My sister’s yellow Labs just got back from the groomer. Pay attention to the one on the left. Has anyone seen this before?

3. it looks so dramatic on a yellow Lab

Contrast does a lot of the work here. On a pale cream or yellow Labrador, a vivid pink tongue already stands out. Add a few charcoal-black spots and your eye goes straight to them. If the spots cover 10 to 30 percent of the visible tongue surface, they can look startling in a photo even when they’re medically meaningless.

Natural light also exaggerates differences. A phone camera near a sunny window can make pink look brighter and dark pigment look almost ink-black. If two similar dogs are side by side, one with a solid tongue and one with spots, the comparison makes the spotted tongue look even more dramatic than it would on its own.

4. Normal pigment usually has a few specific traits

Harmless pigment tends to be flat, smooth, and stable. The surface should look like the rest of the tongue,