Tanner earned his CD!

I am very proud to announce that Tanner is now Ch Aragon Silver Oak RN BN JC CD!

He earned his 3rd leg on his 4th attempt at the Mt Bachelor Kennel Club Show in Redmond, OR on June 27.

We scored 189.5 out of 200 and placed 3rd in our class.  We lost 5 points on the heel on leash, 4.5 points on the heel free and 1 on the recall (crooked sit).  I was so happy with how happy and peppy he was.  I can't really complain!  

I love the video because it shows me the areas where we need to do more work.  For example, there are a couple places in here where I don't give the right cues to Tanner (the halts where he doesn't sit, for example), I need to work on that!  Tanner, needs to work on driving around the about turns.  It also shows us what we did right. Tanner did a beautiful job getting himself back into the correct position after the no sit before the about turn on the heel free.


Afterwards, Tanner was treated to a hamburger from the drive through of a local fast food place. He thought it was pretty yummy!  Then we went back to the hotel to rest.  We still had two more days to show!

I was particularly proud of Tanner because he showed well all three days at the show. Originally, I was unsure whether it was wise to enter all three days.  Some dogs can't handle three days of showing.  Particularly one that requires traveling and staying in a hotel.  In the past, this has negatively affected Tanner's attitude.


I think part of what helped Tanner be successful was that we traveled to the show with our training partners, Ellen and her hounds. Tanner was comfortable hanging out with them.

On top of that, most of the people and dogs that we train with at proofing group each week were there. As far as Tanner could tell, his entire of village of people and dogs had picked up and moved.  I think it helped me to have the village there as well and am grateful for the help we received from all of them.  It was a fun weekend with friends and dogs.

Now, on to open and the CDX title!

Working with Distractions

It is important for my dogs to learn to respond to cues even when in the presence of distractions. I try to carefully and deliberately add distractions in a way that ensure my dog will be successful. I don't start adding distractions until I am certain that my dog is fluent in the behavior in a particular setting.  The distraction starts out as something small and easily controlled by me (for example, a piece of cheese off to the side).  Once my dog is able to handle this small distraction, I will gradually increase the amount of distraction.  When I do change the setting and ask for the behavior in a new environment, I start with no additional distractions.  Once the behavior is fluent in the new setting, I add distraction.

The caveat is the way I use food in this video.  Sometimes Tanner finds the environment more distracting than I had anticipated. In this case, I can put a piece of food on the ground and ask him to work around it. The food is a very close distraction that he is familiar with. He will focus on this distraction (as opposed to the environment) and work willingly around it as he does in this video. You can see that he knows the food is there and he wants to eat it but chooses not to. He is not ready to take this behavior with this amount of distraction to a new setting.  

The other advantage of using food as a distraction like this is that it mimics finding food on the ground when we are out and about.  When he sees a piece of food on the ground he gives me attention as a way of asking for the food rather than just lunging after it.  

Here is a video where I add some pieces of cheese on the ground and ask Tanner to work over them.

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Tanner's Kitten

Tanner is a big, affable, gentle hound; most of the time. What you may not know is that he inherited a very strong prey drive.  Our back yard is varmint free thanks in large part to Tanner (he has Shine to help find and flush).  

Fortunately, he grew up with a cat.  He has learned to play gently with Ember and to respect her teeth and claws.  I like to think that he has learned to appreciate the warmth she provides when she snuggles with him.

However, not all cats are treated with the same regard.  Our neighborhood is home to several feral or "free range" cats. For the most part, they have learned to stay out of the yard or the pay the price.  It's not something I like, but it is something that I have had to accept about living with and loving greyhounds.

  

It is under these dire conditions the dogs discovered Newt who was abandoned, wet, and scared.  She was bawling and spitting and pinned down by Shine and Tanner between a gate and part of the retaining wall on the side of the house. This pathetic cub was little more then prey to these two fearless hunters and they were eager to dispatch the intruder.  Fortunately for her, a wisp of chain-link was between her and Tanner's teeth. 

