RED LABS RISING

Once shunned in favour of the ubiquitous black, the fox-red labrador is now becoming increasingly popular, as Giles Catchpole relates

- Giles Catchpole

That coppery sheen is striking. On closer inspection, the conformation of the reds is what might be called traditional. The look of the labrador is distinctive and the fox-red version has it in spades;

When I was really quite little – long, long ago – I recall meeting a number of yellow labradors. There was Honey and Treacle and there might have been one called Fudge, too. Those names suggest to me now that they were probably at the richer end of the yellow spectrum. It is also true, come to think of it, that yellow labradors were often referred to as ‘golden’ then, which may have been technically inaccurate but was perhaps a better description of their color than yellow.

The Kennel Club formally acknowledges only three colours: black, yellow, and liver – which has mutated to chocolate and thereby boosted the appeal of the brown version considerably. Black, everyone agrees, is black; yellow, by contrast, embraces shades from the lightest ivory to the richest russet – described as ‘fox-red – and all points in between. But all are officially still yellow.

When it comes to the definition of a fox red labrador, it is not straightforward. It’s fair to say that a uniformly coppery coat – with emphasis on the ‘uniform’, no dilution or fading at the edges – fits the description. Gold is positively yellow; copper is definitely fox-red.