Awful little white spot...... - Page 6

Jenni, that would explain it. I didn't get that.

Yes Jenni, I thought it was sarcasm too, as she went on to say it didn't bother her at all.

  Both of my dogs were born with white spots, both have Fero in their pedigree. The black' shepherds'
 white spot has disappeared and the sable still has it, but since she is a LSC it blends in and just adds to her beauty.

However, white feet I wouldn't want, nor large white spots on a black shepherd that didnt' go away.  Makes it look like a mutt IMHO.  As I said in the other thread, yes, maybe it doesn't affect their working ability but I want it all.  Greedy I guess.

You flatter yourself nona.  I don't bait you, I don't give a damn  about you.   I asked you a very simple and logical question, one that apparently you can't answer.  So your response is to get even more irrational and defensive and go on the attack because you have made yourself look stupid.

AGAIN You began this thread with the following:

Any opinions why the white is becoming more and more common.....
This is what the thread is about, not anything else.......Lets keep it on why the white is being produced more and more.....

I am merely asking you to explain what leads you to this conclusion.   If you think you can just say shit and everyone is going to automatically take your word as gospel you are crazy.

my GSD was mostly white (see avatar).  I never found her coat "awful"  I thought her beautifully unique.  I was not alone, she garnered a lot of attention.  She was the smartest damn dog I knew.  I think she got cheated being my dog sometimes because she could do anything with minimal instruction.  Her incite was phenomenal.  I Hope you were being facesious, I think you were and meant no offense.  I actually am looking to get a white shepherd as our next companion.  The breeder just has dogs of the temperament I was looking for and I think they are beautiful.  I imagine when you have combined so many different dogs to create a certain dog, and then try and use certain "champion lines," to garner the same repeated result you increase the chances of some recessive genes popping through.  I have asked a few times about the frequency of GSDs with white in their coat but it has been hard to gauge the frequency.  Seems that it is a "hush hush" topic. 



~Rooka

I agree with RS -- a little white on the chest is OK, but I would not want to see white toes.   Perhaps in the Show Line it is considered undesirable.  I did read a post awhile back about someone receiving a puppy with a lot of white on the paw -- the Breeder had dyed it and the dye was coming off.   So "sort it out" for yourselves.

The puppy you are referring to had socks, not spots.  The question wasn't whether we liked it or not, it was referring an increase in frequency.  But then, since there has been no indication that there is such an increase,  and the OP's not really sure what the point was to begin, it's a moot point.

Ah, yes, an "expert" opinion -- it is MOOT !!   LOL   Good !

No, the OP and you are the experts, LOL.

A little bit of white on the base of the toe(s) where the hairline ends, near the pad or even a light colored pad is not an indication of poor pigmentation,  and generally white on the toe(s) disappears and the pad darkens by the time pups are around 5 - 6 months old.   It's my understanding the key to the white on the toe disappearing and the pad darkening is whether or not the nail is dark and never pink.  

I wish I had my Malcolm Willis book here, (it's packed in storage) I'm pretty sure that's where I read about  the white we sometimes see on the chest of puppies (usually starts out looking like a horizontal band) and the white that sometimes shows up on the toes of puppies, both gradually disappear as the pup matures, (though many retain a few white hairs or a small star on the chest).  

I wish Silbersee or  Preston or Bob-O were here, I bet they know exactly about this, and I think there is even a name for this phenomenon.  Maybe YellowRose can help with this, she knows a lot about this stuff.

White spots on the chest, toes, tail tip, are not necessarily under genetic control.  Melanocyte (pigment cell) migration during embryonic development starts from the neural crest to cover the body, reaching the extremites last, and this is not always complete by birth.  This migration continues after birth and often right through the lifetime, which is why we see white spots colouring in as the dog matures.

Sue (above) is correct in that this has nothing to do with what's known as 'poor pigmentation' in the GSD world, which is under genetic control.  This has though become a bit of an obsession, particularly in the showring where red pigment seems to be desirable.  If there was natural selection advantage to this dark phaeomelanin pigment we would see it regularly in the wolf.  In terms of natural selection, it is in fact wasted energy.  The wolf generally has very pale phaeomelanin and it is certainly not associated with degeneration in any way.