THE DILUTE GENE

Here at Applebycarr Labradors we continue to improve our breeding line of full colour chocolates EEbb, we are now 3 generations along and have recently took the step and added dilute colours to our home with the intention of creating another new successful line of generations to be proud off.

Our Stud Dog Power is full Silver, we also have two Silver bitches and 2 Charcoal bitches. 

There are many genes involved in determining a Labradors coat colour. Below is a brief insight to the coat colour genes and a simple explanation of how they work in Labradors and how we get Silver, Charcoal and Champagne colour Labrador's.

First of all you need to consider that Dilute Labrador Retriever's are recognised as:

Charcoal = Dilute Black

Silver = Dilute Chocolate  

Champagne = Dilute Yellow

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Below is a list of all the coat colour genes for the breed.

A     This gene causes a solid coat colour.

EE   This is a masking gene or epistatic gene so coat colour is determined by the B gene

Ee   This is the same as EE except the yellow gene is present.

ee    If thise gene is present the coat colour is always yellow. Unless ee is present the other genes below         determine coat colour.

BB    If this is the determining gene then the coat colour will be Black.

Bb    If this gene is present the coat colour will be Black but will also have the Chocolate gene.

bb    If this is the determining gene then the colour coat will be Chocolate.

dd   This is the recessive dilute gene. When this gene is present in both parents the coat colour can be Silver, Charcoal or Champagne.

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Below is a gene chart of the 3 common colours, Black, Yellow & Chocolate. 

There are 81 possible crosses between parents for coat colour in the litter outcome.

Black

 EE BB          Black only

 Ee BB          Black/ Yellow carrier

 EE Bb          Black/ Chocolate carrier

 Ee Bb          Black/ Yellow & Chocolate carrier

Chocolate

 EE bb          Chocolate only

 Ee bb          Chocolate/ Yellow carrier
 

Yellow

 ee BB          Yellow/ Black carrier

 ee Bb          Yellow/ Black & Chocolate carrier

 ee bb          Yellow/ Chocolate carrier

When dd (Dilute Gene) is involved and both parents are a dilute colour there are 81 possible crosses between parents for coat colour in the litter outcome. Below is a gene chart explaining the 3 dilute colours in Labradors.

Champagne

 ee BB dd         Champagne/ Charcoal carrier

 ee Bb dd          Champagne/ Charcoal & Silver carrier

 ee bb dd          Champagne/ Silver carrier

Charcoal

 EE BB dd          Charcoal only

 Ee BB dd          Charcoal/ Champagne carrier

 EE Bb dd          Charcoal/ Silver carrier

 Ee Bb dd          Charcoal/ Silver & Champagne carrier

Silver

 EE bb dd          Silver only

 Ee bb dd          Silver/ Champagne carrier

If both parents have the dd (Dilute Gene) and one or both are not a dilute colour there are 162 possible crosses between parents for coat colour in the litter outcome. If this is the case there is a possibility of all 6 colours in a single litter.