[bradleysmum]

Posted in connection with a previous post.

Statistics have shown that chocolate labs are more accident prone than any other breed of dog. What are your views on this?

http://www.k9magazinefree.com/k9_perspective/iss4p18.shtml

Poll Attached

 

[Jen]

Max is too young for me to give any opinion on this but on speaking to his 'personal trainer' last week she told me the same thing. I'm guessing it will support the opinion that chocolate labs are more boisterous, looney etc than blacks. Personally i think a bit of madness is a good thing, wouldn't change Max for anything :wink:

 

[4labs]

I think a dogs temperment has as much to do with breeding and environment. I have labs in all three colors and my chocolate is more mellow than my other guys..(maybe I am just lucky)

Now does he look like a loon?

 

[kanesdad]

I think I would have to agree here.

We have likened Kane to Norman Wisdom...He has had us in stitches (after we have made sure he is ok of course) a few times falling over & running into things ..... 8)

 

[bradleysmum]

Now does he look like a loon?

Hi 4labs,

Your choccie lab is beautiful. :wink: He certainly looks very chilled out, bless him.

 

[Guest]

Hi
When we lost our chocolate lab Ollie to cancer a couple of months ago we were very concerned about how much pain he may be experiencing. Our vet Matt Brash (the TV vet off Zoo Vet, Vets to the Rescue & Vets in the Country) was an excellent vet and explained about how dogs feel pain he said that chocolate Labradors have a much higher pain threshold which makes them so much more clumsy than other labs purely on the basis that when they knock themselves or throw themselves onto furniture, small children etc they don’t feel as much pain as other labs hence making them a disaster area for accidents. Looking back it explains a lot with Ollie the way he use to bound around no sense of pain, cuts & scratches he never felt them. Ollie had several lost footings on the stairs over the years which never bothered him I was always having heart failure at his antics but he never blinked an eye always ready for more. He once went to the vet for treatment to his paw pads as they were ripped, apparently the way Ollie used his paw pads was similar to a car breaking system on the concrete in our yard outside the barn where we used to live, thank goodness we moved shortly to a house with a grass garden my nerves couldn’t take anymore.
So yes chocolates are mad and I believe they are more accident prone but I wouldn’t want them any other way!
Michaela

 

[Karen_theArtist]

Having only had our choc boy Corbie for 2 weeks, it's hard to tell but he seems no more of a nutcase than my parents' Westies and as I grew up with Westies, I am surprised they are not on the list!! :lol:

Dogs can be daft sometimes and don't realise that by doing something they can hurt themselves.

Ask me again in a few years once Corbie has been running around for a while and I may have a better view on this! :lol:

 

[MissMuffett]

Choccie labs

I have an 13 week old choccie lab called Tia who is mad but gorgeous! She is as tough as nails and is always colliding with something or someone! She seems to have no fears of anything or anybody! She has met other dogs for the first time this week and went straight up to them without any hesitation and despite a warning bark from one of them, wanted to to go back for more. I have also noticed her watching the TV (loves Emmerdale and action movies!). We start puppy classes this week so it should be interesting!

 

[lablover]

Well - I know certain breeds of dog have higher pain thresholds, staffys being a classic example, but I can't see why the colour of dogs in the same breed, even the same litter, should affect it.
I have to agree with 4labs, breeding environment and training are what effect a labs temperament.
Also, although the headline said 'clumsy' the article stated 'to suffer accident or illness'.
Certainly the sudden popularity of chocolate labs has led to an explosion in chocolates being bred (often for money), with not enough attention paid to health / temperament. There is no doubt that chocolates are being rescued in disproportionately large numbers compared to blacks and yellows, and there are certainly more chocolates out there with 'iffy' temperaments, but I believe that is down to poor breeding not colour.
JMHO

 

[RosieW]

Hi, just saw this thread while looking back at posts before I joined. I have a chocolate lab and [touchwood] she has been healthy and largely accident-free, more so than my last yellow lab. She has quite a low pain threshold, whilst the yellow had a very high one. I also cannot see how colour can affect their 'personality, but there are more black working gundogs and more yellow Guide dogs. I haven't noticed chocs being used a lot for anything really! I heard a gundog trainer say that she has less success with chocolates. Also the out and out clowns are often yellow [like my Sam]. I have often read and heard that coat colour makes no difference in labs and can see no reason why it should, but I still think somehow it does.

Rosie

 

[lablover]

I don't think that colour can affect their personality as such. It's more that the 'personality', temperament and abilities are inherited along with colour. Certainly, the majority of working dogs are black with some yellows too, but working dogs are bred primarily for their working ability, colour is secondary so the dominant colour tends to be bred more. I don't know the reason for more yellow guide dogs, but could that be because so many are golden/lab crosses? Chocolates have only recently been bred more, and although I'm sure other things are taken into account, they seem to be bred predominantly for their colour, and so are unlikely to be bred with the field trial dogs that do not carry chocolate.

