Agility Weekend

Last weekend Whisper was entered in an agility trial. Once again no video person so after the trial I bought a small hand held flip video,it is so easy to use anyone can make it work. So next trials mid May should have videos-by someone.
Trialing can be fun, on Saturday we earned another QQ and a second and third place for 28 more MACH points.



Trialing can be frustrating in the littlest mistake can cost you a leg. Sunday was no Qs. In jumpers I decided to try more serpentine moves to try to speed up time, it pulled her off a jump so of course NQ.



She has been iffy at the start line and breaking stays so I have been working hard at reinforcing her staying at the start line. Of course the standard run needed a three jump lead out with a pivot turn to be on the right side for dog walk and subsequent course. Although she had been holding all her start stays that weekend I didn't want to ruin what progress I had made so I only did a two jump lead out. She was so fast I couldn't get into the correct position so the rest of the run did not go well and we earned another NQ.



All together not a bad weekend though. She earned another QQ(very hard), held all her start stays, hit all her contacts(another difficult task for her) rather than leaping off, and is comfortable working at a distance from me.

Coat Color Questions

Some color patterns are easy to understand. Some are not so easy. With the Red Brindle gene, why are some dogs more heavily brindled than others? Is their brindle pattern a separate unknown modifier gene or is it simply random how the dogs color out? The dogs below are genetically identical red brindle-yet one is obviously much darker than the other. In show terms the dog on the left is called a Red Brindle and the dog on the right is called a Black Brindle.


Left-DC Aragon Autumn Storm CDX TDX RA SC VCX (Apollo)
Right- BISS DC Aragon Night Frost VCD1 CDX TDX RE OJP SC VCX (Spirit)

The same is true with the Blue Brindle(Dilution gene added to the Red Brindle). The dog on the far right has very little blue brindling and for some reason is called a reverse Blue Brindle. The dog in the center is the more typical Blue Brindle. The dog on the far left is the Red Brindle.


Left-Ch Aragon Black Ice
Middle-Aragon Mystic Pearl
Right-Ch Aragon Aroi Silver Lining

Another question that has always puzzled me is the amount of color expressed in a Parti color dog. All three dogs below are called Parti colored but the amount of color is dramatically different. Why? The first dog is almost all white with a spot of red on his ear. He is registered as a red and white parti and will throw the parti gene and the red gene.


Ch Jets The Boy Next Door

The next dog shows a typical amount of coloring for a Parti dog


Ch Aragon Lunar Eclipse VCD1 MX MXJ RE JC

And the last shows an extreme amount of coloring



Ch Aragon Silver Oak

All three partis will throw their base color(the above three dogs Red Black and Brindle) +/- dilution gene and the Parti gene

Thats all for color genetics in the greyhound. Next posts will be back to the dogs.

Coat Color in Greyhounds

When breeding a greyhound litter it is always exciting to see what colors the puppies are. With a few basic rules of genetics, the majority of the time colors can be predicted. Three basic colors are present in the breed.

Black

BISS Ch Helios Sun King

Red Brindle

BISS DC Aragon Night Frost VCD1 CDX TDX OJP RE SC VCX

and Red

BISS Ch Aryal Aroi Stoney Ridge CD TD RE NAJ SC

Dogs receive a color gene from each parent meaning if they receive a black gene from one parent and a red gene from the other the dog will be black. If they receive a brindle gene and a red gene the dog will be brindle.

Next comes the modifier genes. The first one is the dilution color. It is recessive so a dog must receive a dilute gene from each parent. If they only have one dilution gene the dog will a nondilute color. So the dilution gene on a black dog gives a

Blue

U-Ch Chaparral Toblerone RN TT CGC

The dilution gene on a brindle creates a blue brindle


Ch Aragon Silver Cloud CDX TDX

The dilution gene on a red creates a blue fawn

Windrock Sin City Playboy RA JC

And last is the Parti gene. This gene allows only part of the base color to be expressed. Once again this modifier gene is recessive meaning the dog has to get the gene from both parents. If it only gets one it is a solid colored dog.

Black+Parti

Ch Aragon Lunar Eclipse VCD1 MX MXJ RE JC

If the dilute gene is present it would be a blue and white parti color(no photo).

Brindle+Parti would be a red brindle(No photo)
if+Dilute would be a blue brindle parti

Ch Aragon Silver Oak

And lastly Red+Parti would be a red and white color

Ch Gaia Best Mate

if+Dilute would be Blue Fawn Parti

DC Windrock Luck Be A Lady

This covers about 99% of the coat colors, some rarer colors such as liver or chocolate or EE Red are not covered but infrequently seen.

Head Shots

Three of Lyric's puppies together from left to right
Aragon Mystic Pearl(Bryn/Pearl), Ch Aragon Aroi Silver Lining(Darby) and Ch Aragon Black Ice(Echo)




Color genetics in greyhounds is an interesting topic. Based on the color of Merlin and Lyric's puppies, Merlin was obviously homozygous for the brindle gene. Dilute or nondilute is easy to understand but the amount of brindling expressed is a mystery. For instance both Darby and Bryn/Pearl are genetically the same color-blue brindle. Darby shows much more brown than Bryn/Pearl and much less blue color ie he has less brindling. When and if bred though they both will pass on the identical color genes-Brindle and Dilute genes.




Echo is the same base color-brindle just the nondilute version.

In the next post I will go over basic color genetics in the greyhound.

Good Week

Last weekend was a good though tiring weekend for the Aragon dogs. Starting with Lyric winning Breed three days in a row and a Group 3.



Her daughter Becca earned her first major and played nonstop with her sister Echo. By the end of the weekend she was utterly exhausted.





Echo got to chaperon this weekend although is soon to come out as a special.





And of course Darby earning Winners Dog at the Southern Specialty and finishing his Breed Championship.

Now for a week of downtime before agility next weekend with Whisper.