Dog Health Questions: Why does this Service dog orginization only use black or yellow labradors?

http://www.ksds.org/dogs/training.html It says only black or yellow, not chocolate. Why?

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Recommended Answer:
Chocolate is recessive, and breeding yellows to chocolate creates an even more recessive yellow, called a Dudley. Chocolate Labs are bred more often than the other two colors because the public demand was for Chocolate, which more people seem to prefer over plain old Black and Yellow Labs. This has increased the amount of pet bred over bred hyper Chocolate Labs with no off switch, which is NOT what you want for training a Service Dog.

You CAN find Chocolate Labs in field lines, they are just a bit rarer. My own SD is a Chocolate Lab, and she has been wonderful. She is out of field lines herself, but she's not interested in birds at all. Perfect for a SD, but no so perfect for someone who wants to hunt ducks with their dog.

People that seek out a specific color of Lab are usually going to go to someone who is a BYB and the number of Chocolates in rescue is because of the crazy fad for Chocolate Labs.

Just my two cents anyway.

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• A lot of Service Dog Organizations only use labradors because of their even temperaments, medium size and weight intelligence and eagerness to learn. Many other breeds do possess all or some of these traits, but most Service Dog Organizations only have experience with or have a long standing relationship with lab breeders or rescuers.


• something to do with them being overbred.. not as likely to have the work drive.
  
  while you can find all 3 colors in a litter.. you dont typically see chocolate in working lines.. its just less common.
  
  These facilities have strictly narrowed down what they feel works best for their program.. they have a much better success rate when they use such strict guidelines for choosing potential service dogs. It costs a lot of money to raise a puppy.. even to get it thru that first year to be evaluated as a guide dog.. they want to eliminate that failure rate as much as possible.


• They have their own breeding program. Chocolate is a recessive gene. It is possible that their breeding program simply does not carry the gene to produce chocolate. That could also be intentional.
  
  Yes, there are those who claim that chocolates are less intelligent, and in a way I do believe they are right. However, I don't think the color itself has anything to do with it, but more the breeding practices behind it.
  
  You could always email and ask.


• Chocolate coloring is the result of inferior genetic combinations. Professional service dog organizations breed their own stock to avoid such genetic aberrations.


• I've heard that chocolate labs are less intelligent. It sounds ridiculous, but as far as I know it's because they're vastly over bred. Most people working labs won't use chocolates, either. I only see chocolates as pet dogs.


• chocolate labs are not as common, for the reason everyone else stated and I have heard many trainers say they are slower to mature mentally.


• Maybe easier to train them, or they have a higher demand for the yellow or black lab.


• my guess is its a preference of their trainers or there might be a behavioral difference that makes the chocolate lab less desirable for the process


• that's all they have, don't know why. have to ask them