Black Labrador Retriever – Silver or Mixed?

Suppose you have silver hair. The natural assumption of those you live and work with would be that you are at an age where your hair starts to fade. If your hair turned gray before your 20s or 30s, it could be a dietary deficiency, a medical problem, or a genetic problem.

Some claim that a black, silver Labrador retriever with a coat that is anything less than black, is a purebred dog. Reputedly rare and highly desirable, a silver factor black Labrador Retriever can be offered at a higher price than normal. Does he deserve this? Or is he just a mongrel, a mongrel?

Standard Black Labrador Retriever

The Labrador Retriever breed standard states, “The coat colors of the Labrador Retriever are black, yellow, and chocolate. Any other color or combination of colors is a disqualification.” The breed standard goes on to say that black Labrador Retrievers must be all black. If a black Labrador retriever has a small white patch on its chest, it’s “allowed, but not desirable” under the breed standard.

A black Labrador Retriever, with silver or not, must meet that standard. All purebred black Labrador retrievers must be black.

genetically speaking

A black, silver, or non-standard Labrador Retriever apparently has genetics that are not in line with that of the breed. The coat color genetics of a true black Labrador Retriever appear to be quite simple. Each dog receives two pairs of genes: one from his mother and one from his father.

You will remember from early science classes that there are two types of genes in all living things: dominant and recessive. This is true for you and it is true for black Labrador Retrievers. Genes determine your hair color, just like genes determine the coat color of a black Labrador retriever. You can have brown, black, red, blonde, or a variation of any of those. A Labrador Retriever only has two options: black and chocolate, although we see black, chocolate and yellow.

Consider these facts.

1. In Labrador Retrievers, a dominant gene always determines what color the coat will be. Always. It doesn’t matter what other genes are present. The black gene, which we’ll call “B” for short, is dominant. Therefore, if a “B” gene is present, the default coat color is black. But keep reading.

2. We will call the recessive chocolate gene “b” for short. The “b” gene can only produce a chocolate coat if the dog does not inherit the “B” gene. Those are the only options: dominant black “B” genes and recessive chocolate “b” genes. There is no gene for yellow, silver, or other colors. A black, silver factored or other factored Labrador Retriever would have to go against this genetic makeup.

3. In addition to the black and chocolate genes, Labrador retrievers have two more genes. These genes determine the ability of dogs to express a dark coat, that is, to show the dark color. Let’s call the dominant expression gene “E” for short and the recessive expression gene “e” for short.

4. Labrador Retrievers that have the dominant “E” gene can express a dark coat. They can be shown black or chocolate. If the dog has a “B” gene and an “E” gene, it will be black, no matter what other genes it has. If it has a “b” gene and an “E” gene, it will be chocolate.

5. Labrador Retrievers carrying the recessive “e” gene cannot display a dark coat. They will show neither black nor chocolate. They will show the absence of those by being of a yellow hue. A Labrador Retriever with a combination like BBee has 2 dominant genes for black, but the recessive “e” genes won’t let the color show through. The dog will be yellow.

You will see that a silver factored black Labrador Retriever is not possible with these gene pairs. There is no scientific data as of this writing (2007) that has found any silver genes in black Labrador Retrievers.

The true nature of the so-called silver laboratories

A black Labrador Retriever that is said to be silver may be an unusually light yellow or chocolate Labrador. There is also, in the US, a grayish-brown shade similar to that of Weimaraners. The US pound is reported to have been the first to report “silver” Labradors and also kept Weimaraners, a silver-gray breed with a somewhat similar appearance. It is widely believed that the true nature of a black, silver factored Labrador Retriever is that of a cross: Labrador Retriever – Weimaraner mix.

The AKC recognizes “silver” Labs only as chocolate and rejects them because they don’t meet the breed standard for chocolate Labs. A silver factor black Labrador Retriever is not an AKC standard purebred dog.