I heard the commotion from this assault and had to act quickly. The dogs were put back in the house under protest.  I grabbed the empty carrier I keep on hand for just such emergencies and guided the terrified kitten into it.  Once rescued, this little sweetie spit hate, contempt and suspicion at me for at least 24 hours.  It was a Friday night and we were going to be gone for the most of the next day.  I wouldn't be able to take her to the pound for a prolonged period of time so I fixed her up in a wire dog crate surrounded by an x-pen in the laundry room.  

However, once she got over her initial fright and warmed up to me, we discovered that she has a terrific little temperament. The trip to the pound was postponed.

We wondered, could Tanner learn to accept her without trying to eat her?  

Newt spent a lot of time behind her buffer.  Tanner was rewarded for acting calmly in her vicinity.  Anytime he started to get spooled up or his eyes started to dilate, he was removed (but nicely).  Eventually, he started ignoring her and fixated on why I wasn't spending time with him.

Once cleared of disease and illness by our vet, Newt moved into the house.  Her interactions with Tanner were hyper-controlled.  She is fearless.  She does not act like prey.  Once Tanner learned to be gentle with her, he became one of her favorite playmates.

We have rules. They are never left out together. Tanner cannot stand up and play with Newt.  If he does, they get separated.    If she is running rampant around the floor, kicking up his prey drive, they get separated.  She has learned to keep her claws in check (for the most part). If he gets overwhelmed or is tired of getting picked on, he stands up and walks away.  I keep her from going after him (she loves his tail). 

If he is laying on the couch, she will run over and cuddle up with him. When he lays on the floor, she likes to lay between his front legs.  They have figured out a way to play together.  It's pretty cute. This video is a little dark but you can see how they play.

I am very happy that they can coexist in the house.  However, I will not let my guard down.  I will not leave them unchaperoned.  I micromanage them constantly.  Fortunately, Tanner's temperament is easygoing enough that it works as long as his prey drive is not turned on. 

Newt's trip to the pound is officially canceled !

Introducing Tanner RN!

This past weekend, Tanner finished his RN title in fine style.  The trial was held in a horse riding arena at a local fairground.  This was a new environment for Tanner and he handled it well.  Fortunately, we showed late in the day.  That gave him lots of time to acclimate to the new surroundings.

My main goal was to make his first several ring performances fun and low key.  I wanted him to have good experiences to build off of.  

He had a bit of a brain fart on the first sign so we had to repeat that station.  Otherwise, I was pretty pleased with how well he did. I love his nice focused heeling!  Towards the end, he started to get tired of having to stop and do stuff. I think he would prefer the longer heeling patterns in traditional obedience.  We are going to tackle Beginner Novice next.

The best part is that even though we had to repeat a station (our final score was a 96), we earned 4th place!

Tanner's Rally Debut

This weekend, Tanner had his debut in AKC rally obedience.  It was a very small trial with a limited entry held in a building that Tanner is very familiar with.  These factors all added up to create good supportive atmosphere for the two of us to enter our first trial.

On Saturday, I was pretty nervous.  A training buddy came down to help cheer us on and she reminded me to smile at Tanner and to keep my posture upright.  These are the little things that tend to slip when I (and most people) get nervous.  When it was our turn, we did pretty well.  But, we could have done better.

Well, let me rephrase that, I could have done better.  We had to repeat a station because we were out of sync.  A couple times, when he lagged a little in heel,  I turned my head to look back at him.  This made me drop my shoulder back as well which is a signal to him to drop back.  You can see where this is going.  I pushed him back out of position.  As a handler, it is important to keep your body pointed forward, even when you are turning right and your dog drifts out of your peripheral vision.  Looking back at your dog makes the dog lag.

Anyway, you can see the video here:

But, the good part is we still scored a 93 out of 100 which is a respectable score.  The best part is, he earned his first leg towards his Rally Novice title!  Our judge was Sue Cox.  She is a really nice judge.  Her pencil doesn't miss much but she is fair and kind.

