Panda Shepherd(what do you think?) - Page 17

They are allegedly purebred. I think they would make for a great dog, however, they need to be separately named. "Panda Shepherd"

Snakes give me the willies.

I think it is clear that these dogs are GSD's.  What will end up happening, if more crop up, and I believe they statistically will, we will see the owners band together like the owners of white shepherds have done, maybe with the other "fancy" pigmented GSD's into a separate registry, because the self-appointed gatekeepers of the breed pushed them out from the GSD community.

In Germany, there is an appointed WUSV officer that has a say as to when a dog is not to be bred (at the very least its offspring not be issued papers), but this is the USA and there is nothing to stop a breeder from breeding towards exotic pigmentation and the AKC is quite the money grubber, so it is just a matter of time and the whims of the market.  It would be a lot easier to manage the issue from within by creating such a registry to include all colors not explicitly covered by the standard...

I appreciate the fact that the person who started with the panda coloration has purposely seperated herself from GSDs and formed a breed and club North American Panda Shepherd Association:  http://www.pandashepherds.com/napsa_club_info and breed standard:    http://www.pandashepherds.com/the_panda_shepherd_standard

I believe she shows in the rare breed class.  

For myself, I am a traditionalist but I can respect someone who has a different vision but has enough respect for the original to take the necessary steps to start a seperate breed.  I feel this way about Shilohs too.  I appreciate both the Panda Shepherd people and the Shiloh Shepherd people for going the extra mile to legitimize their vision and not just trying to pass their dogs off as "rare" GSDs.

 

Great post, Sue. 

I fail to see the concept of the Panda Shepherd as a separate breed, since  Panda Shepherds are the offspring of two GSD's, while the Shiloh Shepherd is not.  They are indeed GSD's and not some counterfeit of the breed.

While I can agree that the Panda pigmentation scheme falls outside of the breed standard, it is only a genetic anomaly which does qualify it as "rare".  I'm pretty sure it should be hard to replicate even on a repeat breeding.

I can see how the OP may have been shoved the extra mile by well meaning purists into setting up her own breed registry.  She should expand it to include all the other "fancy" pigmentations.

 I'm pretty sure it should be hard to replicate even on a repeat breeding.



Charlie, the panda trait is DOMINANT. That means if you cross a panda with a normal colour dog, you are going to get a certain percentage of panda pups. It's not hard to reproduce this trait at all!

And the American Cocker is an offshoot of the English Cocker, but now the 2  are completely seperate and distinct breeds with different characteristics.   Same thing here.  The Panda breeder is intentionally breeding for characteristics not acceptable under the GSD standard, hence starting a new breed.  http://www.pandashepherds.com/genetic_panda_info 

Sunsilver, I don't mean breeding the Panda itself, but the parents of the panda.

Sue:
I believe that the Panda breeder may have found a market niche.  However, to replicate a Panda pigmentation in a broad genetic base could certainly prove to be an expensive endeavor.  Has the AKC recognized it?

On 7 March 09 we had a 'panda' pup in a black & gold litter. Photos of the pup were posted on the GSDPD over a period of some weeks. It was put to us that the pup be euthanised but I recall a Max v S quote 'no good dog is a bad colour' so the pup was rehomed at 8 weeks on the Limited Register. I can assure all readers that the pup was a pure bred GSD. The only common ancestor in the 5 generation pedigrees of sire & dam was Kevin vom Murrtal. At 8 weeks, this pup had all the characteristics of her siblings. At NO time did we give any consideration to keeping this pup & breeding with her. We were prepared to pay for extensive DNA testing of the pup & mother but needed the cooparation of the other party in the equation, which was not forthcoming. The GSDCA put it in the 'too hard' basket.
I understand that another 'panda' was born in Australia last year.