.

You can also go to the Labrador Retriever Club web site and read their position statement on "silvers". http://www.thelabradorclub.com/library/silver.html

[fuzzdomestic]

The above is an extract from the email you posted on the forum. If they had to enforce registering "silver" labs as chocolate, they had obviously been registered as silver previously. There was a way to register silver colored dogs as silvers, so I was partly right also.

[valwhalen]

Read "first investigations" into silver Labradors.

Also please adhere to internet etiquette. It was asked by the LRC that their email not be forwarded or reprinted.

[valwhalen]

Permission was only granted to post the LRC response on the Wiscoy forum and that is why I did not copy and paste any portion, but chose to refer you to the page on the Wiscoy forum.

[AnnieB]

All I know is this........silver in a lab must be pretty, no matter what the rules are :)

[Doggies4Evers]

sliver labs are a mutaion and are a purebred, I saw pics, they are sliver or grey
they are just as cute as the others, they are rare to make and not perferd by most.

[AnnieB]

sliver labs are a mutaion and are a purebred, I saw pics, they are sliver or grey
they are just as cute as the others, they are rare to make and not perferd by most.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b287/Save_Dogz/Ashlab.jpg Virtual grey Labador hehe

Thanks so much for the reply, I have been ill, so not on the site since last logged in :( and I was just going through my JUNK mail, to delete it, and thats where I found this reply, gggggggrrrrrrr usually i just click delete, I will be more careful now :)

[Doggies4Evers]

NP glad to reply, there was a different kind of dog forum that starting a fight over grey/sliver lab's. They are real purebreds they are just rare colored, and alot of people are quick to look there noses down on this rare color of purebred dog and etc. There is nothing wrong with them expect the fur is different then the common ones. They didn't choose there fur color. They are purebreds they should be treated as such, someone just needs to get them into the show rings. etc. Then it will all be fine.


I still love all dogs. No matter color, etc.


I used to have a black lab, named Buster. Until my mom got rid of him and gave him to my enemy!!

[susie17]

i do like the look of silver labs!! but i have never seen one in real life!

[babyjake228]

Totally agreed, Doggies4Evers. Wow, I keep running into you today! Good karma :). LOL. Anyway, back to the subject...

Like you said, silver labs are purebred, with a different color. This is called mutaion, but they are NOT any better or worse than normal labs. They are simply in a rarer color.

My Good Karma is running out.... must go to bed....

Good Night,
Jakey

[Doggies4Evers]

I think I would own a sliver/grey lab then the common colors lol
Dont get me wrong I love all lab colors, I had a labador before.
It would be cool to have a rare colored dog but then again thats just me.

Don't dislike me cause of it lol