Ask The Doc: Coat Color

back to topic list

OUR LAB IS 6 MONTHS OLD. EVERYONE ALWAYS SAYS HE IS MORE WHITE THAN YELLOW. HE HAS A FEW PATCHES OF YELLOW BUT IS MORE WHITE. IS THIS A NEW BREED OF LABS OR ARE WHITE LABS AS COMMON AS YELLOW, CHOC,

The AKC (American Kennel Club) registers Labradors in three coat colors: black, chocolate and yellow. While black is black and chocolate is chocolate, the yellow coat may range anywhere from a deep fox red to a very pale yellow approaching white in some cases. Therefore, your dog would most accurately be called a yellow Labrador.

We use the term "white Labs" as a descriptive one which serves to distinguish our dogs from dark yellow coated Labs. Even the very whitest of our dogs would be registered as yellow by the AKC.