On Sunday, we did do better!  I kept myself calm, I remembered to breathe and smile.  I didn't look back and just trusted that he would be where he needed to be.  There were a lot of right turns on this course!  I still had to repeat a station because I sent him to finish to the right instead of the to the left.  Nonetheless, he responded well to his smiling handler and earned lots of compliments.

Here is the video:

We earned a score of 95.  Our  judge, Marsha Carroll Dandridge, was very complimentary on his heeling abilities.  She literally gushed over how wonderful he worked for me and what a great dog he is! Of course, this made me very happy!  I love my boy and it's nice when everyone else loves him too!  We enjoyed showing under Marsha.  Her pencil was sharp as well but she was fair and good to her exhibitors.

We just need one more novice rally leg in order to be able to add RN after his name!  He will be the 4th one in his litter to add a performance title! 

Checking Our Progress

Last week during our obedience class, Tanner and I did a run through of a Beginner Novice routine.  The purpose was to see how well Tanner would work through an entire routine with no primary reinforcement.  We videoed the exercise for later analysis.

I can see that I need to remember to ease into the changes of pace (rather than taking off like a rocket).  I also need to plan my figure 8 better.  You can see that Tanner does not respond to my first recall cue.  Another place for more work.

All in all, I am quite proud of my boy.  I love his attitude and beautiful heeling. He doesn't fade during the routine and seems nonplussed by the lack of primary reinforcement.  Once we were done, we ran over to the side of the ring where I had hidden a jackpot of treats.

 

Isn't he awesome?

A Little Bit of Heeling

Once in a while, we try to video ourselves doing obedience. This allows us to check for little things that we may be doing wrong. For example, some people have a hard time walking a straight line or might unknowingly step into the dog when they stop. I recently had a friend take some video or me working with Tanner. He really is coming along quite nicely. I like his attention to me and he does a great job getting his rear out of the way on the left turns.



The things I see in here that need some work are his right turns and his sits. He tends to drop his head a little on the right turn and often goes a bit wide. This is easily fixed with a clicker and treats. He also tends to swing his butt out a bit when he sits. Right now, I have been ignoring it in favor of rewarding a quick sit. Soon, I will start to ask him to bring his butt in as we are stopping.

Things I need to work on are using my shoulders properly to cue turns and stops as well as cleaning up small pieces of my foot work. This is easily fixed with a clicker and chocolate ;)

Holy Mackerel!

Actually, this is a sardine.


Tanner loves sardines!


Once a week, Tanner gets a couple whole frozen sardines for breakfast. It is pretty funny to watch him carry them down to the bottom part of the yard to eat. Of course, I couldn't get a good picture of him carrying the sardines because he runs down there and starts chowing down immediately!


The omega-3 oils in the fish are good for his skin and coat. Plus, I like having some variety in his diet. Since he really loves the fish, it would make a great jackpot for training as long as I don't let it thaw!

Small Dog Play

In January, I had the honor of watching a friend's PBGV puppy for a long weekend. Rosanne was about 6 months old at the time. I was a little concerned about whether she would survive the weekend in my house with a giant doofus. Tanner loves to play with other dogs but the height and weight differential between him and Rosanne was large!


For the first couple of days, I left Rosanne in a short x-pen in the living room when I had the big dogs out. This way, they could get acquainted through and over the pen but she would not get squished. I also kept her on leash when outside so that she wouldn't run away and get mowed down. Tanner is a pretty laid back guy but when his chase instinct kicks in, all bets are off!


Eventually, they had interacted enough that I was confident that he would listen if she told him to back off. I let them play in my living room where she could get away if need be but there wasn't enough room for her to get the zoomies. I also kept reminding Tanner to lay down to play with her instead of squishing her. He did a great job! It helps that she was also able to stay under control. I do not like to let puppies get above threshold when they play!

I did not let Shine play with Tanner and Rosanne. You can hear her towards the end of this clip starting to whine from being left out. Don't worry, I was giving her treats for staying out of the way! In most cases, it is best to have even pairs of dogs or just two out at a time. It keeps them from ganging up on each other and allows them to modify their play for each other.

