# Black Skin



## monkey (May 10, 2005)

I have a question for everyone......

I have a Blond Golde.. Well his stomach is black. well most of it is. I would say the most part that is the color black is the upper part and toward his tail it is the natural skin color. 
I looked at the rest of his skin around his body and it for the most it is the natural color. I would appreciate some input on this. Im a new owner of the GR Breed so I am just a pup myself!!!!????


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## monomer (Apr 21, 2005)

This is what I'd learned with our last dog, an American Eskimo...

"Eskies" are pure white dogs (a little biscuit color is allowed) with striking black points ("points" are the nose, lips and eye rims)... Think about it, an all-white dog with sharply defined black points, hmmmm... so ya gotta be asking "How is that possible?" Well what I found out was if you look closely at the skin you will see it is black... the whole head area and often most of the body as well... the white hair covers it so you don't see the skin except for the hairless parts like the nose, lips, and eye rims. I guess this is what happens when you consciously breed for a white coat but are also selecting for strong black points. You essentially end up with a mostly all-black dog with white fur. 'They' say that the blacker the skin and the greater the area, the stronger the black points will be ('stronger' means being more resistant to fading in the winter and with the dog's aging). Now if I remember right, black points are a desired feature in the Golden (i.e. the breed standard is biased toward it)... so I guess that the more black skin your Golden has, the better the chance is that he has excellent black points that will resist fading with age... our Sidney goes so far as to have a large black spot on the front of his tongue (our American Eskimo also had a black spot in the center of his tongue and he did have very strong black points).


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## Vierka (Apr 10, 2005)

Our Golden Retriever puppies had both white belly skin and dark skin - the darker (coat colour) puppies actually had whiter stomachs and the white pups have dark - blackish bellies.


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## monkey (May 10, 2005)

THANKS for all the INFO!!!

Reading all of this makes me feel better. I was just worried about Hypothyroidism in my Golden. Like I said before... this is the first time I have had dealings with this breed. And I will take all the info I can get.
His coat is very thick and full, And around his eyes and jaws.. his coat is even blonder. His skin looks very healthy. So once again reading all of this is a HUGE RELIEF!!!


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## Golden Mom (Apr 22, 2005)

our Sidney goes so far as to have a large black spot on the front of his tongue (our American Eskimo also had a black spot in the center of his tongue and he did have very strong black points).[/QUOTE said:


> Coffee developed a black spot in the middle front of his tongue over the last year or so. I'd never seen that before. Almost looks like he was sucking on the lead part of a pencil. (now, if that were Brandy, I would definitely consider it a possibility - he'll eat anything).
> 
> A year ago this past winter, he ate my medications and spent the weekend getting his stomach pumped. He's chewed THREE of my stickshifts, the last time was a month ago, and I hadn't even had the new one in for a month yet.
> 
> Oh, I could go on, but what's the point? I love him to death, and his eyes keep pleading, "Oh, puhlease love me!"


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## Vierka (Apr 10, 2005)

Hi Golden Mom! Those were some scary stories - Brandy and Coffee must be a good couple though...  

Hopefully they won't get into such serious trouble anymore.


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## Golden Mom (Apr 22, 2005)

Brandy got into trouble by "counter surfing." I'd never had a dog do that before. My meds were way back in the corner of the counter, and in all the years I've had dogs, it's never been an issue.

Now that I know that possibility exists, I have to be much more careful and watchful of what I leave out when I go to work. Thank God he didn't get into that stuff too much before I got home that night, or he would have been a gonner.


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## twogoldens324 (May 19, 2005)

Penny has a black spot right in the middle of her tongue. At first I thought she had a piece of a stick in her mouth. In my daughters 4 H club 4 of the 6 Goldens had black spots on their tongues. I had never seen that in a Golden before that. Karen


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## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

Lila, one of our puppies has a black spot on her tongue as well


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## monkey (May 10, 2005)

Yes,,,, yall are right!!!

Buck also has black in his mouth. I was also wondering about that. But with all the other black on his skin I figured it was something in his bloodline.


