I have a chocolate puppy with neuro problems and I have been wondering if there is a problem back in the chocolate line.

In the old days, people claimed that chocolates were harder to train.

Guiding Eyes for the Blind doesn't seem to have them and I wonder if they intentionally steer away from lines that carry chocolate.

Do they have genetic defects more so than blacks and yellows?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME ? Do you think chocolates have just come down from chocolates for the last 50 years ? No blacks, no yellows in the pedigrees.

My chocolate is by far the best working dog I have ever owned, is extremely biddable, and knock on wood, is also the healthiest dog I have owned. His sire, also chocolate, was the same way. There MAY be issues behind your dog (or it may just be one of those things), but I would not lump all chocolates in the same bin.

One of my chocolate bitch puppies I donated, was just selected to stay at Guide Dogs of America as a breeding dog, they liked her so much after her training.

How silly these days, to think chocolates are any different than the blacks and yellows.

I am sorry your dog is having neurological problems, I hope that you find a treatment plan for him/her, and that you purchased him/her through a reputable breeder that selects for health.

I've had far less problems with my chocolate lines than with my yellow/black lines over the years. My only gripe about owning chocolates is when they shed and are left with that orange cast/blotching spots until their coat comes back in. My chocolates are also very trainable and birdy as they should be.

Responding to Breeder Wondering?: I agree!!!! Some pet families bring the temperament/training thing up and I laugh and ask them if they think all blondes are dumb. It's a hair color! Those "wild" chocolates could have had a "wild" black or yellow parent!

Of course temperament and coat color could be linked. When researchers bred foxes for tameness, their coat, ears, and tail also changed.

It concerns me so much when people make sweeping statements based on anecdotal evidence. Anecdotal means "based on anecdotes or hearsay: consisting of or based on secondhand accounts rather than firsthand knowledge or experience or scientific investigation."

It's simply not valid to say that "My chocolate has problems, therefore all chocolates have problems."

The science is that chocolate dogs can have exactly the same genes as blacks or yellows. The inheritance of the color is a relatively simple recessive at two loci. They are all bbEE or bbEe. Change one "b" to "B" and you have a black dog. Or change the EE or Ee to "ee" and the dog is yellow. Simple as that. All of the other genes could be exactly the same. Your chocolate could be produced by breeding many combinations of colors - black to black, black to yellow, black to chocolate, yellow to chocolate, chocolate to chocolate. And his ancestors could be any color at all. The fact that your dog is chocolate just means that he got at least one "E" and two "b"s from his parents.

Where you will find behavioral differences is in certain lines. Those lines might carry yellow, black, chocolate or any combination. Your one experience is with one dog and one line. I don't know the pedigree, but maybe the breeder was so focused on breeding for chocolate that he or she didn't consider other traits such as temperament in the breeding. Breeding for color only risks many problems.

I have to say that back in the '80's a lot of chocolates were pretty crazy. The gene pool was very small and there had to be a popular hyper stud or two back then. In the late '90's the interest in chocolates really took off. Since then a lot of dedicated breeders have brought in lots of black DNA. Also, when it became clear how color is inherited, chocolate breeders were able to breed with yellows. The result of generations of hard work is, chocolates are much much better in just about every way. Their reputation from way back when still haunts them, even though it no longer applies.

Also there was a top field dog that had tons of energy that produced alot of chocolates. And alot of back yard breeders just bred to make money when chocolates started showing up. It was something a little different. But for years breeders did not take time to give them a chance. Now breeders are breeding chocolates using standards they had always done with the other colors. Now we have competative chocolates.