A Sign of a Wounded

 Breeding, Genetics, Swedish Vallhund  3 Responses »
Apr 192012
 

Over the course of the last year I have been assembling information on the Swedish Vallhunds. The starting point was my own dog with a five-generation pedigree. At first the state of the breed seems to be relatively positive with low Co-efficient of Inbreeding (COI) once I have plugged in data, provided through SVPedigrees maintained by Sharon Donaldson in Australia; using Microsoft Excel and OpenOffice Spreadsheet at first then later BreedMate PedX. However, there were many holes in his pedigree.

A much more comprehensive dataset was extracted from Worldwide Swedish Vallhunds – Västgötaspets Pedigree
Database once kept by the now-deceased Leone Darling. It is rather a shame due to the death of a predominant breed historian, the domain will one day be taken down once it expires since the information is much more complete with far fewer errors. Using the dataset from Ms. Darling provided a much clearer picture.

When Christopher Landauer revealed one must go back to the founders to get a more reliable calibration of a dog’s COI, a graph of why it is not enough to look at the COI(3) and COI(5) was produced. With Riley, we will take a look at the COI(29).

Distressed by the relatively high COI, more information on the founders and popular sires and brood bitches was needed. To understand why such a high COI was procured, we must first understand what a pedigree collapse is. However the entire tree is relatively compact and there are a few noticeable collapses at a glance. The good news is they are not frequent. The bad news is not all the known founders are included in his complete pedigree. This hints the possibility several lines died out.

Pedigree tree highlighting repeated ancestors generated with PedX.

When inquiring numerous breeders about this issue with Riley, it was learned he is very typical of the breed. In fact, he is a relatively accurate sample of the Swedish Vallhund population.

So what happened? The modern population of Swedish Vallhunds, in which there is approximately 500 registrations world-wide every year, once had a more diverse ancestral base. A great number of potentials were rejected due to poor understanding of recessives and lack of knowledge of concepts essential to population genetics and quantitative genetics such as allele frequency and polygenes when the breeding program first initiated even though the rejects had obvious influences or characteristics. Ontop of the inability to recognize suitors, many of the progeny were sold unregistered and only the ones who were seen as ideal for breeding were registered for many decades after the founding of the Swedish Vallhunds. In addition, there were a few kennels between 1960s and 1970s producing surpluses of puppies which coincided with the extinction of several dam-lines and a a couple of sire-lines in the 1970s and 1980s. The bleeding of the breed slowed down when the Swedish Kennelklubben mandated entire litters must be registered in the 1980s, and a rule was passed in the 1990s stating a sire cannot contribute more than 5% of the existing gene-pool. As the result, conductor was able to slow down the train to hell.

However using pedigree software are quite limiting and they don’t tell us a great deal of information. There are quite a few of them out there. One of the easiest software to utilize, often used in population genetics, ecology and conservation biology for visualization, although the original purpose of the software was for discovering new relations between proteins in biochemstry and genomic laboratories, is an open-source network analysis program such as: Cyptoscope, Gephi, Pajek, BioLayout Express3D. There are plenty of software floating around on the Internet which regurge useful information.

In the next post, an illustration using a node-mapping software will be provided and explained. We will walk through as we add more information to the dataset and change how it is processed, different interpretations arise. We will also explore why in a competitive world where everyone is more concerned with their self-image, a pedigree record is rather limiting. A pedigree is a tool which only becomes more useful as more hard data is added.

Demystifying Rare Phenotypes

 Genetics, Karelian Bear Dog, Tahltan Bear Dogs  5 Responses »
Oct 052011
 

Within the Swedish Vallhunds, the bobtail gene is well-documented. In fact, they are one of the more popular breeds used in genetic research for mapping out loci due to the cooperative nature of the breeders with thirst for wanting to understand more about their own dogs. Without the Vallhunds, we would not understand the interaction of the bobtail allele.

Now, it is true the Pembroke Corgis pioneered the research of the C189G mutation initially with Dr. Cattanach’s Boxer-Corgi project and amongst Norwegian breeders. However it is with the Swedish Cattle Dogs we understood it is an incomplete dominant, or better comprehensible by the public: semi-lethal due to observable decrease in litter sizes. Supposedly, homozygous are rejected from being implanted, so the pups we see today only carries one copy.

However with cross-breed spectrum results, we also understand the bobtail attribute of the Swedish Vallhund and Pembroke Corgi are not unique. It shouldn’t be surprising seeing the old guards understood the natural bobtail is a dominant trait. However, such frivolous traits are used to establish theoretical relationships between breeds. Over 23 breeds have been identified with having the short-tailed phenotype; and 17 to date are known to carry to the C189G mutation.

