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?
"fads" have ruined many breeds across the board in all livestock and pet varieties at some point in the last 200+ years. a fad can come in many forms. phenotype, genotype, show ring, performance, consumer demand etc. just to name a few. a top breeder never lets any of these things dictate the animals he is breeding, he breeds to suit his end goals for his personal use, if there becomes a demand for what he does, he never strays from his personal path. a good breeder will see many fad cycles pertaining to his animal of choice through his years. breeding percentages and coefficients are tools, much like epds for cattle, and sire and dam progeny stats for racehorses. all of these tools can be utilized to enhance your personal animals, but all can be abused.
the performance cow and hog dog industry hasn't even come close to seeing the fads that the horse and livestock industries have seen through the years...
here is a fine example, i find this page very informative as to the damages of indiscriminate fad breeding can do to your breed of choice.
https://www.msu.edu/~ritchieh/historical/cattletype.htmlboth of these are excellent posts...
I have watched the Houston post and chronicle news paper ads as well as other magazines from the past and have seen many breeds that were ruined by the fads/popularity of the many breeds that were practically ruined because of it...the true breeders were there before the fads and then afterwards as well and staying true to their standard...
originally the price will be very high and you will see a breeder sell out the kennel of german shepards when the price falls out the bottom and then they will go and get a kennel full of Dobermans and then switch to red red nose pits and then to the blue pits on and on each time the bottom fall out...
then you have the competition hounds that hunted for themselves that ruined the breed for the pleasure hunters...same with the retriever breeds...competition dogs versus the hunting dogs...used to be the talk...I do remember all that talk back then and have seen many a fad come and go and yes those fads have a tendency to ruin a breed because folks breed for the money and most don't know what a good dog should look like much less how they are supposed to work...
