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.

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