Table 1. Genotyping results of the T gene mutation (C189G) for 23 different breeds harboring the short-tail phenotype Total number of dogs Number of long-tail dogs Genotype at C189 Number of short-tail dogs Genotype at C189 17 breeds with C189G mutation Australian Shepherd 70 42 C/C 28 C/G Austrian Pinscher 2 1 C/C 1 C/G Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog 2 0 2 C/G Bourbonnais Pointer 25 16 C/C 9 C/G Brazilian Terrier 17 7 C/C 10 C/G Brittany Spaniel 18 4 C/C 14 C/G Croatian Sheepdog 3 1 C/C 2 C/G Danish/Swedish Farmdog 2 1 C/C 1 C/G Jack Russel Terrier 10 7 C/C 3 C/G Karelian Bear Dog 6 3 C/C 3 C/G Mudi 10 5 C/C 5 C/G Polish Lowland Sheepdog 28 10 C/C 18 C/G Pyrenean Shepherd 64 57 C/C 7 C/G Savoy Sheepdog 17 15 C/C 2 C/G Schipperke 12 4 C/C 8 C/G Spanish Waterdog 7 3 C/C 4 C/G Swedish Vallhund 22 6 C/C 16 C/G 6 breeds without C189G mutation Boston Terrier 4 0 C/C 4 C/C English Bulldog 5 0 C/C 5 C/C King Charles Spaniel 22 13 C/C 9 C/C Miniature Schnauzer 6 4 C/C 2 C/C Parson Russel Terrier 3 2 C/C 1 C/C Rottweiler 5 3 C/C 2 C/C

("Ancestral T-Box mutation is present in many, but not all, short-tailed dog breeds", 2009, 236-240)

There is a conspiracy theory going around circulated by Native American Indian Dog breeders, the Tahltan Bear Dogs of northern British Columbia and Yukon territories had been mongrelized and tainted by Karelian Bear Dog by Russian fur traders. It is easy to see why such a wild speculation was made. Courtesy of the Hunting Museum of Finland, click to enlarge:

Compare those Karelians to this Tahltan, “Chips” from 1935:

A chihuahua-sized dog with black coat and a half-tail.

However one shouldn’t give any credence to the breeders of Amerindian dogs suggesting the fur traders of Siberia contaminated their dogs with a Nordic strain. After all, some of them believe there was a second domestication event of dogs where the North American aboriginals tamed the coyote which has largely been debunked long ago; nevermind all the economical and logistical fallacies behind bringing a dog from Karelia to Alaska.

However the longer one studies the genetics of dogs and their phenotypical expressions, the more one realizes how common all of the alleles are throughout the entire world; and exactly how nebulous each individual breeds are. It is the frequency of those alleles which shape a breed or a strain.

Sources

Ancestral T-Box mutation is present in many, but not all, short-tailed dog breeds 2009. Journal of Heredity, 100(2): 236-240

Images

Karjalankarhukoira Töpö on talvella ulkona lasten kanssa. Museovirasto. http://suomenmuseotonline.fi/fi/kohde/Suomen+Mets%C3%A4stysmuseo/SMM+1552%3a72  (accessed May 5, 2011). [Suomen Metsästysmuseo]

Karjalankarhukoira. Museovirasto. http://suomenmuseotonline.fi/fi/kohde/Suomen+Mets%C3%A4stysmuseo/SMM+1552%3a132 (accessed May 5, 2011). [Image: Suomen Metsästysmuseo]

Karjalankarhukoira. Museovirasto. http://suomenmuseotonline.fi/fi/kohde/Suomen+Mets%C3%A4stysmuseo/SMM+1591%3a19 (accessed May 5, 2011). [Image: Suomen Metsästysmuseo]

Karjalankarhukoira. Museovirasto. http://suomenmuseotonline.fi/fi/kohde/Suomen+Mets%C3%A4stysmuseo/SMM+1591%3a89 (accessed May 5, 2011). [Image: Suomen Metsästysmuseo]

Dr. Karen Wonders. 2009. Tahltan First Nations. http://www.firstnations.eu/mining/tahltan.htm (accessed July 17, 2011). [Image: B.C. Archives, 1935]

 

Re-framing

 Breeding, Genetics  13 Responses »
Sep 262011
 

It is rather foolish to think of humans domesticating the dogs. In fact, it would be more accurate to say they engaged in a pact with us. Now, in order to explain this, one must first dislodges the Judeo-Christian view-point of the world where mankind has domain over nature.

For eons, we have a self-centric view of the Universe which has been proven to be false: the Earth is at the center of the Universe; mankind is the only one capable of developing tools, languages and cultures; humans are the only sentient beings; and we are the only one who broke free of the shackles of evolution. Of course, none of this is true: Johannes Kepler debunked the geocentric view of the solar system; chimpanzees are also capable of fashioning tools; dolphins and whales have complex way of communicating in compositions of low-frequency sounds; elephants have been shown to recognize themselves in mirrors; and the war on viruses and micro-organisms is a constant reminder we are still at the mercy of nature. Let’s go one step further: the delusion of domestication is dependent on who view themselves as gaining the most benefits.

