Brindle Labrador Retrievers
September 30, 2008 by Colby
Have you ever seen a Brindle Labrador Retriever? As far as I know I have not seen one in person. Although, I’m not too sure I’d recognize a purebred brindle Labrador retriever even if I saw one.
Just about everyone has heard of the Labrador Retriever breed. And I’d probably say that most people know the common colors of a lab: yellow, black, and chocolate (brown). Of course, there’s a lot of variation in the yellow coloring from a very light white color to as deep as red/copper color.
However, have you heard of or ever seen the other Labrador Retriever coat colors? A few months back I wrote an article about Black and Tan Labrador Retrievers. The coloring is very similar to a Rottweiler or a Doberman Pinscher. One of our guide dog puppy’s in training, Egan was black and tan lab. If you want to see a picture of Egan take a look at the article on Black and Tan Labrador Retrievers.
Brindle Labrador Retriever
The second unusual color variation in the Labrador coat color is brindle. As I mentioned in my previous article the brindle coloring is seen less often. Labs with brindling have tan speckling on their forelegs, muzzles, and chest.
Here at Puppy In Training we were lucky enough to receive some pictures from one of our readers who has a couple brindle Labrador Retrievers. Here are the photos I received:
Waiting For Her Treat
Good Down-Stay!
Learning To Retrieve
Here’s what Maia and Tora’s handler had to say about his two brindle Labrador Retrievers:
“Maia’s reddish/brown on black is more dramatic. Each leg has a different pattern. Her inner thighs have yellow hair as does her butt area. At 8 months I began training her to hunt pheasant, quail and chukar. Often times she will hold a strong point and I have hunted her with some professionals and she holds her own. Tora’s a chocolate with yellow markings on he muzzle, across her chest and on each leg. Her brindling is more uniform than Maia’s. At nearly six months she swims like a fish and retrieves very well. Soon we’ll go to the fields with a couple of birds and begin training in earnest.”
It’s interesting to see pictures and hear about the unusual color variations in Labs.
As you all know I’m working with my current puppy, Derby in hopes that he will someday be a guide dog. Raising a guide dog requires a specific training program as we prepare our puppies to lead their blind handlers in many different places and situations. One thing that caught my interest after reading the short snippet about Maia and Tora the Brindle labs is that they are being trained as hunting dogs. As with a guide dog I’m sure a hunting dog has a strict and specific training program. I would be interested to see exactly what kind of training a hunting dog goes through.
If anyone has any other pictures of brindle labs I’d love to see them. If you train hunting dogs I’d be interested to hear about how a hunting dog is trained. What do you think of these Purebred Brindle Labrador Retrievers?
Great write up! Never heard of a Brindle Labrador before. Hope you get enough material for a write up on hunting dog training. I would love to learn about training for the blind retrieve.
Yeah, I hadn’t heard of a brindle or black and tan Labrador until I met Egan at GDA. I wrote a post on black and tan Labrador Retrievers a little while back. Since then I’ve received a few pictures of other black and tan labs and the picture I posted today of the brindle Labradors.
Oh yeah, I hope to hear back from some of my readers on their experiences training their hunting dogs. If I get enough material I’ll definitely get something on the site.
Hopefully my rambling last night gave a little info. There are, I’m sure, lots of books that will cover the techniques used.
Wow, glad to see one of my little girls, Tora, making her debut on the web with her sister Maia. They are beautiful dogs. I will see if I can get some updated pics of some of the other brindled labs that were in the litter with Tora to send to you. Did Bill share with you that after some talking back and forth we found out that Maia and Tora each have the same great grandfather, Sir Hershey of Surrey? He was the Grand Master Pointing Champion in the Colorado Open State Pheasant Championship 4 times. There is a nice write-up about him at http://www.pointinglabrador.com/hershey.htm. The article says Hershey sired more certified pointers than any other dog in the country. He was pure chocolate but it appears he had some of the brindling gene in his lineage. Thanks for listening. Thought you may find this info interesting.
Sincerely,
Peggy Shay
@Peggy, updated pics of some of the other brindled labs would be great.
I never heard about Maia and Tora’s grandfather, Sir Hershey of Surrey. I tried the link you listed, but it was unavailable. I did a little research and found this one: http://www.bearpointkennel.com/Dogs/Dogs_Hershey.htm. I read his biography and it sounds like he was an amazing dog.
Thanks for stopping by! And yes I do find all of this information interesting.
We have 12 puppies that came from our yellow bitch. Her line is way up the line all yellow. the stud who is also full bread is all the way up the line chocolate. However he does have a little brindle on him. The puppies are 5 weeks now and are showing increasing development of brindle in about half the liter. Most of their markings are on their paws. One has it on his face. I was wondering whether he will loose any of the brindle as he grows older. Is that true that they do loose it?
@Mimi, Unfortunately I don’t breed dogs and wouldn’t know too much about whether or not your puppies will lose their brindle coloring. There are others who follow this comment thread that might know more about the brindle coloring in your litter.