Other than limiting the selection of stud dogs if one wants to stay away from producing chocolates, are there any physical differences (pigment wise) between a yellow that carries the chocolate gene and one that doesn't? Will the yellow that doesn't carry chocolate hold on to pigment better?

Someone told me a long time ago that there is something about the whiskers of a dog that will tell you if the dog carries chocolate but I can't remember what I was told or if it was just for black dogs. Anyone know of a way to tell if a dog carries chocolate besides dilating the eyes or a DNA test?

A friend of mine had her boy eyes checked out and said that the vet ( specialist in eye diseases) had told her that this boy carries chocolate!! I've never heard of this before that it can be seen and detected like this (by looking in the eyes)
So I've also heard about this too curious :)

I don't recall exactly how, but my opthalmologist also said you can tell if the dog carries chocolate by looking into the eyes.

But NO. Carrying chocolate doesn't garuntee anything about the intensity of pigment. Gandhi and Marty both have and produce great pigment as do a couple sons, grandsons, etc and they all carry chocolate. I'm sure there are many other nice Yc boys out there.

My opthamologist has commented every year that my yellow girl MAY carry chocolate.

My best pigmented yellow is on my bitch Lilly who carries chocolate (she was DNA tested). She got the chocolate gene from her sire Lewis, who also had excellent pigment. She is going to be 7 this month and her nose is still jet black, never faded. She also passed her good pigment on to her kids, and her son Elroy appears to have passed it to his kids as well. She has had CERF exams by several different opthamologists and no one has ever commented on the possibility of her carrying chocolate when they examined her eyes.

I have two yellows from the same lines that carry chocolate. One is male and one is female. Both of them to me, have a less black nose than my yellows who don't carry chocolate. Yet both of them have been bred (not to each other) and have produced very dark pigment on their offspring. To answer your question, I would do the DNA test so there is no question to whether the dog carrys chocolate or not.

During a CERF exam my ophthalmologist told me she can tell my girl carries chocolate because the back of her retina reflects red and she showed me. She said this is how they determined the chocolate gene before DNA testing. She's never been wrong on my dogs (proven with DNA).

My girl produces great pigment but some of the puppy noses fade terribly when they mature and some of them hold their pigment (like Forestwood's). I thought the dogs that faded carried chocolate but I see that probably isn't true. It seems impossible then to determine which puppies will hold their pigment later on.

Thanks everyone.

My 11 year old yellow carrying chocolate still has beautiful pigment except in the winter. There is nothing I have ever seen that makes her any different than a Yy. I bred her twice to Yy's, again beautiful pigment in all pups beginning quite young.

To be super safe you might want to breed her to a pure for black stud-dog. In recent years, I try to breed more black than anything but it's become my cup of tea.

Breeding black into the eebb or EEbb chocolates makes the chocolate coats beautiful thick and dark, here anyway. Do others see this?

Nose color can be fading or solid depending on the yellow line the dog has and that can be bred out to dark leather too.

We have done it over the years with leather, eye and coat color.

A yellow eebb should be DNA tested because they can carry more than two copies of the b genes(check with DDC) and can be bred to a pure for yellow or black carrying only yellow or to a black dog carrying only chocolate or a pure for chocolate. The parent can't be shown but are like have two dogs in one that produce beautiful puppies.

Don't throw those genetic wonders out because of nose color!

Next time I take my black girl in to be cerfed, I'll ask the dr if he can tell if my girl carries the yellow gene...save me some bucks on DNA testing