Sweet like chocolate

Never judge a book by its cover–or a labrador by its chocolate coat, especially now they are no longer reviled in the shooting field

- Katy Birchall

IT’S been a long time coming, but attitudes towards chocolate labradors are changing,’ declares Dorothy WallsDuffin of Grangemead Labradors. ‘You always used to hear that chocolates were no good in the shooting field—now, an awful lot of gamekeepers have them. That speaks for itself.’

As a book shouldn’t be judged by its cover, nor should a labrador be judged by its colour, but the general opinion among the country set has long been that blacks rule the roost, yellow and fox reds are modern favourites and chocolates belong in the show ring. Even the name ‘chocolate’ alludes to a pampered pet—the shade was called ‘liver’ for the first half of the 20th century, but was changed to sound more appealing.

The earliest record of chocolates is two ‘liver’ pups born in the Buccleuch kennel in 1892, but the black coat was the colour of choice at the time and remained so when the labrador was officially recognised in 1903. Although there were notable attempts to popularise chocolates, it wasn’t until after the Second World War that they began to gain attention. With their rich brown coats, gentle eyes and devoted nature, the dogs were embraced by show enthusiasts and became a big hit as family pets, but continued to be largely ignored by the shooting world. Consequently, their trainability and working instinct was bred out of them—this is the challenge for today’s chocolate devotees.