A drawing of two men, one with a spear and the other stumbled, with a black spitz-type dog facing a bear.

Bear-hunting in winter.

Dog and man have co-evolved together, however neither one of us actually see it this way. From our point of view: we dominated the wolf; employed them to share the load and search games; sculptured their flesh and bones; manipulated their behaviours in our favour; and they are objects of status-elevation. From the dog’s point of view, they domesticated us. The hounds see us as an asset in a hunt, delivering the killing blow to the boar or the bear. The team of huskies request us to hunt for them, to partition the shot moose or caribou, and load up the sled with our opposable thumbs to haul the meat back to their dens. The farm collie struck a bargain with the farmer for a bed’n'breakfast deal in exchange for manual labour. The Chin leads a lofty lifestyle sitting in the imperial palace as a figurehead, with servants swooning all over him; and he is protected from the elements by the sleeves of the kimonos of his escort in the outside world. From their point of view, we are the ones who have been domesticated by the dogs.

With the alliance forged between wolves and humans several millennia ago, a contract has been signed and the two of us has been bound ever since. Once in awhile, the contract is re-negotiated. In the last 200 years, dogs have agreed to an addendum allowing show breeders to sculpt their offspring to be reimbursed with a guaranteed sex life. In the last 50 years, a clause was written in, asking the dogs to become surrogates in absence of kinship among our own kind. No longer are dogs and humans comrades working toward a common goal, but rather as brothers or sisters; or daughters and sons. While they are not our blood relatives, the relationships have manifested as such.

Now, an alternative view to domestication is not entirely a new concept. It was recently touched on by journalist Michael Pollan in his lecture, “Plant’s-Eyed View”, at a TED conference in 2007; which is now subtitled in a multitude of languages. For those whose browser cannot load or view the video, the transcript is attached to the blog post here in a .TXT format. Now, a lot of people have problems with Pollan for political reasons surrounding one of his earlier works. It’s understandable.

Here’s a little known secret: the concept is actually borrowed from a 1991 lecture series hosted by Richard Dawkins designed by the Royal Institution in London for children, “Growing Up in the Universe”; in particular, the fourth installation, “The Ultraviolet Garden”. A captioned version on YouTube can be found here in Engish. For those who do not have access to videos, once again, a .TXT copy of the interactive transcript is already here. The episode itself is worth watching as there is a lovely narrative excerpt by Douglas Adams from one of his novels.

However Dawkins’s frame of thought stems from one of his books published in 1978 called The Selfish Gene, in which misconceptions were later clarified in his first documentary, “Nice Guys Finish First”, airred by BBC Horizon in 1987. One can find the full hour-long clip on YouTube here via WhyEvoutionisTrue channel. For those who don’t have access to YouTube, or wish to follow along via transcript here.

A side by side view of a monsterous-looking Morlock beside a human-like Eloi woman.

From the 1960 film of The Time Machine

Actually, Dawkins wasn’t the first one to come up with this. H.G. Wells touched on it in The Time Machine in 1895 with the Eloi believing they enslaved the Morlocks in subterranean factories; and the Morlocks believing they domesticated the Eloi for the slaughter to fill their bellies. However for many decades, among naturalists, convention follows nature is red in teeth and claws. It wasn’t until within the last few decades evolutionary biologists began looking at things in a new light.

Now, most people have a problem with Richard Dawkins, not because of his books or his findings, but because of his aggressive anti-theist stance, ongoing since the mid-’90s, advocating for militant atheism. Fine, it is acceptable some find him offensive. However there are no shortage of mutualism and symbiotic relationships such as the clownfish and the sea anemones or the shark and the remora. In that respect, Dawkins’s abhorred political stance does not invalidate the truth of his lecture.

Nevertheless, here is what Dawkins has to say about the bees to his audience of school children in “The Ultraviolet Garden” lecture:

Earlier this year, I was driving through the countryside with a little girl of 6 and she pointed out some flowers by the wayside. I asked her what she thought flowers were for. She gave a very thoughtful answer. Two things, she said: “To make the world pretty and to help the bees make honey for us.” I thought that was a very nice answer and I was sorry that I had to tell her that it wasn’t true. Her answer is not too different from the answer that most people throughout history would have given. The very first chapter of the Bible sets it out: “Man has dominion over all living things.” The animals and plants are there for our benefit. This attitude was unquestioned throughout the Middle Ages and it really persists to this day.One pious man in the Middle Ages thought that weeds were there to benefit us, because it’s so good for our spirit to have to go and pull them up. And another reverend gentleman thought that the louse was indispensable, because it provided a powerful incentive to cleanliness. There’s also been the suggestion that animals positively want to do their bit for the good of mankind and even want to be eaten by us.

