The Color Of Death
**Ed. Note...
If you have stayed with this site long enough to get to this page,I'm sure you have come to the conclusion that for many years, as now, Blue Weimaraners are but a generation away from total extinction.The following is an excerpt from an e-mail chat list. The person writing is stating his opinion as to why Blue Weimaraners should not be bred to continue the Blue color of the breed.Your lovely host wrote the response to his statement. I used the words and information gathered from "This Is The Weimaraner" by Ernest Hart,published in 1965 by TFH Publications.Mr. Hart's book is now out of print,but has many wonderful pictures of Champion Blue Weimaraners,and genetic references.....THE BANSHEE
STATEMENT
As I read from the list, I get so frustrated that no one understands WHY the blues were disqualified as breeding stock. Its not about physical problems OR aggression. It is about SKIN PIGMENT. I became a member of WCA in 1973 when I bought my first weim, at the height of the blue controversy. I know why. Look at your weims nose. The blue weim is a dilute shade of black. The gray weim is a dilute shade of brown. Late in the 60's , puppies were being born with a "blue saddles" and brown legs. The solid color dogs of either blue or gray were being destroyed. They were being born with the two shades of gray mixed in a Doberman/Rottweiler pattern! This is what happens when brown dogs are bred to black dogs repeatedly. The WCA determined that to preserve our beautiful solid colored dogs, the breeding of blues to grays must stop. For 30 years WCA member have worked to track the blue lines, (through AKC registration) and try to control the breeding of blues, to save the solid colored dog.
The blue weim is 100% weimaraner, and they are pretty I agree. But they should NOT be bred to grays and this is where I get upset. If people insist on breeding blues then why not breed blue to blue, and purify the blue line, instead of ruining our gray lines. I am saddened when I read the lack of understanding out here, and I worry that our beautiful dogs will be lost through ignorance and uncontrolled breeding practices. Dogs have been disqualified because of skin pigments for years. A Boxer with a pink nose is disqualified, because a Boxer's nose must be black. Is he still a Boxer? Of course. Is he still registered? Yes, if his parents were. Papillions must have black eye pigment. If they have pink around their eyes they are disqualified. Are they still a Papillion? Of course. Are they still registered? Of course. But they should not be bred.
Blue weims are still weims like their gray bothers and sisters. They just should not be bred.
The truth is still the truth, even if you choose not to believe it.
RESPONSE
I do not wish to argue this point, instead I wish to share several facts concerning "Blue" coloration,Major Robert A.D. Herber,called the father of the breed(weims) and considered the earliest and greatest authority on the breed,proclaimed that the Weim,was a mutation within the Brache or St. Hubert Hound,St. Huberts,were an essentially black hound.The Brache,are thought to be the master strain of hunting dogs from which all forms descended.In 1931,Dr. N.A. Iljin,published a paper,which further advanced Major Herbers theory. Dr. Iljin,said that the blue,was due to a clumping,of the black pigment granules in the outer layer of hair which resulted in a reduction of the total area covered by black pigment.,Hence the black coloration becomes somewhat "washed out" or diluted.We know today that a genetic factor for dilution of pigmentation can be carried by two black animals as a recessive,and when two black animals are bred together, they may produce a blue. Dr. Iljin also referred to the "Isabellismus" factor,a silvering effect.Animals carrying this recessive factor of basic have been called "IsabeIlas". Dr. Paul Kleeman claimed that the weim was descended from the Great Dane,and that the gray of the Weim was the same as the "blue" Great Dane. Red Schweissehund,are given credit to the liver dilute that we see today. Most of this was taken from Earnst Hart's This is the Weimaraner, the photo's and text are from the mid sixties, that was said to be the time that the saddle with brown legs were appearing. All of the pictures are in black and white. No where in the book do you see such an animal.You do see large white patches on the chest, I personally was not in a coma during the sixties, I've never seen a dog as was pictured here today.In all of my books about the breed I've never read anything describing what was seen today as a blue weim. If I ever saw a dog like that,through a gray to blue crossing I would definitely be searching through my proverbial wood pile.Nor would I wish to breed blues.The girls, as their offspring's do not have a black nose,nor do they have black foot pads.They have no points,just the silvering around the mouth.Since you've said that you've had Weims for 30 years,you must know that many lines have been "backed "by blues over the course of time. If your theory is true,despite Mendelian Law,you would think that the animal that was shown here today would be very wide spread.The Phenotypes today are not the genotypes that breeders envisioned long ago,to perform the tasks that they were bred to do. To me that is the large task at hand coming into the new millenium.
Champions In Blue
