agree thats very unfair to those who spend many years working hard to get a GOOD dog thats within the breed standard ..its far from a beauty contest

Great post Duboing - this is what I wanted to say, but couldn't have put it so eloquently myself

I think that was a typo, and Bodhi was trying to say it was illogical to eliminate dogs whose markings are not exact

Bodhi's arguing to include healthy dogs in breeding programmes regardless of colour flaws and mismarks.

But if the dog bred is pedigree then how can the breed standard eliminate the colouring? Surely the colouring, although rare, is normal for the breed. Yellow spotted Dali's are normal and the only reason it is not desired is because of a breed standard which is outcasting normal colourings, why? because they are not as pretty? I still do not understand, who came up with the breed standard in the first place?

I can completely understand selective breeding for health reasons but from what I can gather breeding from a dali with yellow spots is a huge no no, regardless of any health tests. If a pair of pure bred pedigree Siberian huskies gave birth to a green Siberian Husky it would still be a pure bred pedigree siberian husky so why would its colour discriminated against? I do not understand this at all

There are some of this"colour markings"registered can't remember in which BRS they were in off hand, there were black & white puppies in the same litter which is what caught my eye(as opposed to black puppies & white puppies)

Border Collies that are mainly white like "white"GSDs have problems working sheep ergo breeding them just for the colour is going against what the breed should be bred for ie workjing sheep(the name German Shepherd Dog might give you a clue as to what GSDs work was & still is)

Like I have said I have no problem about these mismarked/non standard colour dog existing but they should not be bred from otherwise there would be no actual breeds I've had members of the general public at Crufts ask me what my Belgian shepherd was doing in the GSD ring-why because she was black they thought she was a smooth coated Gronendael-a separate breed with a totally different standard

Imagine what would happen if just any colour markings were acceptable The puppy farmers would be overjoyed selling their "rare"silver labs, lemon Dals, white dobermanns etc etc for even higher prices than they do today Colour is just the tip of the iceberg-allow any colour then it could be coat type or size, then shape & structure etc etc

People who dislike showing & breed standards are failing to grasp the fact that without the breed standards there would be no breeds & like it or not breeders will continue to breed to the breed standard

BTW the mismarked blues were from a Fawn champion in both dogs pedigrees as he carried the mismark gene & was on both sides of the pedigree & produced F1 gen mismarks whilst he was alive

Given "standards" are prone to change over time anyway, aren't they? And is this done for the health and robustness of the dog or aesthetics?

People keep mentioning health etc.

I am hypothesising - just say the dogs are PERFECT - perfect health, perfect temprement, perfect teeth, coat texture/length - BUT it is a yellow spotted dal. Or it was patchy over one ear.

This dog would be discarded from breeding, showing etc etc based purely on it's colour "fault".

I don't see how this is logical in maintaining HEALTHY breeding stock... And increasing the amount of healthy dogs to breed from (effectively allowing more dogs into the HEALTHY gene pool).

This dog STILL represents a perfect dalmation.

I dont understannd still, sorry I am just gonna say one last thing and be nice to me cause I dont really have a clue

Dali breed standard is only black or liver spots right? no other colours? not supposed to be joined together and stuff right? (not 100% sure that is right but nearly)

Siberian Huskies breed standard is far more ranged they can come in a number of colours and markings even piebald, with blue eyes, brown eyes, a mixture of both, etc, etc.

Why can one breed have such a range and one not?

I think that this probably has a lot to do with genetics. Some colour variants are dominant, some recessive and some codominant. Huskies may be characterised by codominant colours, allowing colour mixtures to proliferate. Dalmations, I think, are characterised by dominant and recessive colours, and it ends up like a game of scissors/paper/stone:

black beats liver
liver beats apricot

This makes selecting breeding stock on colour markings a much more viable option.

Also, you've got to look back at why the breeds were developed. Huskies are a very old, and very practical breed. It's unlikely that their originators were much fussed what colour they were. Dalmations, while bred to work as guard dogs, were clearly selected for their looks as well, thus leading to a breed standard which is very strict on conformation of coat colour and type.

oops double post