Colour and Tracking

[6pointer]

Well i was looking at a couple of tracking dogs today and while they are the same breed they are a different colour.

Do you think there is a colour that is better than another at tracking.
Lab,s seem to have their critics regards colour. Fawns good for pegs but not hard finders i am told Blacks work hard out in the field but get bored easy at a peg. Chocolates seem to get a real hard time from gun dog men. Just what i have heard and i must admit to liking labs my moan would be most i see are fat fe cks.
So with BMH We have the Black face Red Body (Most popular) Lighter self coloured red dogs (Not quite as popular ) Mainly Black (Very Rare)

We then have Hanoverians Tiger stripes (Most popular ) Red Self colors (Less popular) And light fawns (quite rare)

Is this because of their tracking ability or just colour Fads.??

 

[stone]

Colour don't matter ... it is the breeding that does

 

[cookingfat]

As a dog person Davie I cant believe you have asked that question. .!
As Richard has sad its mostly in the breeding and how it is trained.

 

[6pointer]

I agree so why such a push for the tiger stripe or the Dark head. I am not sure Richard and your self might know this but am i right in thinking the Chocolate lab is frown upon as a bad worker. Most i have spoken to believe this to be the case.

 

[novice]

Is it not the case with chocs, and perhaps other breeds/colours, that working qualities have been overlooked on favour of colour? Perhaps there are examples of this in other breeds used for deer work?

Novice

 

[howy308]

To a dog man colour does not matter its in the breeding and training and for someone to think of labs as yourself I can only think that you have still a lot to learn about dogs and there breeding!

 

[6pointer]

howy308 as you know we are always learning and i do still have a lot to learn. But is it not the case as novice says that sometimes the look of a dog can take the attention away from its real purpose.

 

[cookingfat]

We have two choc labs in our kennel, how neither are going to win any field trails but they are cracking working dogs..!

 

[Wildboar1973]

Oh no... Not again...

 

[6pointer]

What up with you Wild Boar you got brindle and because its two colours get a bit confused lol.

 

[countrryboy]

Now i realise this is not tracking dogs but in the FT scene colour does seem to make a difference esp with the springers with many dogs now almost pure white with very little colour as they look 'flashier' and 'faster' also why they tend to be smaller and thats wot the judges want so dogs are more successful.

If it is all in the breeding (which i do agree with) do some strains/lines throw paticular colours so, some colours possibly could be better than others, possibly more so in the uk with the very limited gene pool/decent dogs, if u had a very good dog with a dominat colour gene and is used at stud a bit could it not mean some colours may actually be better? Must admit playing devils advocate a wee bit here

 

[6pointer]

Could it not also be what is happening in the Show ring that determines what the preferred colour is. Fashion can be and will be part of breeding. The BMH is already getting shown at the major shows with reasonable results albeit with no competition. Will these dogs now become the dogs people want to breed from . Orwill new dog owners look by the flash dogs of the show ring with their fancy Tigers stripes or dark black heads and go for the dogs that are worked hard and are good at what they do.

 

[Shabz]

if u had a very good dog with a dominat colour gene and is used at stud a bit could it not mean some colours may actually be better?

Absolutely! I would never have a chocolate lab. They don't tend to be very good workers. Lots of people have this opinion and it seems to create a self fulfilling prophecy. There aren't any good ones because there aren't any good ones, not because of the colour.

I wouldn't buy a GWP that had too many patches of liver on it! How mad is that!?!

 

[Bugsy]

Could it not also be what is happening in the Show ring that determines what the preferred colour is. Fashion can be and will be part of breeding. The BMH is already getting shown at the major shows with reasonable results albeit with no competition. Will these dogs now become the dogs people want to breed from . Orwill new dog owners look by the flash dogs of the show ring with their fancy Tigers stripes or dark black heads and go for the dogs that are worked hard and are good at what they do.

when I bought ma dog 9 months ago I looked at a lot of different breeds and the goods and the bads of each of them but one thing that kept cropping up when speaking to different people was don't touch a brown lab , a black one -no problem , any colour other than brown . 3 weeks later my mate bought a brown lab as a pet not a gun dog because his wife said they were fashionable , hes always had cross breeds and no problem training them but his brown lab took twice as long with the same effort.

 

[bullet chucker]

Is it not the case with chocs, and perhaps other breeds/colours, that working qualities have been overlooked on favour of colour? Perhaps there are examples of this in other breeds used for deer work?

Novice

Just to add fuel to the wosname I now have a 'chocolate' Cocker BEST DOG I have ever had, easy to train and very willing. I used to go for springers but no more thanks.

 

[Jagare]

Could it not also be what is happening in the Show ring that determines what the preferred colour is. Fashion can be and will be part of breeding. The BMH is already getting shown at the major shows with reasonable results albeit with no competition. Will these dogs now become the dogs people want to breed from . Orwill new dog owners look by the flash dogs of the show ring with their fancy Tigers stripes or dark black heads and go for the dogs that are worked hard and are good at what they do.

This maybe so in the UK show rings. Here in Sweden showing is part of the hunting dog Scene. If you have a teckle you must have it judged in show before you can do a hunting test with it. There is a yearly show just for hunting dogs that my neighbour shows his gråhunds at. He is passionate about his dogs, their comfirmation and their hunting ability. I don't know about the German or other European countries if hunting and showing go together. But me thinks you judge other countries hunting dog shows with what goes on in the UK. Theres a big hunting dog world outside little UK.

 

[straightbetweentheeyes]

I think the sigma of chocolate labs is not because the colour is chocolate, more that choc labs are typically show stock and not been bred as working dogs up until recently.. I've never seen a decent choc lab on any shoot I've been on, having said that I've seen some ****£ black ones also..

 

[6pointer]

Jagare i take you point and need to say this is only the uk i am talking about. Most people on here will purchase their dogs from the uk and if the show fashion hits our breeds could be in more trouble than we thought. I am sure if you look at the most prolific stud dogs in the BMH breed they will be doing very well at show,s .

 

[Jagare]

Jagare i take you point and need to say this is only the uk i am talking about. Most people on here will purchase their dogs from the uk and if the show fashion hits our breeds could be in more trouble than we thought. I am sure if you look at the most prolific stud dogs in the BMH breed they will be doing very well at show,s .

Its a different mind set in the UK to showing. I've showed the Kopov and I've got to say that the show world is a very strange world. I talk about pure show dogs here. With hunting dogs here thats what they are. I have never heard of anyone keeping, say a Hamilton Stövare ( harrier) a very handsom hound, as a pet or any other hunting dog for that matter. Apart from teckles but they have many different branches to the breed.

 

[6pointer]

I remember showing my Border terriers many years ago( Holly bridge royalist )for anyone that wants to see what a good looking working border should be like. Any way he was worked hard during the winter to foxes and met a particularly hard fox that broke his jaw. When i was back in the show ring i was given a real hard time for working the wee fella and the judges penalised him for his jawline. He was used at stud many times because he looked great but soon as he was injured he was hardly used. It is important to show people to beable to say this dog is off so and so that won crufts, Blackpool ,SKC etc and i can see it happing now. I will ask a questin dose any one know what the top winning BMH dog is called.??