Light CREAM Is YELLOW, EXCEPT When It's NOT

   As I investigate the goings on of the AKC and various breed clubs and breeders it is difficult to make sense of it all.
   For example, consider the Flat-Coated Retriever. The AKC Breed Standard declares that Yellow, cream or any color other than black or liver is a disqualification. BUT, you can register a yellow Flat-Coated Retriever by checking the YELLOW box on the AKC registration form. These YFCRs can participate in all AKC-sanctioned activities EXCEPT those taking place in the conformation ring. I spoke with a Club official who said that yellow is a birth color, so why not recognize it as such?  He added that it is no easy task to get judges to appreciate the liver coats in the show ring, even today. So coat color is still a consideration, like it or not. Fair or not.
   However, if you own a born-cream Golden Retriever, the AKC insists that it be registered with them as a LIGHT GOLD Golden Retriever. Why? Apparently because the AKC has turned over the right to identify acceptable coat color to the parent breed club. In our case, the GRCA. In doing so, the GRCA seems to be defining a CREAM Golden Retriever as a GOLD Golden Retriever. It's just a LIGHTER SHADE of gold.
   There do not appear to be many yellow flat-coats running about the American landscape at present. But if you know your Golden Retriever breed history, then you will recall that the earliest yellow/golden retrievers were often considered to be in the same group with the black flat-coats of the time. And the first yellow pup (destined to be the start of the Golden Retriever breed) was from an otherwise black "retriever" litter.
   Sadly, at least one present-day breeder thinks it might be a good idea to breed yellow flat-coats to long-haired weimaraners. Just what the world needs.
   Then, consider the Labrador Retriever. If you go to the website of the parent club--LRC --you are met with a headline which shouts, "BUYER BEWARE! TRUE LABRADOR RETRIEVERS ARE BLACK, YELLOW, AND CHOCOLATE ONLY!" (By the way, to muddy the waters a bit more, there is ALSO a National Labrador Retriever Club which is NOT the parent club for the breed in the United States. They reject the AKC Breed Standard and instead have adopted the FCI Breed Standard subscribed to by roughly 80 nations around the world.)
   There's that word "true" again; as in "to be TRULY a Golden Retriever, a Golden MUST BE TRULY gold in color." But, I digress.
   According to the AKC Breed Standard for the Labs, "Yellows may range in color from fox red to light cream." Things related to coat color in Labrador Retrievers are more complex than in Goldens because you are working with BOTH MASTER GENES for COLOR-- BLACK AND RED. Genetic studies have been done which "prove" that there is no gene that can account for a SILVER Labrador Retriever, or slate or blue variants. The silver-gray or mouse-gray can ONLY be introduced if you introduce a Weimaraner to a Lab. In other words, you CANNOT have a PUREBRED silver Labrador Retriever.
   To the Lab fancier, CREAM-- even LIGHT cream --is a part of the acceptable range for YELLOW Labs. The "extension YELLOW series in Golden Retrievers--while it includes the COLOR CREAM as well as red, apparently --is the subject of arbitrary selection by the GRCA leadership.  They have determined that CREAM is simply not GOLD ENOUGH for their personal taste,. Their delicate aesthetic sensibilities.