The wavy-coated breed is the ancestral stock for both the golden and the flat coat. The golden was, as you said, a color variety of the flat-coat originally. But it was usually registered as a liver flat-coat or a flat-coat “Of any other color.” In 1908, the yellow color was recognized in the flat-coat as a standard color, but it is not a standard color now.

The yellow gene still pops up in flat-coats because a early sire in the breed, Don of Gerwn, carried the yellow gene. Although liver-colored, his grandsire was descended from Nous, known at that time as “Tweedmouth’s strain.” Another source for the yellows in flat-coats is the Culham line of golden retriever, which was bred by Lord Harcourt. This strain was one of the three founding lines of golden in the first “black and brown dog free” studbook. For a while, you could register a dog based upon appearance, not pedigree, so flat-coats, goldens, and Labs were often born in the same litters! These dogs were registered as flat-coats originally and bred with black flat-coats. They were doing so when the golden was split off the flat-coat in 1911. After 1911, they had several litters in which black puppies were registered as flat-coats and the yellows. The blacks more than likely carried yellow genes.

However, the Culham dogs were very dark, much darker than most modern goldens and darker than any of the yellow flat-coats I’ve seen, so my guess is Don of Gerwn is main the source for the yellow color. His grandsire was said to be “cream-colored,” which meant light gold at the time. I’ve seen photos and paintings of Don. He’s got lots of gold shadings on his really thick ruff. He’s a liver dog, but he’s definitely got some gold in him. He won one of the first International Retriever trials, and he became a heavily used stud in both flat-coats and goldens. This was in the early 1900’s.

In fact, he’s sweeter then the female flattie we lost about two months ago. Cancer as well.

I also have a black cat, who is a little monster. She was a rescue. Just like every other cat we have was. We had one cat who was dumped off at a farm with a little of three kittens, the kittens found homes, but since she was mostly black no one wanted her. I begged my parents, and she turned out to be the best cat we ever had. Hunter yet indoor kitty. She would follow me around just waiting for affection, she was my shadow and companion.

To me, black means nothing, I look at the animals personality.

Of course the ideal photo is neither under nor overexposed and has detail in the deep blacks and bright whites. My point is that if you’re going to risk error, aim for overexposure, especially when you’re using a fast shutter speed and you don’t have nearly the number of choices of aperture (you’re likely going to be moving in +/- full stops).

It’s a simple matter of weighing blown out whites versus informationless blacks, and since you care more about the dog than the ground, or the greater share of coat than any white highlights, lean towards exposing more versus less.
Underexposed photos of dark dogs in harsh situations are boring.

The several stops overexposed photo I linked to the first time is still nice to look at, frame, whatever. The underexposed photo in this comment has no details in the face and is boring, despite the background being perfectly exposed (and perhaps in better focus).

Both are really nasty conditions, bright sunlight, colorless dogs and backgrounds (black and white pool / on white concrete in front of a white wall. Neither are properly exposed. But I’ll take the one that is several stops over versus several stops under any day.

The other issue is trying to learn by trial and error how the metering system in your camera works, and which one to use and where to aim it.

Now, Gina’s picture on this post is excellently focused and exposed, but she also has what I imagine was an overcast low contrast day (ideal) that are so common in the bay area.

Like in many places, people love those labs, which tend to be black.

The border collies generally are out the door within a week and are usually mostly black. Ditto the kelpie mixes.

Black pits with “boston terrier” type markings? Seem to be extra attractive.

Mostly black rotties? No problem.

Recent border collie/corgi cross, all black (Think border collie head and body on corgie legs. You had to see him….)? Flew out the door within three days.

I really think that it is a kind of urban myths, one of those things “everyone knows”. And probably a sub-conscious excuse for not making an effort to get dogs adopted.

I have a wonderful big black dog and probably always will, because I’ve grown to love them. Especially when they get older and start to get white around the muzzle and other places. So handsome!

For the unskilled point-and-shoot photographer I suggest taking pictures outdoors on a cloudy day or in the late afternoon, in other words avoid bright sun/dark shadows. A colorful background/environment helps, rather than neutral tones. Something like green shrubs, flowers etc. seem to help. And get close enough to show some detail on the face and eyes, sometimes a head shot is better.