An Open Letter to Labrador Purest and the LRC.

Dear ”To Whom it May Concern;”

There have been all sorts of recommendations floating around since dilute Labradors appeared on the scene in the 1980s.  Again we won’t rehash the origin stories because at this point, it’s beyond moot.  It has been established by “parentage” per the American Kennel Club since the 1980s that dilute Labradors have existed within the “Labrador” gene pool.  This is really indisputable.  Recently, a Labrador genetics company published that after five generations within the breed marker patterns, they are considered full bred.  There have now been more than 20 generations of Labradors since the dilute gene was fully discovered.  Labradors can produce litters by the time they are two years of age.  Females often breed until they are five or six years old.   Males can produce multiple generations and many many litters comparatively.   This would mean minimally 20 generations since that time.  It’s simply ignorance to call a dilute coated Labrador a “Weimador” or a mutt, or anything other than a “Labrador”.

No. 1. AKC and LRC have a stalemate – Dilute Lab Breeders caught in the crossfire.

 The sad reality is none of the existing dilute breeders are doing anything dishonest or unscrupulous just by breeding dilutes.   They are simply following the directions and recommendations set forth by the AKC Breed registry.   When someone asks, “How do I register a silver lab?” AKC instructs them that they are to be registered by their base coat color.  This means that in the 1980s, AKC determined that parentage was established in spite of the “color.”  AKC defined the dilute by their  “base coat colors” and to date, dilute breeders are still following the AKC registration guidelines.  Although this differs from LRC,  the parent club’s, desires, it is simply put, reality.  The parent club, should have no “beef” with dilute breeders.  Most of the first dilute breeders aren’t around any longer. If the LRC has an issue, if would have to be with AKC’s handling of the circumstances.  At the end of the day, the dilute breeder gets harrassed and AKC gets a pass.  How fair is that? 

Therefore, No 2 – The fight is dead, you might as well give up.

The fight is dead, and neither side is making headway toward any agreeable resolution.  There is no road to dilute eradication and with so much popularity and so many years in the rearview window of the breed, the purest need to accept reality.  That reality is we already have many of their lines including Dickendall, Hyspire, Windfall, Banner, Epoch, Deep Run, Greenstone, and so many other show lines as well as hunting pedigrees.   There’s simply nothing else to keep “pure;” the game is over.  When will you allow us to start competing and make it a real competition?

Therefore, No 3. We have your lines already!  Stop throwing a fit, it’s a bit too late!

And finally, there has been an amusing attempt to “encourage” people within the dilute community to “start” their own breed such as “The Silver Retriever” or the “American Retriever.” However, there is little to no traction for this within the dilute Labrador community.   You won’t convince a dilute Labrador breeding community that after 40 years of breeding a particular breed, that all of a sudden they are no longer Labs or Labrador Retrievers.  As much as some would like a separation, there is no interest and no path for this to take place.   EVEN if there was a small subset of people who started to move that direction, the reality is there are so many Labradors carrying the dilute gene within the existing breed and there is no way that they would ‘reclassify’ all the Labradors that carried the d gene within the existing Labrador population.

The No 4. and final point to recap.

• There have been over 20 generations of Labradors with the dilute genes.  It’s pure ignorance to call dilute labs anything other than Labrador Retrievers.
• Dilute breeders are caught in the crossfire – stop being so cruel with character attacks when you know nothing of them personally. Take your fight to AKC, not dilute breeders.
• Ultimately the fight is really dead, or at least deadlocked.  When will you accept reality and allow us to compete against you? Ready to change the standard yet?
• There is no separating the breed, another reality that you are going to have to deal with eventually.

Ultimately the breed will outlive its breeders and dilute Labrador future will go on to fight another day as the popularity grows so will its eventual acceptance. This the final reality you need to accept.