I know that I have some research to do on this, but I wanted to get some experienced thoughts/opinions. I currently have a litter of yellow pups. My girl, their dam, is pretty light in color, not white, but a light shade of yellow. The sire of the litter is a medium shade and he is a product of another litter of mine, so I know both lines well. There is one male in the litter who is an absolutely gorgeous fox red and I believe I know exactly where the color came from (great-grandsire on the sire's side). I have always loved the fox red color and have been thinking about looking more into them. But now that I have this male, I'm considering keeping him and finding a nice fox red female to add to my breeding program. My question is, is it possible to know that he will consistently produce fox red puppies? Or is it more of a trial and error thing? He has more light colored dogs in his lineage, so it makes me wonder. TIA!

Do your research, speak to breeders of fox reds and you'll get good advice. Congratulations on producing a fox red!

I think you better look again. Are you sure it is a true fox red? A lot of people think they have a fox red, but it is really just a dark yellow. Can you post a photo?

Isn't it wonderful when you find something in your lines that shows up in a nice puppy!!
The best people that I know of to talk to regarding Fox Reds are:
Greg Tonkin - Little River Labradors
Judy McCormick - Keepsake Labradors
Sally Kelley - KelleyGreen Labradors
Pam Naranjo DVM - Penara Labradors
and I have seen Sally Bell (Borador)with some nice ones too.
Good Luck!!

I'm sure of it. I have 2 other dogs that are dark shades of yellow and his color is distinctly different from theirs. Also, I know for a fact that his great-grandsire is a true fox red.

For the genetics see:
http://www.littleriverlabs.com/foxred3.htm

Also, see this for a full detailed explanation.

B/b, E/e, and Beyond:
A Detailed Examination of Coat Color Genetics
in the Labrador Retriever:

http://www.labbies.com/genetics2.htm

Hope that helps!

Dana

FYI, you will get alot of fox red "wackos" calling if you decide to produce fox red pups. Only interested in the color...could care less about anything else.
Do yourself a favor and advertise them as yellows if you do decide to do that.
As much as I love my fox red girl, I doubt that I will purposely breed a fox red litter again. There are so many more things to consider in a breeding than color.

I love the Reds. I look to breed to Red. Am I a "Wacho"? No. I just love the colour. Why do some only have chocolate? Are they chocolate wachos?

All I'm saying is that in general, people looking for fox reds care nothing about the other traits of the pups. Their only concern is that they get the deepest, darkest red of the litter. Nothing else matters to them.
I just didn't care for that attitude. If it doesn't bother you, rock on.

You get that also at the other end of yellow shade.

The ones only looking for the lightest shade of yellow. They call and asked if you have white labs.

I like all shades of yellow and have from a dark yellow to a very light yellow. I just tell them that I place pups according to the puppies temperament and families lifestyle and if all they care about is color they can go somewhere else.

Just to be honest Sherrie, that has not been our experience. Just like any other puppy placement you have to sort through the potential families but we have not seen the "could not care less" attitude as the other stuff is expected as well. Sure we have had folks that wanted the darkest puppy but considering we pick the pup ourselves for each family, this pretty much takes that issue out of the equation. I'm sure we would have a problem if folks got to pick their own but it does not work that way with us.
The vast majority just like that particular shade but they have the same expectations as if the puppy was light or medium yellow.

Very nice to hear Gregg, considering we are in the beginning stage of planning our very first red litter

We also always pick pups for our families. I feel it's the only way to go!

Gregg, thanks for your thoughts. I'm glad the issues I've experienced aren't universal. I do pick the pup for each family, but some of the people can be a bother despite this.
As you know, I love those red dogs, but just got turned off to breeding that color when the puppy buyers seemed to care about nothing else.

The attitude we take is we cannot and will not guarantee the shade on an all fox red litter, if this is a problem or we start to get pressure I just tell them that that is not the way we do things and I would be more than happy to refer them to another breeder and send their deposit back.
We have had a mixture of shades within a litter, at that point "they are all yellow varying from dark to light. If we expect that, the words fox red is never used.