A little worry might go a long way.
I think the dogs most often spoken of on this board have already been greatly affected by fads. I've spent hundreds of hours digging out bits and scraps of old information about dogs and the men who walked behind them. It's one of my favorite things to do. I can tell you that the vast majority of old hunters or cowboys or dogmen, from those over the age of 75 . . . would scratch their head in confusion if you asked them about a Catahoula.
Prior to World War II there was no interest in, no concept even, of trying to make a breed out of the regionalized, get-ahead, cur dogs that were so familiar to them. They were merely a type of dog, more accurately even . . just a tool. For most folks, the thought of registering a cur dog was so foreign . . it would have been like forming a society to prevent the misuse of nails.
There was also little or no interest in separating them according to color. I'm sure there were any number of old-timers who would hold out a shiny yellow one to be his pick . . or maybe someone who superstitiously always chose the leopard pup with the boldest ring neck. But the suggestion of breeding entire color phases out of a family of using dogs would be as random, as arbitrary and as practical as refusing to let Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday rain fall on your garden. Many a Texan has cursed the rain for falling on a day when he had planned certain other activities . . but I doubt many ever put up tarps to keep it from wetting his crops.
Despite all of the Coyote X Greyhound legends I read on the internet . . . I know a good number of old timers from central Texas who still call anything spotted - a Lacy Leopard. Apparently the Lacy family produced some wicked stock dogs for decades and their reputation spread far and wide. But not just for Blue dogs.
And Yellow dogs became Blackmouth Curs. And Leopard dogs are now Catahoulas.
This litter, born last June, contains a Black n Tan, a Light Tan Leopard, a Black Saddled Leopard, A Saddleback Brindle, a Blue Brindle and a Yellow with Black Mask. The parents were a Yellow Brindle and a Saddleback Leopard. Regardless of their individual color or personality . . . the genes that make them Yellow or Blue are not connected to the genes or memes that make them hunt or lead.
But flash forward from the 40's til now . . and not only do most of these dogs get used 80-90% less, or in completely different applications . . . but they've also been selected for color for generations. Countless thousands of them were killed or culled in order to "train" them to stop producing the wrong color.
At the end of the day, it's up too the owner or breeder to determine what qualities are most important in any line of dogs or in any litter of dogs. But here's my question . . .
There are obviously some good traits in each of the colors of Cur dogs that are now known as breeds. And there are bad traits in all of them as well. But, is it possible that in separating them from each other in the pursuit of what we call beauty . . . that each color phase has taken with them an essential piece of the pie . . some one small thing that prevents any of the color phases from being complete?
