colour and intelligence

[winewood]

We were having this discussion at my local obedience club this morning regarding poodles and cocker's basically because my friend has a choc roan and was told if you want to get into Obed with cocker's your best with a blue, choc are harder to train!!! Then the poodle friend said its the same with hers blacks are best, apricots next,  whites hyperactive, choc are clowns, can't remember what she said about silver. Interested what everyone really thinks is this true? if so can someone rate the colours where do the blacks stand?

[sabrino]

I have never even thought of it! There are ppl that say the colours vary vastly in temperament too so whether this is true too, its a combination of them both or complete rubbish I don't know. I would say its a load of b******s. Saying that, my red certainly lives up to the fiery stereotype!  He is also very clever when he wants to be... but I think thats called deviousness... 

[Cocoa]

Well Cocoa is a choc roan and tan and I have had quite a few doggie people say to me that chocolates are known to be complete nutters    Having had a blue roan and an orange roan in the past I must say that Cocoa does live up to this reputation in comparison to my other cockers.  She is certainly more of a little livewire and less "ladylike" than they were but she can also be extremely clever when she wants to be but only if and when she feels like it.  She is definitely the clown at training classes  .  She has working cocker further back in her pedigree and I believe this is true of a lot of the chocolate show types as this was how they got the colouring.  I may be wrong about this but this is what I have been led to believe.  Anyway, this doesn't explain the case with poodles and other breeds.  My orange roan was a very gentle and well behaved little girl but my blue roan was a very cantankerous lady at times especially as she got older.

[bibathediva]

I have also heard something similar from a few breeders but not in such polite terms....that choc roans and most roans are thick  and solids are more intelligent  ...having one of each i would say that my choc roan is stubbon and will do things in her own sweet time  and my golden is very biddable and a people pleaser  i was also told that choc roans have a yappy bark...true with mine ....and solids have a gruff bark...true again with mine 

[Cocoa]

Yes Cocoa definitely has a yappy bark and if she is startled by something she does a sort of joined up bark (yodel) which never fails to make me jump out of my skin  .  My other two had very deep barks making them sound much bigger than they actually were

[Sian P]

Murphy is solid (sorry, I like to call it) Liver and is a complete nutcase. He is very intelligent with it but the concentration levels can vary!! I have no idea whether there is a link and i'm normally the type of person to say "what a load of rubbish". OK Murphy fits the clown bit but I wouldn't say he's hard to train. I would like to think it was down to the individual dog so I'll sit on the fence but with my legs dangling over the "what a load of rubbish" side 

[Sharon]

A lot of people have commented on orange roans being completely loopy, but to be honest I find my orange girls calmer than my blues or black & white, although Lily (B&W) is very clever and picks things up quickly,  I have yet to see what the blue/tan is like 

[Brimbeck(Dyllan)]

Well tri's are complete fruitcakes

[bluegirl]

I've had 4 blue roans and they have all been different. Bonnie was pretty clever and picked things up straight away. She could walk off lead on main rds to heel at 18 mths old. She light blue if that makes a difference. Penny is dark blue roan and is pretty laid back, she was never the sharpest knife in the draw when it came to obedience classes, we never did master sit and stay. Phoebe is dark blue roan and pretty bright but she's definately a ladette and causes more trouble than she's worth at times. She's stubborn and bossy when she's out and to keep her controlled you have to give her full concentration or she's gone. She was also the most destructive. Logan is another dark blue roan, he's much more biddable and hasn't got into too much trouble, he's easily influenced by his sister but is a quick learner as he loves to please were as Phoebe if she could speak would say "make me".
Bronte is orange roan and she's quite willfull. she does seem eager to please but other than basic recall so far haven't done much else with her.

[emilyjw]

Bracken - choc roan - is the soppiest laziest dog I have ever met. She definitely isn't nutty... Not sure she is that intelligent, but I don't have another cocker to compare her to. She doesn't really bark a huge amount, but when she does it's quite high pitched.

I wouldn't have said she is hard to train, but she's only our second dog. She was easier than Jasmine, but we also knew more...

[Hurtwood Dogs]

My golden boy was a hyper lunatic but loved to please, was great to train and very intelligent - just not always able to control himself. My Dark blue roan boy is on another planet and deaf to me most of the time but very laid back and never really causes me any trouble... not the brightest candle in the box though.

My Weim (Silver obviously!) is more intelligent and capable than me and very quick to learn, but a VERY complicated lady 

Hannah xxx

[wales07]

my personal experience is
Gold- eager to please,but can be very stubborn
blue roan- eager to please but wants own way and will do what is asked but only when they want.
black and white- excitable and pretty thick!
orange roan- completely loopy,very excitable and extremely hard to train.

Mine are all very different but i have noticed with litters that the orange roans always seem to stand out as the mad hyperactive ones.

[Jane S]

I don't think colour has anything to do with intelligence or personality traits - all Cockers are individuals & while they may get some traits from their parents & other relatives further back, it's got nowt to do with colour other than in a coincidental way. I'm hearing quite often now (most recently in Martin Clune's book) that oranges are different to blues & are hyper loonies bordering on the unbalanced Nothing could be further from the truth with my own oranges who are happy little souls but very easy going and placid to live with (we've certainly had blues which were way more challenging ). If someone is saying all their oranges are hyper, then that's more to do with their breeding than their colour, in my experience.

Maybe if you have a particular recessive colour which only has a small gene pool, you'll find similarities in temperament/intelligence based on the fact all the dogs are quite closely related but even then, there will be variations so you still couldn't say all dogs from that line will be stupid or clever or placid or hyper - it just doesn't work that way

[Sharon]

Rosie (orange roan) is calm and placid, daughter Lily (black&white) complete hyper loon, Callie (orange roan) daughter of Lily has to be the calmest pup I've ever owned.

Bella - blue roan is so gentle and calm, whereas Poppy (blue roan) is hyper and always yapping.

So I don't think it's colour either, just like kids they are all different which is why we love them so much!

[ElaineH]

Orange roan Morgan, (who is litter-mate to Sharon's Callie) obviously takes after his hyper loon mum Lily! He's certainly keeping us on our toes with his antics - emptying the book-case, stripping the wallpaper, stealing the toy mouse from the cats, attacking shoes, trousers, feet, rugs, cushions, anything! He was the life and soul of the puppy parties at the vets, we kept getting pitying looks from the others as he threw himself wholeheartedly into everything, and he was the only one that wee'd on the floor too! But, he's very clever and has learned loads of crowd-pleasing tricks already providing he gets paid with treats (not just a pretty face then, he's got brains too!)