I have been asked about this creature several times.
It unfortunately doesn’t exist.
Its status in the amateur dog expert world, however, is near legendary status. I get asked about it more often than you’d think.
It is a creature like the chupacabra. It is one that people swear has to exist, simply because people see something they can’t quite explain. However, on the surface, this creature appears more plausible than the chupacabra.
But it is not.
The creature in question is the “black golden retriever”– a name that not only sounds like an oxymoron, it is one.
Here is a purported photograph of a black golden retriever:
I don’t know what kind of dog this animal is. It could be a flat-coated retriever or a golden mix of some sort. After all, we know that many golden crosses wind up being black dogs. That is because virtually all goldens are dominant black dogs wit the e/e genotype that prevents black pigment from appearing on their fur. When crossed with a breed with some genotype that is dominant over e/e, the black color gets expressed in the crossbreed’s fur. For reasons that will take a lot more space to explain than I have here, it doesn’t always happen. But it happens a lot.
All golden retrievers are e/e dogs. This is a recessive trait. It is impossible for them to carry dominant black, and goldens– and all gun dogs– don’t have recessive black color. You cannot breed to purebred goldens together and get black puppies.
The only black fur that can pop up on goldens is the somatic mutation that turns patches of their fur black. This mutation actually turns patches of the skin cells from e/e to E/e. E/e allows black pigment to appear on the fur. Where the dog is yellow or red, the skin cells are e/e. Because this trait happened because of a mutation in the somatic cells. It cannot be inherited.
Except for that somatic mutation, no purebred black golden retrievers exist. If such a dog did exist, it would also have to have a mutation that allows black fur to develop. If such a mutation could be found, it would be remarkable. Not only would we have dominant black and recessive black, we would have a third black color in the dog world, which we would have to call “golden retriever black.”
But if one runs into what appears to be a black golden retriever that appeared in a normal litter of purebred puppies, the dog is likely not purebred, and at least some of its littermates aren’t either.
Black golden retrievers are one of those little urban legends I wish would die.
If someone has a dog like this, I would ask very simply that the owner get the dog tested. Is this dog a dominant black or a recessive black? If it is either, then the dog is a crossbreed. If the gene cannot be determined, then you have a scientific discovery on your hands.
But until someone provides that evidence, black golden retrievers are about as real as the chupacabra.
***
No. I’m not talking about the mangy foxes, coyotes, raccoons, and other creatures that have been claimed to be chupacabras. I’m talking about something that looks like this.
The likelihood of that thing existing is about the same as the so-called black golden retriever appearing in a litter puppies from known purebred parents.
Very true…not black goldens…they wouldn’t be golden however there are Yellow Flat Coats which oft get mistaken for a Golden…I know I have one!
A common breed that accidentally mates with goldens and produces black puppies that look like goldens is the Llewellin setter. Specifically, the blue belton color variety.
[…] […]
The proofreader in me comes to the fore…in the first paragraph under the photo, it says that “virtually all Goldens are dominant black….” and in the next paragraph that “It is impossible for them to carry dominant black”. oops.
The explanation of course is that B (factor for dominant black) is present, but the formation of black pigment in the hair is disallowed by the presence of ee, a separate factor that alters production to yellow/red pigment instead.
Which you all knew. Scottie is correct in that the ONLY way a purebred Golden could be solid black, is IF the e factor mutated to E, allowing formation of black pigment in the hair. This would be exceptionally rare, and to my knowledge has never been proven.
And the dog in the photo looks very much Flat-Coat to me.
Its a flattie
Some guide dogs are labX goldens. Mostly yellow labs but some blacks too, the offspring almost always solid black.
That said, I’ll go with the flat-coat.
I have a female Black Labrador Retriever and she mated with a Golden Retriever. In the litter there were 1 short coat Labrador and the other 3 black puppies had duck like paws like the Labradors but the difference was that they had long coated hair like their dad. There is a puppy who resembles just like the beautiful animal in the top picture. The other 4 puppies were Golden Retrievers but with duck like paws. I named them in their owner certificates: Golden Labrador Retriever or Golden Black Labrador Retriever.
What that means you have a Labrador with the recessive long-haired gene:
https://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/do-labradors-come-in-long-hair/
This “creature” does exist. I know someone who has bred to golden retreivers and the puppies were solid black.
Then you know someone who has a bred a golden retriever but also has fence with a lot of holes in it.
The mother was golden but the father is black coated , no he was not a flat coat or a lab.
He was not a golden retriever then. Golden retrievers cannot be black. Gold is a recessive allele to black, and the breed was simply selected for yellow color. No pure golden is black. None. 0.