Fox Red Labradors
The color fox red is not a "new fashion" in the Labrador, as it officially belongs to the color yellow - within there it appears as a color shade. Together with the colors Brown (liver) and black, these are the three colors officially recognized by the Federation Cynologique Internationale (FCI).
Although the color shade foxred is not yet widely known in Europe and in Italy, there is nothing new about it.
Already among the first yellow Labrador Retriever was a strong tinge of the coat tending to dark, so that the first dogs were officially inserted and recognized in the first registration documents were dark yellow or fox red.In 1899 "Ben of Hyde" was the first Labrador to be recorded under the Yellow color, as visible from the photo, Ben was a beautiful example of a fox red Labrador.
Ben of Hyde, 1899,
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labrador_Retriever#/media/File:Ben_of_Hyde.png
Over the years the light yellow or cream color became much more popular among breeders, and slowly the conception of the true yellow color of the Labrador was almost lost.
Even today many breeders believe that the true and original color of the "yellow" Labrador is a very light shade of beige or also called cream, in recent years many breeders have specialized in the color "White" a shade that is not officially recognized by FCI .
Fortunately, not all breeders abandoned the idea of maintaining the color fox red, and today few Kennels in England and the USA have remained faithful to the color fox red.
In the 1990s there was a real return in breeding Labrador in the shade fox red, especially in the United States where the Kennels "Kelleygreen" and "Keepsake" (today still famous kennels) specialized in the shade FOX RED.
The fabulous offspring of those breeding programms have been exported to Europe and are now present in most fox red Lab pedigrees in Europe.
Also in the pedigree of our fox reds we find ancestors from renowned US Kennels with Labs like:
Boradors Moose, Keepsake Cajun oder Keepsake's Brickhouse.
At the moment our intention is to build our own breeding programm here in Italy and therefore bring some "fresh" show line Labradors from quality US breeders to Europe.
The Labrador Retriever can divided into two distinct categories, the so-called Show Line nowadays mainly bred in the United States and the so-called Work Line (work line) mainly bred in Great Britain.
SHOW LINE LABS (English Labs)
They are distinguished by their more powerful body shape. Their head is relatively larger and less tapered.The body is shorter and more compact and the legs are in relation their body shorter.
An example of a Show Line Lab is our KIM - Iron Hill's Bellezza d'Italia Kim
WORKING LINE LABS (American Labs)
They are distinguished by their slimmer and sporty body shape, unless they also require strong bones for their tasks but with a non-mighty physical constitution. They are mainly characterized by longer legs and a more tapered head and nose.These characteristics are the most close to the original set breed standards.
The ancestors of our Labrador Wanda-Dakota are mainly Working Line Labs.
As a breeding we want to clarify that both lines are suitable as a company or family Lab as both types show the famous and undisputed characteristics of Labrador Retriever: playful, lively, friendly, faithful, obedient.Do not forget that the Labrador Retriever, like almost all medium size dogs, needs a lot of movement, activities, new stimulation like games of hunting for prizes and of course of our undisputed company.
Let yourself be charmed by our fabulous Labrador Retriever Foxred.