[...]

We need to find an entirely new view of the world. We need to try to see things through the eyes of other creatures, instead of all the time through our own self-interested eyes. Flowers, the bees might say, are there to provide us with pollen and nectar. But even the bees haven’t quite got it right. They’re a lot more right than we would be, if we think that flowers are there for our benefit. The fact is that flowers, or at least the bright and showy ones, are there because, in a sense, bees have cultivated them, domesticated them. When I say bees, I include butterflies and other sorts of pollinators.

This is why I used the word “garden” in the title of this lecture. But why the ultraviolet garden? Well that’s a parable, like the parable of the Good Samaritan, or the sower. Ultraviolet light is a kind of light that we can’t see. It’s just like ordinary light except that it’s a different wavelength and we can’t see it. Bees can see it, they see it as a distinct color and bees cannot see red. So, flowers are bound to look very different through the eyes of bees. And in just the same way, the question ‘what are flowers good for?’ is a question that we have to look at through the eyes of bees.

Well as I say, we can’t see ultraviolet and it’s no use trying to capture what it would be that a bee would see if it looked at flowers. ll we can do is to play with a few tricks to get some flavor of what it might be like. Now, here is a row of tubes containing white substances, all different white substances. They all look alike, they all look white. But if we now expose them to ultraviolet light for a while, they glow different colors. Now, this is a bit of a cheat. We’re not actually seeing ultraviolet and none of those colors is actually ultraviolet: those are all visible colors that we can see. What we are doing though is using this as a kind of metaphor to show how what we see is changed in ultraviolet light. That isn’t what bees would see but it gives us an idea of how different things might look through the eyes of bees.

Actually, flowers probably look even more different because when bees see shape they see shape in a very different way from us. When a bee sees a complicated shape like this set of leaves here, or any of these flowers, it probably doesn’t see it as a shape like that. It probably sees this as something that we should call “flicker.” You see little light bulbs flickering in the flowers now and once again, that almost certainly isn’t quite what the bees see. But it’s likely to be a bit more like what the bees see than what we see when we see complicated shapes like that.

[...]

And in any case, we’re only using this strangeness as a parable for changing our point of view about who or what it is that flowers and all other living creatures are for the good of. So let’s now ask what bees are good for from the point of view of flowers? Well, flowers are sex organs, designed by natural selection to make male and female cells and bring them together. There are good genetic reasons that apply in most flowers, though not all, for making sure that they don’t mate with themselves. It would be all too easy for a flower to mate with itself: it’s got pollen and a stigma in the same physical flower, and they use bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators to transport the pollen from one flower to another. The usual way to do this is to bribe them with nectar. Here you see a hummingbird feeding from a flower with nectar. The bright colors are like Piccadilly Circus, it’s an advertisement telling the hummingbirds or bees to come and feed from here. Nectar is made specially for the purpose and it’s costly.

[...]

The pollination services offered by bees are truly massive. Somebody in Germany calculated that in Germany alone honeybees pollinated about 10 trillion flowers in the course of a single summer day. It’s also been calculated that about 30% of all human foods depend on bee pollination. If bees were wiped out, 30% of our food plants would be wiped out as well. The world of bees is totally dominated by flowers. I don’t just mean honeybees. There are lots and lots of species of bees, many of them are solitary, not living in hives. The larvae of bees are almost all fed on pollen.

[...]

So that’s what bees are doing, millions of times over, every day. They feed their larvae on it, their aviation fuel is nectar, and that’s entirely provided for them by flowers. They work hard for their nectar award. To make a 1 pound jar of honey, it’s been worked out the bees would have to visit about 10 million clover blossoms. So, flowers use bees and bees use flowers. Both sides in the partnership have been shaped by the other. Both sides, in a way, have been domesticated, cultivated, by the other. The ultraviolet garden is a two way garden. But just because flowers and bees have evolved towards partnership we mustn’t assume that creatures in general work in a friendly way for one another’s good. There are people who think that antelopes are there for the benefit of lions and lions are there for the benefit of antelopes, to keep their population down. And that’s just as much nonsense as the idea that oxen come willingly to the slaughter for the benefit of us.

[...]

We began by asking, what flowers were for? We considered various answers and eventually concluded that flowers are for the same thing as everything else in the living kingdoms: for spreading “copy me” programs about, written in DNA language. Flowers are for spreading around instructions for making flowers. Bees are for spreading around instructions for making bees. Elephants for spreading instructions for making elephants. And birds for making more birds.

