What a busy life you have!!! But fulfilling by the sounds of it. Labs are the goofiest dogs ever.

I never knew about the "diluted gene". I have a golden doodle -( golden retriever x poodle for those who don't know the "breed") She's actually 2nd generation so mom is golden doodle, dad is poodle. Anyhow, Abbey is chocolate - was the darkest chocolate for the first year or so and now her back is mixed with silver hair as well as a plume of silver on her tail . The color change actually makes her look like an older dog. Funny.

So it now makes sense.

I enjoyed reading your post and look forward to reading more. Visited your blog - you have such soulful puppies.