Color linked genes

[t-dog]

So I was reading an old article sent to me by Steve Herd about breeding better bear dogs. One of the things he mentioned  really jumped out at me, as it’s an observation that I’ve made with my own family of dogs and it isn’t often talked about. He said that he felt certain genes were color linked in his particular family of plotts. For example he felt that in his dogs, the darker brindle dogs had more nose than the light brindles but that the light brindles were better locators and usually more intelligent. Dependent upon what someone was going to use a pup for as to what color he sent them. I know in the game chickens there are sometimes things that are sex linked. A particularly issue or gene may only occur in the hens or the roosters of a particular family but not both sex’s.

Have any of you ever made this type of observation in your dogs? I know a couple of really reputable plott guys on this forum. Have y’all ever noticed the difference of the caliber of nose depending on the color of the dog?

I know in my family of dogs, if I have a red or yella pup that I need to cull it. Seems that the ones that perform do so at a high level, but a very high percentage of the pups that don’t turn out for my family of dogs are one of those two colors. We have bred some of those dogs that worked well and they have shown to be horrible producers. So for me and my dogs, it’s kinda the ole coral snake saying, red and yella killa fella, lol.


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[Cajun]

  I know if my line of dogs and I get every color a Plott throws. I have not had a Maltese Plott in over twenty years and then a female i have  started throwing them. Maltese and buckskins are a recessive gene and both parents have to carry that gene to have them. Black and black brindle are dominant colors. That being said, I have not found any correlation between color and ability. I have had good ones in every color and culls in every color. I can say that I have not had a bad Maltese but I usually do not keep them. One of the top three Plotts I have owned in over 40 years was a Buckskin. The other one was a reddish brown brindle and the third was a Black with brindle trim female.

[Cajun]

  I might add that Steve Herd is a very well respected Plott breeder and has been in way longer then me and has a very good strain of Plotts.

[t-dog]

Cajun are you not a fan of the Maltese color or has it just worked out that you were more partial to another pup in those litters?

That article wasn’t very long but it was interesting.


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[t-dog]

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[Cajun]

I like the Maltese, have had several good ones, in fact the young gyp we just  AI is a Maltese. I have been told you never breed two Maltese together because you can get skin problems. All the Maltese color is is a Dilute black.
  I have not read Steve's article but have known Steve over 30 years. I have read a lot of what he has written on several Websites. Steve's Dad was one of the early Pioneers of the Plott breed and Steve took over his Dad's dogs.

[t-dog]

I assume that when they come Maltese that they can be solid in color or a Maltese brindle? I like color myself. I remember you had a Maltese male a year or two ago, I think he got crippled up pretty bad. I thought he was a nice looking dog, but I can’t recall his name at the moment. What started that gene in the plott dogs? I assume some old leopard or catahoula blood from their early beginnings?


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[Cajun]

  That was my dog Steel and it is a wonder he lasted as long as he did. There are several theories on where it came from but it has been in them a long time. The early Weems dogs threw a lot of Maltese as well as some of Von Plotts dogs. It is a different gene then the Leopards that were introduced into the Plott breed. Some people called it the Blue Delch sp? strain that was in the dogs from the beginning. Other people believed Weimaraner was introduced into them. I think Bob Plott talks about it in one of his books.

[The Old Man]

I believe there are performance genes linked to the color genes " in some strains" but not in general.      Some of the maltese Plotts are pretty, there have historically been some outstanding ones. Personally I do not favor them due to the dilute gene hampering the pigment, I don't like a lack of pigment. I wouldn't be concerned with a buckskin Pott as long as they had a black nose.
Same with the red muzzled red nosed BMC's.    In the Leopard breed I am leary of a white headed blue eyed dog. Long story short in nature a lack of pigment is generally a weakness.
 With that said, I don't know of the Lacy breed having any issues with the blue color or the yellow red nosed ones. Nor the red nosed BMC's and very few maltese Plotts.
Then we get into the "pattern or marking" genes. Solid, Brindled, Merle, Blanket or saddle backed with or without white, open spotted. I figure that would all be just personal preference.
At the moment I don't own a Plott of my favorite color " black with brindle head and legs or saddle backed" but color is way down on my list.

[The Old Man]

If you have a strain of dogs that performance genes are linked to color and or pattern genes it would be a blessing as it would aid in the selection process of puppies.

[t-dog]

That’s exactly the way I feel about it in my family of dogs Old Man. We had two pups with predominantly white heads out of this last litter. Neither are blind or deaf thankfully. Deputy Dawg raised them so I can’t remember for certain, but pretty sure neither had pink noses or anything like that. It is something we look for but we have had it.


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[t-dog]

I had to go back and look at pics. There is some pink on the nose. Slims pup is borderline.


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[The Old Man]

I'm not sayin they are a no no for everyone just for me, and if I needed a dog and had one that was sound I'd use'em just not breed'em. For example I have had some red muzzled dogs years ago but rarely kept them and never bred them it has been a long long time since I got one.
Now I have a blond haired blue eyed wife and don't hold it against her at all. HaHa

[t-dog]

Lol I hear that old man. We haven’t had any pups marked like these two in years, maybe ever now that I think about it. I was listening to Mr Plummer on a pod cast one day. He was talking about breeding double merle Catahoulas. He said a lot of people had problems with it, so much so that it had become a breeding no no in the breed. The
(MM) gene, double merle allele, is subject to produce this lack of pigment which directly correlates to the deafness and blindness. He said that they breed double merle dogs all the time and haven’t had an issue in many years because they culled the dogs that had those issues. To me, in ways this is very similar to the lethal white gene in horses, only horses aren’t able to live with it. I guess out in nature the deaf and blind dogs wouldn’t either.


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