It is nice to have a dog that is small-dog savvy and able to interact appropriately with other dogs! I think Tanner and Rosanne will be life-long friends!

Tanner + Oregon Winter = Wet Dog

Many greyhounds do not like to get wet. In fact, Tanner does not like to go outside to potty when it is raining (but I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone). Here is proof that Tanner does not melt when he gets wet. In fact, I think he kind of likes it!

Doggy Discrimination - a tale by Tanner and Tamara

Tanner knows how to do a nose touch to my hand (cue=touch) as well as a paw whack (cue=five). However, when I hold my hand out for either of these cues, it looks relatively the same. How does Tanner know what I want? He learned to wait for the cue!



I wanted Tanner to have excellent stimulus control (I only want him to offer the behavior in the presence of the cue) on these two behaviors for a couple reasons:

1. It can be annoying for him to constantly paw at me or try to put his nose in my hand every time I hold it out.
2. Teaching him to wait for the cue also teaches him self control.
3. It was challenging for me to teach.
4. It makes him use his brain. (watch for the steam towards the end of the video)
   

I started putting in sub headings in the pertinent points but then faded them out. A few things to point out; I often click Tanner for not responding to the hand alone, I want him to wait for the cue! When he makes a mistake, I take my hand back, pause a beat, then try again. If he does not respond at all, I take my hand back thus ending the possibility of getting a reward, pause a beat, then try again.

I do not tell him "No" when he does the wrong thing. I don't want to punish him for trying. Why? Because a dog that is not afraid to try things is easier to train. Besides, he "gets it" without the aversives!

Another thing to note is that both of these behaviors were trained pretty fluently at home. We have taken them "on the road" and used them in other situations as well. However, this is the first time I have asked him to discriminate outside the house. We are at our local dog training gym, a place very familiar to him. Although he does not hesitate or make mistakes at home, you can see that this environment is a bit distracting and he has to work a bit harder to concentrate.

Hey, I created a thinking dog! How about that?!

Then They Turned 2!

Hard to believe that 2 years ago today, Lyric and Merlin's pups came into the world. Five little spuds and five lives irrevocably changed for the better!

Here they were 2 years ago today.


Here is a current picture taken in October of this year at the Northern California Greyhound Club Fall Specialty.


Happy birthday to Darby, Echo, Tanner, Bryn and Becca! May all your birthday wishes come true!

Tanner Stomps

There is a new trend in dog sports and fitness called canine conditioning. It takes all the information we know about human core conditioning as well as yoga and pilates techniques and adapts them for four legs.

One of the first steps you would learn from a canine conditioning coach is to teach your dog a command for "feet up" or to put their front feet on something that you indicate. There is a lot you can do once you get this behavior.

The thing that I am the most interested in is to teach Tanner how to use his back end to maximum effect. At not quite two years old, he tends to be a big goober at times. I think if he is properly conditioned and body-wise, he will be less likely to hurt himself or someone else. Plus, I am a bit of a training geek and wanted to try teaching this behavior.

I didn't get every training session videoed but hopefully enough that you can see the progress.

Here is one of our first sessions. I apologize for cutting off his head (this is what I get when I put the camera on the floor). At least you can see his feet. My criteria at this step was one foot touching the object. I try to give him his treat when his foot is still on the target. This video is a little long about two minutes but you can get the gist of it rather quickly.



Tanner is consistently giving me one foot on the target. My criteria is still to click for one foot but I am feeding him extra for two feet. We also had an issue where he wanted to lay down on the target. I don't know if this is because I had previously taught him to lay down on a different target or because he is lazy. Either way, it is just behavior and can be molded. I give him his treats up, in other words I hold the treat in such a way that he has to stretch up a little bit to get it. I also do not click for laying down on the object and instead ask him to do something else to move him off the target to reset.



In this next video, Tanner is really getting good at Stomp. I haven't added the cue yet. This session took place during a break a training seminar. I was pretty impressed that he was so eager to perform even with the distractions. From this session I can see that the behavior is where I want it to be and we are ready for the cue.