And macaw’s colored feathers are for spreading copies of instructions for making more colored feathers. And that works, because the colored feathers are an advertisement that attracts macaws of the opposite sex. So genes that make colored feathers tend to get passed on to future generations because they are an effective advertisement to get mates who like those colored feathers. And you could say the same about wings. Wings, too, are tools for spreading genetic instructions for making wings into future generations of birds. They work by saving the lives of birds that have good wings and so they are good at flying, good at catching food, good at avoiding being eaten. So genes that make good wings get passed on and that’s why most birds have wings that work. [...]

Plants don’t have wings. Plants can’t fly. But from the plant’s point of view, it doesn’t need wings since it can borrow the bees and butterflies and hummingbirds’ wings. But now let’s shift our perspective and look at it from the point of view of the plant DNA. From the point of view of the plant DNA the bees’ wings might as well be plant wings.The bees’ wings are organs of flight that carry the plant’s genes about. Just as a macaw’s wings are organs of flight that carry macaw’s genes about. And we can say the same about the colors.

Flowers use bright colors in very much the same way as macaws use their bright colors. Both kinds of color are advertisements, both are used to attract winged-gene vehicles. In one case those winged-gene vehicles are female macaws, in the other case they are bees. But in both cases the result of the attraction is that genes are carried about. The macaws mate, so the genes that made that the male have attractive feathers are carried off in the female’s body. The bee gets dusted with pollen from a flower. So the genes that made the flower attractive to the bee are carried off on the body of the bee into the future, into future generations. So if you look at them in the right way, bees’ wings can really be called plant wings.

Now, that really is a different way of looking at things, isn’t it? A strange, and unfamiliar way. Yet it is a way that makes perfect sense when you think about it. A way of looking, which matches the strange otherworldliness of the ultraviolet garden.

In the context of the bees and flowers, one ceases to see domestication as artificial selection, but as rather various examples of self-feeding co-evolution. Suddenly, one begins to see canines in a very different light. Those who retain the belief we choose which dogs to mate are only deceiving themselves.

This was the system which worked for hunters and shepherds over the ages. As our society shifts from the back-breaking work of the fields to pushing papers around, the contract between dogs and men must be brought back to the negotiating table.

In the new draft two centuries ago, several groups of dogs forefeited their liberty for promise of safety. In the virtue of selfishness of propagating their genes, several breeds have gone to the extremes; and the English Bulldog has been very selfish indeed at the expense of their own health. The Bulldog sold the ability to cool themselves to capitalize on the tendency of humans equating anything with a squished-face as infantile. The appeal to flat face is so successful, no longer are the Bulldogs required to birth naturally as they can only exist through Caesarean sections; and once civilization crumbles, the bulldog is extinct. The dependence on technology will either be pivotal to their existence or their very undoing. In fact, the fate of Bulldog is so intertwined with technology, we believe they are worth propping up on a pedestal. Truly, the Bulldogs are the master of manipulating the middle-class.

However there is still hope in all of this. Lineages of moderate dogs will outlast the corrupted: the dogs who sacrifice themselves to the whims of the elites will run into a wall and will pay for their mistakes of not reading the fine lines; and those who found the right allies will prosper for many generations to come. However it is clear very few see the dog world in this manner as we, in our arrogance, only consider things from our point of view.

Images

Chris McGrath. 2009. Champion Dogs Compete At Westminster Dog Show Zimbio. http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/VO0oly_xjGV/Champion+Dogs+Compete+Westminster+Dog+Show/8NtZoUHDuZl/Scott+Sommer (accessed September 16, 2011). [Featured Image: Chris McGrath]

Growing Up in the Universe. YouTube. Directed by Stuart McDonald. 1991. Oxford, UK: Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, 2007. [Stills: Richard Dawkins Foundation]

Maamme Kirja 1876. Finland: Zacharias Topelius. [Illustration: Zacharias Topelius]

Marvin Pierce. 2010. Working Dogs Pierce’s Cow Dogs. http://www.piercesstockdogs.com/stories/ (accessed September 16, 2011) [Thumbnail: Marvin Pierce]

The Time Machine.  DVD.  Directed by George Pal. 1960. Culer City, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, 2000. [Photo: Metro Goldwyn-Mayer Studios]

 

Throwback to a Common Ancestor

 Coat, Pembroke Corgi  4 Responses »
Sep 232011
 

Brindling and merling are part of the standards for acceptable colours regarding Cardigan Corgis. However they are not desirable in Pembroke Corgis, and if one crops up in the litter, the breeder is accused of out-crossing; thus contaminating the gene pool. Such accusations do not go unheeded as the Corgis have a very murky history, and there is a conscious effort to keep the distinctions clear.

Prior to 1934, Pembroke and Cardigan Corgis were one unified breed. It wasn’t uncommon for a litter of mixed types to occur. In fact, what was typically done was designate puppies by types and thus they were registered as such. The dialogue probably went like this: “Oh, that one has a long back– Cardi; not sure what that one is supposed to be, but he has a bobtail– Pemmie.” Of such small differences, the breed was split out of regional pride.

