piebald » Prick-Eared

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.

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 (s^p) is recessive to Solid (S). The chance of s^p 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.

Prick-Eared

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