 

[RosieW]

Thanks Lablover, that makes sense. It could also be that as blacks have more working lines in their pedigree, they may tend to work more independently away from their handler and want to use their noses more to be good guide dogs.

Rosie

 

[clairiscrazy]

oh i would say choccie labs are definalty different from there yellow and black freinds i often said tessa (my late choccy lab) was last in the cue for her brains..lol..not meaning it in a nasty way but she seemed to just give you this look like oh commands again i dont have time for it..lol..or she would just complety ignore you i jusy called her my big brown bear she was a very chilled out lazy lab nothing seemed to bother her and she was her own dog..lol..but again i wouldnt of wanted to change her after all she was my big brown bear

 

[RosieW]

Poppy is quick to learn, very bright, but seems to get bored easily and needs lots of motivation. I have to work hard to keep her interest or she will either lie down or want to wander off and do her own thing!

 

[GrecianExile]

Just found this thread and have to disagree!

My Shadow is black and at the age of 8 months tore the ligament in his left hip that holds the ball & socket joint together. We were having a bit of playtime at a favourite walk around a reservoir when his back leg slipped off the paving flag at the edge and over extended. After a heart rendering cry Liz and I managed to carry him back to the car and take him home, where aftera few hours he seemed fine. The next morning as I was out with him I could hear a clicking noise coming from his hip, although he was walking fine on it. We took him straight to our vets who x-rayed him and examined him, and told us that the clicking was the hip dislocating and then re-locating. She said he must have been in some pain but never made any fuss. It was only the second time that our practice had carried out the operation which without going into gory details entailed the joint being held together with a fishing line type cord. This was the week b4 Christmas, so we all had a miserable time, Shadow with his bald hip and leg with a huge scar running down it and not being able to use the leg for several weeks and us because we felt sorry for him . After a month or two he was back walking properly on all fours and we thought that was the end of the proble.
18 months later Shadow started limping on the same hip out of the blue, so off to the vet again, who decided after running tests, x-rays etc that the best course would be to refer Shadow to apparently the best doggy leg vet in the UK - sadlythis was in Shirley near Wolverhampton and we had to get Shad there for 9am. Anyway, we had to leave our little man on the wednesday and by the time we got home there was a message for us to ring the vet. He had found an infection that was all around the cord used for the original op, so had cleared it up and put Shadow on an antibiotic drip. I drove down on the Friday to pick him up and so far so good (touch wood) He does have slightly reduced movement and doesnt like cold wet mornings, and is on Synoquin for his joints everyday and Rimadyl if it gets bad. After the second op, our vet reckoned that Shadow would probably need a full hip replacement by the age of 5 - he is now nearly 7 and going strong on the original hip. the moral of the story is 'Thank goodness for Pet Plan insurance' they have paid for all his bills and ongoing treatments to the tune of over £5000. The irony is that as a puppy, at his first injections trip to the vet, she pronounced that he had one of the best hip scores that she'd seen recently!!

 

[megaloo]

Hi everyone
I am sure there is no reason why Chocolates are more prone to accidents.
We have litters of mixed colours same parents (although I do not like to see yellows in the same litter ) so why should the chocolate puppy be the one to be more scatty as some have said.
I do know that CPI Canine Partners for Independance have trained a number of Chocolates with great success.
I believe as said before Blacks are seen more in the working home because Black is the dominent colour in our breed, so therefore will shine through from many years of good working breeding.

 

[stenty]

not quite sure on htis one as cookie is my first lab, but she does have a tendency to bang her head on things and not flinch not long after we go her she sneezed whilst standing next to a wall and smacked her head with so much force even I felt it but she even notice, though she was dizzy for a while after

 

[ZaK]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAArgh

Just found this topic!!,

And there is not much more that gets me mad, than someone telling me my dog is daft!, He isn't, and he is very well behaved, which could have something to do with breeding, but alot to do with training.

I really think that the colour of a labs coat makes no difference, the only difference is in the way we perceive them. My own choc lab is no different from any other puppy, yes a bit crazy, daft and loopy sometimes, but no more than any other dog!

I reckon coz there has never been that many choc labs some guy in a country pub once said they are all a bit mad, from his experience of two and it's stuck.

An old wives tale for sure!, if I had the time I would love to prove it!

 

[Hersheys]

accident prone

hmmmm let me think about this one... no actually I dont have to think, hershey is really accident prone and seeing as he will be 6 soon he still acts like he is a puppy. He has done all sorts of mad things including eating shoe polish and getting it all over the carpet, eating a so called distructable dog toy which ended up with a camera down his throat to make sure he was ok, running head first into doors which are closed, also when we are in bed has the habit of jumpingup for a cuddle and then falling all over the place and putting his paws in places they shouldnt. He has also head butted my husband and broken his nose so its not just himself he injures.. But thinking about all that I would never change him he makes me laugh so much and if he was any different he wouldnt be the same....
I think I prefer him to be accident prone it gives him character....