For the following decade, brindling became rare in registered Pembrokes. In the edition of her book published in 1937, The Welsh Corgi: Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire Types, acclaimed Corgi fancier Thelma Gray of the Rozeval Kennel wrote:

 Blue merles are practically unknown in this type today, and brindles are also comparatively rare, though the brindle colour, which comes from one particular strain only, is very dominant and usually produces itself in every brindle-bred litter.

A black and white photograph of a brindled Pembroke Corgi.The strain was maintained by John Holmes of Formakin Kennel, one of the founders of the Welsh Corgi League. With an incompetent terrier unable to exterminate the rats which plagued his land holding in Scotland, Holmes followed up on the Corgis’ reputation for being excellent rat-catcher by approaching Sid Bowler of South Wales for a dwarfed cattle dog. The pup will be later known to us as a bitch named “Nippy of Drumharrow,” the first brindled Pembroke Corgi to receive a champion title. Captured by the amour of the Pembrokeshire on his farm, Holmes set out to be a major player in the world of dogs.

Nippy was bred to the dogs of Rozeval Kennel repeatedly, and brooded ten litters of 41 puppies; 22 were brindled. So, Thelma Gray was correct in her observation the brindle patterning is dominant. However Nippy’s offspring will have a long and rocky road ahead of them.

Around 1948, the Welsh Corgi League held a conference over a revision of the standards. Both Gray and Holmes fought to keep the brindling in the standards as they argued it wasn’t in the best interest in the dogs to narrow the coat colours as it was observed the Corgis were starting to lose their working temperament. The movement to keep the brindle was overruled twice in a thinly-veiled justification to keep the Pembroke as far distinct from the Cardigans as the breeders possibly can. Understandably, Holmes’s interest in the show ring waned and he turned to dog sports as an outlet for his lifelong ambition in studying animal behaviours.

A modern picture of a brindled Pembroke Corgi.

A few months ago, Jess of DesertWindHounds directed me to the attention of a particular Pembroke Corgi, Burtman Jody, from the late ’70s, who happened to be brindled. It was not the first time the brindling cropped up in a litter as a litter occurred twenty years prior in the mid-’50s; it was said the parents of the brindled litter were eight and ten generation removed on either side from a noted brindled Cardigan Corgi in the pedigree. The pedigree of the ’70s freak-of-nature remains unexplored.

In theory, one could root out the pedigrees to expose frauds by tracing back to unknown carriers of the merle alleles or brindling as the puppy and their grandchildren cannot continue to burden the lie about their parents’ or grandparents’ genetics. However, we first must ask themselves how many generations of being masked can evade the eyes of attentive breeders and swoop under the radar. It is highly improbable.

We know brindle (kbr) is always dominant in the absence of black (K); on the other hand, like how merles can be cryptic, brindling can be masked by other genes such as the recessive reds (ee). Brindling is not always easy to detect, as if the coat is dark enough, sometimes it is difficult to see traces of lines. Dilutes may also be hidden within light coats. So, one must be careful before accusing another of crossing a breed.

What is particularly interesting is some loci are prone to breaking. Abnormal traits observed in canines might be in fact a de nevo mutation. Dr. Cattanach described one such incident with a trio of Boxers where the brindle allele hypothetically has mutated. We shall never know the answer to the mystery Corgi of three decades past as brindling is only a recent subject of research.

Sources

The Row About the Brindle Pembroke 2011. Welsh Corgi News. http://www.welshcorgi-news.ch/Leseecke/InfoCorgi/Brindle_Pems_eng.html (accessed June 24, 2011).

Dr. Bruce M. Cattanach. Finding the Gene for Brindle 2006. Steynmere Boxers. http://www.steynmere.com/gene_brindle.html (accessed September 12, 2011).

Images

Brindled Cardigan Corgi Mailbox 2009. Morgan Home Accents. http://www.morganic.com/mha/mailboxes/animail/dogs/mb_mc_brind_cardigan_corgi.html (accessed September 12, 2011). [Thumbnail: Morgan Home Accents]

The Row About the Brindle Pembroke 2011. Welsh Corgi News.http://www.welshcorgi-news.ch/Leseecke/InfoCorgi/Brindle_Pems_eng.html (accessed June 24, 2011). [Article Image #1: Unknown, circa 1930s]

The Row About the Brindle Pembroke 2011. Welsh Corgi News.http://www.welshcorgi-news.ch/Leseecke/InfoCorgi/Brindle_Pems_eng.html (accessed June 24, 2011). [Article Image #2: M. Welsch, circa 1980s; courtesy of Laurie Savoie]

Wiki. 2009. Latest pack member & new friend wiki the corgi. http://wikithecorgi.wordpress.com/2008/02/15/latest-pack-member-new-friend/ (accessed September 12, 2011). [Featured Image: Bea, 2008]

His Dog, Skip

 Coat  No Responses »
Sep 212011
 

Awhile ago, I made the erroneous assumption Finnish Spitz are AyAy ee based on transference of knowledge on the coat genetics behind Australian Red Border Collies, Golden Retrievers and Duck-Tolling Retrievers. The theory was sound, the application was off-base. Quite frankly, it is surprising no one corrected it after all these months until recently.

