HELLO!!!!!!!!! Take a look at this...

http://www.lewcinkaskennels.com/dogs/franka.html

What is even "eekier" is that Bode is related... lol..

And I suppose even Sabre- distantly...

Hehe...they look like GSD/ Border Collie crosses.

While I tip my hat to the lady for at least getting a CD on her dog, I'm really, really, hoping that all the pups were spay/ neutered.

Interesting tid bit of information - thanks, Karmen!

She should be drown and the dog should be fixed.

How is this genetically possible??

Where could this color have come from??

The sire line seems to have good dogs...Pike, Fero, Grief....??? Yikes!

Mutations are fairly common in the genomes of living things. It is rare, however, that the maniftest like we see here. This is obviously a mutiation on the gene that produces color of the dog.


It is caused by many environmental factors - background radiation included.

Even more rarely these mutations will give certain member of the species a reproductive advantage thus 'naturally selecting the gene'.

In this case, humnas are selecting the genes. Since the belief is this gene will ruinate the gene pool of GSDs it is desirable not allow this dog to reproduce.

http://www.biology-online.org/2/11_natural_selection.htm

A good quote by Chris:
"In this case, humans are selecting the genes. Since the belief is this gene will ruinate the gene pool of GSDs it is desirable not allow this dog to reproduce"

The breeders at this site need to learn those words : http://www.pets4you.com/pages/snowcloud.html

*Sigh*.....white GSD breeders that are now breeding for even worse color mutations. These pea brains are not even smart enough to be ashamed at what they're doing to the breed. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Those Shepherds look a lot like the results of the Russian experiment to breed docile silver foxes.

There was an article about the '(Short-legged) Dogs of Raratonga' in June's issue of Discover magazine. It led me to look in to the research and writing of Temple Grandin, one of the researchers quoted in the article.

Grandin, a professor at Colorado State, has done great amount of work on what causes livestock to be stressed and how to avoid that stress. Her work has led to the redesign of many of the packing plants in the US. It has reduced bruising and crippling in the slaughter process. Major beef buyers such as McDonald's require the packers use her auditing. In short, she has injected a big dose of common sense into the handling of animals.

One of the areas of her research included hair color and whorl patterns and how they related to an animal's skittishness or lack thereof. For example, the whorl pattern on a cow head is a tip-off to a wild one. A cow with a high whorl will likely jump the fence. One with a low whorl will tend to freeze in place when stressed. Horse handlers have known this for years -- they say the best horses have the whorl right at eye level.

It turns out that hair color and pigmentation are developed in the fetus at the same time the nervous system is being constructed. In fact, the precursor molecule for hair pigmentation and several chemicals in the nervous system is the same. Less pigment == less stable nerves.

From Grandin's article on her website, (bold emphasis is mine)
... The highest producing pigs, milk cows, and chickens are either white or partially white. In commercial pigs, the maternal sow lines are mostly white. High-producing commercially bred turkeys and chickens have white feathers and white skin. Depigmentation is both good and bad. Partial depigmentation in varying degrees appears to be highly correlated with production traits. It is interesting that the two calmest breeds of cattle the Hereford and the Holstein have completely depigmented white areas on their heads. However, excessive removal of pigment often appears in conjunction with serious developmental or neurological problems. Many veterinarians report that Holstein dairy cows that are mostly white are more difficult to handle and more nervous than Holstems with larger areas of black.

The old breeders of Shepherds were probably on to something when they decided to select for stronger pigmentation. They probably knew, but couldn't or didn't care to quantify that link. The hair pigmentation is likely linked to other traits -- I recall reading an article someplace that claimed sable shepherds made the best mothers. (Lanting?)

Ignoring the heading of the Grandin paper -- it's certain to inflame those that never read past the big type, there is a good discussion on pigmentation and the associated neurological effects. Click on the following link and scroll down to Depigmentation Patterns

http://www.grandin.com/welfare/genetics.animal.welfare.html


Discover article (scroll to near the bottom of the page for discussion of hair whorls and nervousness)
http://www.discover.com/issues/jun-04/features/dogs-of-rarotonga/?page=3

 Quote:

It is rare, however, that the maniftest like we see here. This is obviously a mutiation on the gene that produces color of the dog.

The dogs on that pedigree are not all SV registered...there are a lot AKC registered dogs, ie, Shadow Oaks shows up several times.

When registering a litter, AKC does not verify anything other than the paperwork is filled in and accompanied with the required monies. The DNA was requested by the breeder, but it only shows the pups came from that particular dam and that sire, not the breed.
So what would have happened if the line was contaminated with a cross breeding a generation or two before that particular breeding? ie, a throwback pup...

AKC will pretty much register anything; they even have a process by which a breeder can register a multi-sire litter, even where one sire is not a purebred! In that case they DNA the whole litter, great...but: "...the breeder may utilize the DNA certificates and the accompanying explanatory worksheet to perform the parentage evaluation him/herself."

Not much in the way of oversight, is there...?

Mutations are fairly common in the genomes of living things. It is rare, however, that the maniftest like we see here. This is obviously a mutiation on the gene that produces color of the dog.


It is caused by many environmental factors - background radiation included.

Even more rarely these mutations will give certain member of the species a reproductive advantage thus 'naturally selecting the gene'.

In this case, humnas are selecting the genes. Since the belief is this gene will ruinate the gene pool of GSDs it is desirable not allow this dog to reproduce.

http://www.biology-online.org/2/11_natural_selection.htm