White on pups - Page 1

I was surfing and came upon this picture of this pup. http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/pedigree/499702.html Very nicely bred and gorgeous head on him but how often does that much white pop up? Is it pretty much a once in a lifetime fluke or do you risk it more with certain lines?

That is quite a bit of white. Over the years I have seen a decent number of working lines that had a much smaller amount of white hairs on the chest. On the dogs I have been around it seems to run in certain lines. I really cannot answer to show lines.

By that age most white has disappeared. It could be my imagination, but it seems to be coming up more than years ago. It remains the exception rather than the rule, and those that have it generally have very small thin patches. Jonah

Oh wow, Im sooo glad you brought this up! I knew my pup had alot of white on him and I was going start a topic on this myself. I sometimes see a little white on the feet and chest of pups, but never as much as him. As soon as I saw the title of the thread I immediately clicked on it to see what it was about, because I have been wanting to learn more about the white coloring on puppies anyways. As soon as I read what you posted I copied the URL and put it into my browser, and at the same time I said "That would be so funny if it was Nexus!" Sure enough, IT WAS HIM!!!..LOL Some of his litter mates also have a little bit of white, although not nearly as much as him. He was the darkest puppy out of the litter so thats what really attracted me to him. He is in Germany right now, and is scheduled to me shipped to me next wednesday. Im soo excited :D. The breeder is a very, very nice lady and before the pups were even born, she wanted to know every aspect of what I planned to do with the puppy. I told her I do NOT plan to breed so the coloring dident really matter, I was just looking for a dog to start Schutzhund with. Every day she e-mails or calls me and talks with me about him. So anyways, I read what everyone has posted so far and I have the same questions as you, MI GSD. Also, Has anyone ever seen this much white on a puppy? and Do you think some of it will go away as he gets older and grows into his adult coat? (Im open to all opinions and will not feel offended by any of them) Thanks! Andrea

I would not even worry in the least about the white since you are not planning to breed or compete in show. I know many outstanding working dogs that have some white on the chest. Many years ago my first pick of a litter had white on the chest but was one of the best working line females I have ever seen. From my expereince over the years the white on your pup is not going to change much. Some may tell you that it will go away but in my 20 yrs of expereince around GSD's it will not change much. But that's just me.

Thanks DesertRangers, it seems that you have alot of experience with GSDs so I will take your word for it. Im not going to breed him anyway, so like you said I wont worry about the white. I watched a video his Dam doing the protection phase of her SChH3 and she was excellent. I knew she would pass some of her drives to her puppies and thats why I decided to get pick male of the litter. Stefanie (the breeder) said he had very strong drives, but not to over the top. Thats exactly what I was looking for temperament wise. I wasent worried about the white in the first place, but I thought it would be interesting to see what everyones opinions were on it. -Andrea

Andrea, he is a very handsome pup with good breeding so I wouldn't worry about the white for what you want. He comes from a very good breeder and she sounds like she really cares about her pups so I'd be thrilled with him!

Andrea I just sent you a pic of a GSD,,,,,,,,,,,

White markings are of course inherited but the small amount on this pup is probably not due to the Irish spotting allele, more likely just minus modifiers which inhibit the foetal pigment cell migration, so leaving some areas white, without pigment. The melanocyte migration though, isn't complete at birth, which is why minor white spotting reduces and sometimes disappears as the puppy grows. With the minus modifiers there can also be a big variation in the size and distribution of the white as the melanocyte migration is not entirely under genetic control because of the phenomenon 'developmental noise' which is entirely random.

Here is an interesting article on white spotting and pigment cell migration. It applies to boxers in this article, but also is relevant to dogs in general. http://www.steynmere.com/Boxerama74.html