A question for those of you out there who have bred long-coated, aka fluffy, Labradors - at what age as a puppy did you notice the puppy didn't look "right" - too much coat, etc..? What did the puppy look like?

Fluffy coat test does not apply to Labradors and is a test that is used
for Pembroke Welsh Corgi's.

Coat Length test is what you are looking for. You can usually tell at
about 6 to 8 weeks if a puppy is affected, it will look more like a
golden retriever coat rather than a labrador coat.

Hi~ I've not ever bred one to date, but I've visited w/ a well known across the pond breeder who has. She says you'll start noticing w/in about 2/3weeks longer hair on the ears/head first.

I long suspected the lines in the pedigree and wanted to compare w/ her and sure enough, same.

I have pictures of some fluffy babies if you'd like see them.

What about just longer coat in general, not a 'fluffy'. I produced a litter in which the coats were LONG. Not fluffy, but the amount of feathering on the legs, tails and underside was amazing. The actual coat length is abnormally long even along the topline, and the coat was not harsh, its soft. I have seen other labs that have this longer type coat from these lines as well. I did not notice the abnormal length til the adult coat started coming in. Coat on head and ears are normal.

From the pictures shared w/ me, they are fluffy as babies and as adults, their coat is long. The babies resemble golden babies to me and even flat-coat if it wasn't for the unique headpiece of the FCR.

That´s an interesting discussion... is long/fluffy coats a problem in the US?

We had this..the long coat as opposed to an open coat.
You could see the babies from about 3 weeks looking different, like others say, like Goldens. By 6 weeks there was no denying something was amiss...they looked exactly like goldens. As adults they look the same, no one would even think they were labs. In this litter it affected all the boys, none of the girls.
Isn't there a test avail now to check for this?

http://www.vetgen.com/canine-coat-color.html Do a find for fluffy - it is at the end.

http://www.vetdnacenter.com/canine-fluffy-test.html Also check this one.

Ingen included the fluffy test in its package before they went to the Bahamas. Not any more.

I know there are pictures of fluffy labs out there, in both yellow and black. Perhaps if you listed your email, people would send them to you.

The US isn't the only country to produce this problem. Perhaps the US breeders are just more open about discussing problems in the breed.

The boy I had looked funny at about 6 weeks. I did the AI so knew there was no miss but when the person who purchased the puppy told me her vet said I sold her a golden I had to go from NJ to Mass to see what he meant. Sure enough I thought someone got in the yard.LOL. The sire had died do I couldnt do the DNA. (I learned a whole lot of lessons with this one.) But Grandma and Dam carry the fluffy coat gene. DNA vet center does the test for labs. Randall Smith can look at your pedigree and see if it relates to some very much used stud dogs that also tested positive. I lost AKC reg for about a year then they reinstated when parent club posted article about it in their newsletter.

I've seen them in another breeder's litter. They absolutely looked like Golden Retriever pups. They were *not* the same as well wrapped, heavier coat on some of the show labs I've seen. That's correct coat, this was not. Those GR-looking puppies were hidden from the regular puppy buyers after a buyer asked what breed the funkie coated pups were. The breeder had a hard time selling the available ones due to their resemblance to Goldens.

This breeders long-time mentor demanded she keep one boy for breeding into his or her lighter coated lines. If I mentioned the name, lots of you would know who it was and know this person is capable of demanding that and more. He claimed it was legal to do so why not when coat was too lite for him?

If it's a fault, why perpetuate it?

Ohh sorry I should have said... "is it a problem around the world"

I haven´t seen a long coated Labrador here in Iceland though

The labrador shouldn't have true *feathering* according to the standard today or in past years.

Just remember your Labrador history. They were crossed with Pointers and Setters when being developed in the UK (except by one line who kept his St John's Water dogs pure). When these dogs came to the US, the AKC registered all Retrievers as one, the long-coated yellows were Goldens, the long-coated black and liver were Flat-Coats and the short coated were registered as Labradors until the stud books were closed in 1917. So I can see where there still may be the long coated gene floating around out there, just like the black and tan/brindle gene.

I have had the privilege of seeing a adult dog and 8 week old puppies
that have been effected with this gene. Luckily I have not produced it yet (knock on wood) as I know there are a couple of known carriers in a couple of my
pedigree's.

Although the puppies may appear to be fluffy in appearance this does not
apply to the test that is available, the only test that is available for Labradors is the test for the long haired coat gene. This gets a little confusing for people
that don't know the difference when trying to do testing.

For the breeder that started this post. Both parents are probably carriers of
the gene. If I am not mistaken 25% will be clear, 25% effected and 50% carriers.
It is not the end of the world though, luckily we have the DNA test available
and you can go on with your breeding program.

Although this is a fault for are breed, the puppies are still very cute!