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Thursday, December 22, 2005

Reminiscing - Sacramento Anatolian playdays

We used to have a nice local group that got together with our (mostly young) Anatolians, back in the early 90's.

Here's a pic of part of the group at the first local group playday. Cindy (Growlsburg Anatolians) and Patty (Shenandoah Anatolians) were the main organizers back when. :)

First Playday
L-R (person & dog): Moises and Vahsi, Patty and Jolly, plus Jim and Annie, Ken and Eli, at our first playday. Gorgeous dogs and wonderful people!

Vahsi was a blue Anatolian. Gorgeous girl. Sadly she passed on this year. She had just had her 12th birthday. Her sire (not pictured) was of my breeding, belonging to Patty. More pics of Vahsi are here along with the subject of blue Anatolians.

Moises had also sent me some of Vahsi's puppy photos. This is one I thought had good clarity.

Vahsi the Beautiful
Isn't she gorgeous!

Here she is again as an older lady...
Vashi as an older lady
Gazing up at the camera gives the illusion that her almond eyes eyes are round.
But she did have correct and beautiful eyes. (Blue Anatolians may have bluish, then greenish to pale yellow eyes which may become a strong amber as they go through maturation phases. Immature Blue ASDs with blue eyes are not disqualified from the breed standard. The standard applies to mature dogs. It can take from 4 months to almost a year before the Amber color sets in.)

I'd love to hear from other owners of blue Anatolians!

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Semavi Lady woofed at @ 12/22/2005 04:56:00 AM | Permanent link | (0) Comments

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Blue Anatolians... or what color is that dog anyway?

When registering an Anatolian into the AKC studbook, without colored picture guidelines, a breeder is probably only limited by their imagination on how to apply the colors below to a dog that is being registered.

From the AKC website for Anatolians-
Description Type Code

(Base Body) Colors-
Biscuit & White (376)
Blue Fawn (036)
Brindle (057)
Fawn (082)
Gray Fawn (377)
Liver (123)
Red Fawn (150)
White (199)

Markings-
Black Mask (004)
Brown Mask (076)
Dutch Markings (077)
Pinto (018)
Pinto, Black Mask (079)
Silver Mask (078)

Colors listed are determined by the breed Parent Club, in this case, ASDCA (Anatolian Shepherd Dog Club of America).

My comment on this regards that fact that the codes seem to not make much sense genetically, so I think that the ASDCA should eventually get around to correcting this.

For example:
If one has a chocolate/liver/brown Anatolian, that means due to the dilution effect of the brown gene, the nose and eye rims as well as the hair on the dog cannot approach true black, but depending on depth of pigment in that particular dog, will have varying degrees of depth of chocolate color. The eyes as well, cannot be deeply brownish because there is no black pigment that can form in the eye -- they will tend to have amber eyes as they reach their adult coloration. Eye color development generally shifts from bluish-greenish to amber at some point before the dog's first birthday. So on the selections of color for registration, one could choose the base body color as being LIVER (123) and having the markings of BROWN MASK (076).

Now suppose you have a puppy that is a blue Anatolian?


A fawn and a blue fawn puppy (courtesy Shaman Anatolians)

This is a dilution that allows a blackish tint in places that would be black on a nondilute Anatolian, such as on the whiskers, guard hairs, black mask, ears, etc. But... rather than full development of black, the "black" areas will have an "off black", slate blue, or putty greyish color on the nose and eye rims, depending on the particular dog's depth of pigment. So in the case of the blue fawn dog, the base body color would be selected as BLUE FAWN (036) and with what color markings? If the dog in question has strong pigment, the mask can be "almost black" rather than pewter or silverish. So does the owner register their blue dog as having a black mask? The mask isn't black, it can't be if the dog is a genetic blue. And as in in the case of the chocolate dog, the eyes themselves do not have the depth of color that comes with black pigment, so their eyes will develop into a shade of amber over time.


Vahsi, a blue Anatolian puppy


Vahsi, the same blue Anatolian at 12 years (courtesy of Moises Bedolla)

I think this (selection of the black mask option for blue dogs) has been the case since breeders have no choice with the current selection.

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Semavi Lady woofed at @ 5/26/2005 03:34:00 PM | Permanent link | (0) Comments