An deep red Finnish Spitz with dark whiskers.

A Finnish Spitz with black whiskers. Click to enlarge.

There is one fatal flaw: ee recessives harbour white whiskers. Most Finnish Spitzes have black whiskers and black leather; so they are really just a red sable with minimal white. If they were ee, then the whiskers would had been washed out. Now, it is not impossible for eerecessive dogs to have black whiskers as subtle somatic mutations is common in Golden Retrievers. To expect the same from the Finkies, however, does not explain the breed-wide consistency.

However people who think this way shouldn’t be blamed. It is not an uncommon practice in the show ring to trim the whiskers to tidy up the dog, and oftentimes white whiskers are washed out in the flash of the photographs. Given even pet groomers are in the habit of trimming, one should be in the habit of waiting for a photograph which clearly demonstrate the whiskers.

On paper, all Finnish Spitz should be AyAyBBCCDDEEGGmmSStt. However this is not necessarily the case. Turn the SS into a spsp, one has a Norrbottenspitz on their hand as it is well-documented in breeding for Finnish Spitz, the non-solid alleles were culled; and some of the Swedes purchased piebald dogs from Hugo Roos, which later split into their own breed. Or at least that’s the version cited by a few Finns over e-mail exchanges; the Swedes, on the other hand, have a lovely romantic story about piebald dogs being undiscovered on small farming land holdings and rescued from the onset of pre-war extinction. Now, the frequency of the piebald allele must be extremely low as a spotted spitz thrown from a Finnish Spitz is unheard of in this day and age; but it is foolish to say it has been effectively filtered out of the gene pool since the frequency remains unknown; and the two breeds, Norrbottenspets and Finsk Spets were once considered as one breed and registered as such a century ago up until early 1900s. So it stand to reason it is entirely possible there are sp carriers, just the necessary pairing haven’t has their lottery number pulled. It is more fair to assert the Finkes are AyBCDEGmmStt.

However we do know Finnish Spitz are actually Ee breed-wide. Meet Skip:

A light pale Finnish Spitz with pale whiskers and a grey nose with a slight pink hue.

Meet my... er... his dog, Skip.

Contrary to what some may believe about the nose, he is not an albino. Sometimes a double-merle will have pink noses, but the merling is a dominant trait and merle is frown upon; so it’s a no-go. Skip has a snow-nose, which indicates he is either a liver (b) or a blue-dilute (d). Now, not all bb have distinctly brown noses or eye leather as a handful are dark enough to appear black; and with the blue-dilute, while the nose is normally grey, it can appear to be black In both scenarios, sometimes this fade with age into a pink. There seem to be other factors at play determining the shade. We do know “snow nose” is more prevalent in dogs with yellow pigment. From going through the archives of Skip on Walks N’ Wags, we can conclude he is most likely a blue-dilute.

Now some believes he is a mutt or a mongrel. Not necessarily so. When we are talking genetics, in regard to recessives, frequency and probability must be taken into account. Simply failing to conform to the standards does not make a dog a mix as selecting against an allele doesn’t make it disappear; it is just simply reshuffling to the point where the presence of homozygous is presently virtually unheard of. The other thing to take into account, there are several Russian-registered Finnish Spitzes who appear to be a fawn. However, at the same time, there are also plenty of honey-pale Finkies with black whiskers. Since the quality of Russian photographs are poor, we are limited to what we can see and conjecture; but they do give us plausibility.

In conclusion, the deep auburn Finkies don’t have the same genetic makeup as the Golden Retrievers. The whiskers alone are an indicator. Keeping that in mind, as seen in Skip, it is entirely possible to have the same genetic code of a Golden in a spitz body.

Sources

Dilution or Pale Colour 2009. Sheila Schmutz. http://homepage.usask.ca/~schmutz/dilutions.html (accessed September 8, 2011).

Nose Color 2008. Jess Chappell. http://abnormality.purpleflowers.net/genetics/noses.htm (accessed September 8, 2011).

The B Locus in Dogs 2010. Sheila Schmutz. http://homepage.usask.ca/~schmutz/dogbrown.html (accessed September 8, 2011).

