Blue Bay Shepherds - Page 3

Vk4, blue is a recessive. Imagine my shock when I got blues out of the darkest sable dog I've ever had. Blue is a dilution. What really bothered me about it is the fact that the side the blue is coming from has kept it so well hidden- meaning, they've been drowning a lot of pups.

I was strongly chastised for discussing my blues. Apparently, I was hurting others with related dogs by not hiding mine in a bucket. Such is life. I prefer to take the "open book" approach. I certainly had no inkling my dog carried for blue and I didn't intend to produce them- it just happened. If the goal is to reduce the instances of "off" colors, then why not admit to them? Drowning innocent pups isn't going to reduce their occurrence. Not to mention, it's just plain heartless.

Just to reinforce what has often been said on this board, and is unfortunately, usually true. Breeders who breed for unusual non-standard colours usually do it at the expense of other, more important things like health, structure and temperament. There are some exceptions, but....well, just look at the peds on those brindle dogs! At least the person breeding the Blue Bay Shepherds seems to be striving for some sort of consistency in the dogs!

 Blue Bay Shepherds are not just another designer breed like a "Puggle". The Blue Bay Shepherd is basically the same as a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog. The breeder Vicki Spencer is trying to make a dog breed that looks like a wolf, but in blue, and also has a mild pet dog temperament. The breed is meant to be pet/companion only as well, not a protection or show dog. Vicki Spencer has been working over 20 years on this breed so it's not just a fad. And it is also a breed still in development, the breeder is still working on it. Does this sound like some designer dog breeder:

http://bluebayshepherds.weebly.com/history.html

Developing the breed:

 So I have this year the first foundation litters of what I intend to develop as the Blue Bay Shepherd, just a good pet and true companion dog with “out of this world” beauty. They will not carry the stigma of the name “wolf” ,wolf dog” or wolf hybrid” since one of the parents is a full German Shepherd and the other parent is 5 generations away from any pure wolf in their line. This makes the first Blue Bays F-6. Within the next year or two I will be breeding Blue Bay to Blue Bay. I have been very selective about the animals that I chose for this first breeding. I used animals that I have line bred for quite some time specifically for looks and temperament and I know their backgrounds well. I have already chosen the other lines that I will be introducing into the further development of the breed although I can say I have come closer to exactly what I want the Blue bay to be in these first pups than I ever imagined I would. There will be NO wolves added in the development of this breed. I will be creating a standard for what all Blue bays should ideally be. I hope to be on target with that standard by keeping in touch with all the new owners as their pups grow. This way I will know if they are turning out as planned and can work on continually improving the breed as it develops with the help of other dedicated people and the daily blessings of God.

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  She has the breed clearly planned out, the wolf blood is barely there, and she has already got the appearance pretty much down unlike some dog breeds that are fully recognized by a kennel club.

  I recently had to research several "rare" dog breeds for an art project. These dog breeds are rare for a reason all right. Despite having a breed standard, these dogs varied in appearance so much I was bewildered. Did you know that Anatolian Shepherds and Kangals are actually two separate breeds?! Yes, it's true. Pureblooded Anatolians are leggy with a more wolf like muzzle and should not have a very curled tail. Pureblood Kangals are stocky mastiff like dogs with curled tails over their backs. So the problem is that they come from the same place, and when non native speaking people ask for a Anatolian Shepherd in Anatolia the region of central Turkey that the dogs are from, they are basically asking for a dog from the area that can herd sheep. :/

 So you might be wanting an Anatolian Shepherd, but are instead getting a Kangal or even a crossbred mutt. This has led to the two breeds being crossbred a lot. So most Anatolian Shepherds outside their homeland are mutts, not purebreds at all. Same with the Tibetan Mastiff. Have you seen the huge monsters from China? Guess what?! Those are purebred Tibetan Mastiffs all the way! When the Tibetan Mastiff was first imported to the UK in the 1900s, the dogs were deemed too big/scary and crossed with native English dogs to make the breed smaller and less fierce. So basically what happened is that the English made a new breed from the TM, yet they kept the original breed name they used to make it. Crazy but true. So if want a true pureblood Tibetan Mastiff, you will need to go to it's homeland or import dog(s) from there. Which makes those "Tibetan Mastiffs" being shown in purebred dog shows, mutts. Funny when you think about it like that.

The dog breed world can be a pretty crazy place sometimes. Just look at the difference between the original Japanese Akita, and the North American version!  The AKC considers these dogs to be the same breed, just different types, while other countries treat them as separate breeds. What the pictures don't show clearly is how much bigger the N. American Akita is. 

http://serdessakitas.ca/index.asp?ID=11

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/akita.htm

Lunastar, my first dog 38 years ago was a Tibetan Mastiff. So, I can very confidently tell you that you have no idea what you are talking about. The Chinese took a breed SLIGHTLY bigger than a GSD and built a giant out of that, similar to they are trying to do with GSDs recently.

Tibetan Mastiff is not even a mastiff.

As long as the "Blue Bay Shepherds" aren´t called German Shepherd Dogs I don´t care.

Every current breed was "created" at some point - personally I don´t see a sense in blue pets looking like wolves, but there will be a market for sure...

Forgot to ask: Jen, how is "little Mohawk" doing? The pictures of this pup really impressed me!
Did he become the dog I thought?

Ely is fantastic. He is a one-person dog, very much like we guessed. Stable, but doesn't suffer fools. Gets along well enough with the other dogs in the house, but tends to rule. High drive and still that intensity that he had when little. He has the same expression as an adult. His owner thinks he hung the moon. 

 

 

That´s my boy! Thank you for the update

Ely is a very fortunate dog to have an owner who thinks so highly of him. All dogs should be so lucky...

"He has the same expression as an adult" - and how !!! Lookin' good Jen ('for a Blue' ).

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@ the OP:

I had to chuckle at the reference to "things I don't like about GSDS"; I didn't spot what was coming there - prepared for the usual stuff about backs and rear angles, wouldn't have expected what came next, about the big ears and dark eyes; surely, as that is two points that have always been part of the GSD Standard, you might just as well talk about not liking the fact the breed has 4 legs & a tail !