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## rustybanjo (Jun 28, 2005)

Hi! 
We have 2 Golden Retrievers, which we adore, they are 9 and 7 years old. The 9 yr old has Tyroid problems and is on medication, has been for a couple of years, I started noticing his black skin, only in certain areas so on one of his Vet visit I asked her and she told me it's because of his tyroid??? My other 7 year old has no black skin whatsover!!! Also our 9 year old use to weigh approx. 103lbs, had him on diet food, tried to exercise him, and so on but didn't loose any weight and the Vet couldn't figure out what I was doing, well until a blood test detected Tyroid, so if your Golden is gaining weight, sleeps alot, seems like an old guy actually, get their tyroid checked, once he was on medication, lost the weight no problem and was a totally different dog, he became slim, trim and young again!!! 

Love
Rusty & Banjo


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## Terri70 (Nov 2, 2005)

*Black skin*

I know this was posted awhile ago  , but I just wanted to ask a question. My Gunner has a black spot on his right shoulder about the size of a quarter or fifty cent piece. Now of his littermates or any of them from the sire had this. I've researched it and from what I get it IS the skin pigmentation/mutation or whatever. A type that should/will not be passed on to his children. Do you think that this is true. Do you think I would have a problem if I were to breed him?? Of course it's gonna be quite awhile before this happens since he's only 4 mos now. LOL  But was curious to what you all say.


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## Allie and the Gang =) (Apr 21, 2005)

Can you get us a pic of his black spot on his shoulder...Its probably not a big deal, although it isnt in AKC standard, it may just be a fluke...Did you see the parents? Did they have black on their coats?

:wave: :wavey:


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## Terri70 (Nov 2, 2005)

Allie and the Gang =) said:


> Can you get us a pic of his black spot on his shoulder...Its probably not a big deal, although it isnt in AKC standard, it may just be a fluke...Did you see the parents? Did they have black on their coats?
> 
> :wave: :wavey:



There was no spot on any of the GR's that they had.  But I'm like you......I kinda think it's like a birthmark.


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## kingsgold (Dec 16, 2005)

The darker the skin on a Golden the better. The Breed Standard asks for dark pigmentation. 

Also you will find 60% of Goldens have a black spot on their tongues.


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## memlili (Mar 16, 2006)

*Black Pigmentation*

I wish I could give more info but............... years ago I remember a breeder telling me that a Golden is basically a black dog with some kind of genetic thing (like the technical term?) going on that allows for the golden color coat. She made it sound as if a proper Golden would have black skin. My Lil has dark sections to her skin and has a couple of black spots on her tongue.

For those who might wonder ~ Lil has done well on her Soloxine. In the first 4 weeks, with no additional exercise and the exact same diet as before, she lost nearly 8 pounds. She is acting like a puppy again at the age of 10. We will retest the thyroid in another few weeks to see if the dosage should be reduced or kept the same. Amazing what a difference a little lavendar pill can make!

Memlili


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## lola'smommy (Dec 19, 2005)

Lola has little black spots on her belly. When she was younger I had it in my head that it was dirt that I couldn't get off. When I took her to the vet, I asked her about it and she said the same thing about the pigmentation and also to me, about points and that the darker the skin the better.


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## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

Neither Buck nor Honey, our full goldens, have dark skin anywhere that I have ever seen, but Honey, or golden mix, does have dark skin on chest between her legs, her arm pits, and on the insides of her thighs.

I am glad Lil is doing so well. Buck goes in in two weeks for this thyroid, and I am having a full blood workup done on him. He turned 11 in Feb. and I like to make sure everything is "working" as it should.


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## Goldndust (Jul 30, 2005)

None of mine have ever been blond goldens, but they have had dark skin tummies when younger, as they got older the skin color turned too lighter to match the rest of there skin color. I've had light gold, and dark gold goldens. Kody has dark pigmentation on his nose, around his mouth and his eye rims. He has very good pigment.


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## Vicki (May 15, 2006)

Lucus had a black spot on the middle of his tongue. I found it around Christmastime when he was about 3...he was standing with several broken mini lights around his feet and I thought he'd been eating them off the light string! So off to the vet we went, on a quasi-emergency because I thought he had a piece of glass stuck in his tongue. Imagine my embarrassment when the vet told me it wasn't glass, it was a pigment spot and that alot of goldens have dark spots on their tongue and I'd never noticed Luke's before!


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