Images

Finnish Spitz « Walks N’ Wags 2011. Calley. http://balmaindogblog.com/tag/finnish-spitz/ (accessed August 1, 2011). [Images: Calley, 2011]

Finnish Spitz Picture File Index. http://www.breederretriever.com/photopost/pindex/655/ (accessed September 8, 2011) [Image: Unknown]

 

What a Piebald Is Not

 Coat  No Responses »
Aug 122011
 

While searching the Internet to verify if corgis come in piebald or not, came fore this photograph:

What nice big eyes you have.

via corgiaddict.com [Image: Samhain Corgis]

Actually, this Cardigan is not a “blue merle piebald.” He’s a double-merle named Casper. Although on the kennel’s website, the people administrating the site didn’t call the coat pattern a Piebald; but rather a Homozygous Merle. Oddly enough he is not the only homozygous merle corgi on the Internet being labelled as a piebald. Ironically, the only piebald Cardigans are all labelled as merles or have merle patterning. The true candidates for carrying the piebald alleles are labelled as “mismarked.” While it is entirely possible for a double-dilute to be a piebald, there are many solid candidates which appear to be a mismarked; when in fact, they are not.

Let not get into the ethics of breeding Merle x Merle in Cardigan Corgis. Although the effects of the merle allele are well-documented in Catahoula Curs and Australian Shepherds, and recently there was an exposé on the show Rough Collies, it is uncertain about the variation in the level of penetrance in the Cardigan Corgis. But let not call something what it is not.

The only concern at the moment is there are people who don’t understand the difference between a double merle and a piebald, and this is troubling. If people do not understand what they are dealing with, then they may not understand any health issues which may be falsely attributed, or what’s lurking underneath yet to rear its ugly head.

Spotted Dwarf

 Coat  3 Responses »
Aug 052011
 

Who would had thunk it, someone was thick enough to cross a Vallhund with a Norrbottenspets.

Must be a "mongol"!

via wwsva.com [Image: Unknown]

Actually, no, the piebald patterning is actually found in the genepool of the Västgötaspets; just the breed standards only call for agouti. It is still niffy one of these crops up from time to time. Hopefully these neat little guys are not culled out of vanity; and is kept to maintain genetic diversity as the likelihood of such partial masking emerging is quite low. Such appearance is not something I would breed for, but if the dog proved itself to be an overly stellar cowdog, then its asset is fair more valuable than its recessive genetic makeups.

Why would I approve of piebald dogs not being culled? Piebald (sp) is recessive to Solid (S). The chance of sp emerging again is very low if bred back to a Solid outside of its known lineages. I might catch some flak for this, but to me, promoting genetic diversity is more important than adhering to the standards. All Piebald means is they cannot be shown. Nothing in the Code of Ethics they cannot be bred.

I would rather defer to statistics rather than trying to achieve perfection. Even if genetic drift is an issue, it can be managed.

Now that being said, I am not saying every Piebald should be bred back into the main gene pool. One would have to evaluate for temperament and health which are more important than the question of colour.

While Corgis don’t frequently come in Piebald or Extreme Piebald, others within elghund, laika slash husky and pystykorva landraces do though. Just something to dwell on.

Dwarf Collies

 Genetics  5 Responses »
May 192011
 

Well, last Sunday, someone searched for a dwarfed Border Collie:

A screenshot of a search inquiry: "border collie with dwarfism" under the WordPress admin panelSo I decided to take a look around for “dwarfed collies” on Google. I think, I found a borgi:

via bordercollie.org [Image: Sheepskin_border_collies]

A borgi? Yes, Border Collie-Corgi cross. Now it is difficult to say if it is a cross, if it’s a hormonal issue or just plain chondrodysplasia, however the limbs are not proportional in order to be a pituitary dwarf. Also it is highly unlikely it is a random mutation since dwarfism is a desirable trait on dogs. Even though former owners said they know both of the “parents:” accidental litters happen. Nevertheless, chondrodysplaisa have been recorded in other non-dwarfed breeds. So we cannot rule out such scenarios.

Although, it is humourous someone doubted the purity of the dog based on the tail. Yes, Pembrokes and Vallhunds have been recorded with the spitz tail, but this also occur in Border Collies, better known as the “gay tail,” which is not usually selected for because there is a superstition that a dog with the J-tail doesn’t have the proper attitude to approach the stocks. Or maybe for “Bo,” the dwarfed collie, it’s an indication of his lifestyle choice.

Curiously enough, there is this post by a Vancouverite who runs a rescue society:

If he really is a dwarf, and not a crossbreed, you should also warn potential adopters that he likely will not live as long, will probably experience early kidney failure, dental problems and possibly hairloss, as well as thyroid issues (that in turn can cause aggression issues). My experience with dwarf border collies is limited, but I have seen it before. They all had kidney problems, and they were all, for some reason, nasty resource guarders. RDM

Kidney problems? Hair loss? Thyroid? Dental issues? Although these health concerns are an issue with pigs and with some breeds of dogs, it is curious dwarfism also occur in Border Collies as well.

So, someone asked for a dwarfed collie? There it is.

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