Here we practice with the cue "Stomp".



Now that he has the behavior on cue I switch it up and ask him to "Stomp" a stool. I click for one foot up the first time or two to get him going.



On to bigger and better things! We were taking part in a small canine conditioning class and Tanner got to try out his new behavior on some equipment. The squishy disc reminds me of a Bosu ball. When Tanner gets both of his front feet on it, he has to work to keep everything steady. Because he has such a good reward history with stable things and this behavior, he has no problem trusting me and attempting to do this.



Now he gets to try the peanut ball. This ball is easier than a plain round one because it can only roll in two directions instead of 360 degrees. Eventually, if we work at it, we will work up to the round ball without my need to stabilize it.



What a good boy!

Many of these videos were made at My Dog's Gym in Salem, Oregon and the rest were made in my messy living room.

Tanner Tunnels

Tanner has being doing tunnels since he was a pup. Regulation agility tunnels can be between 22-26 inches tall. Tanner is 32 inches tall. However, just like in the dog door post, Tanner doesn't seem concerned about the size difference.



You can see that I throw a toy for Tanner to keep him driving straight through the tunnel. If I had an adult dog Tanner's size that I wanted to teach this behavior to, I would start with a hula hoop. I would want to dog to be comfortable to scrunching down to get through the hoop before I moved on.

The next step would be to have them go through a tunnel that is completely scrunched up and more like a thick hula hoop than a tunnel. I would gradually lengthen the tunnel while keeping a high rate of reinforcement up for the dog. Keeping training sessions short so that the dog is never tired of the activity is also important!

Tanner Learns to Heel(by Tamara DePue)

I have spent lots of time working on the stationary heel position with Tanner. We worked on attention in this position until I was confident he understood what I wanted and could do it in a variety of places. Next we worked on taking the first step. Tanner wanted to drop his head and look forward on the first step so we spent a lot of time jumping forward for a treat on the first step. Meanwhile, I worked with him in front of me pushing me backwards for a treat. When he was really into that game I would turn around so that he was on my left side and click and treat. I also taught him to swing his butt in to me in separate sessions. Here, we finally put it all together into a formal heel.





He is about 20 months old and this is really the first time I have asked him to do this much heeling at once. I am pleased to see that after working on all the components separately, he was able to put them all together! There is still lots of work for us to do. But, I am pleased with the progress so far. What's next? We will continue to work on the components in a variety of places. I will keep the frequency of reward high to continue his great attitude regarding this work. I can see that I need to make sure his whole body is in alignment when I treat after the click. He is forging a little bit too and we will work on refining the heel position. In fact, the whole reason I asked my friend to video this for me was so I can see where I need to improve!

Oregon Hound Classic (by Lisa Stine)

Darby

It was a long drive to the show site (Hillsboro Oregon, 10 hours) and we got in really late on Friday night. Which would have been fine because we weren't scheduled to show until 12:15, but there was a lure coursing education seminar at 9:30 the next morning (on breeds, the basics of coursing and then a second half on how to judge a trial and some basic judge and lure operator rules) and when Tam told me about it I had to go. It was worth it, although it was pretty basic I did get a few questions I've been wondering about answered and they had a drag lure practice afterward. Tanner and Darby both got to run a straight of about 100 yards. Tanner did really well, liked the lure a lot and followed it keenly. Darby, who qualified on the 6th, was a fiend for the lure and ran like a dog possessed (in addition to getting over excited and whacking me in the mouth with his head, got a fat lip over that one and Marie was impressed with Darby's 'enthusiasm'. Bryn stayed behind in the RV, she qualified on the 6th as well and we know she can run like NASCAR. Even Dretti got to run, though not planned: he slipped his collar and tore off after the lure while some poor basenji was trying to run it. Funny, he seemed to know he was a bad boy and came right back on recall (after the poor basenji about had a heart attack and they stopped the lure) and lay down in front of me staring at my feet while I put a no-slip collar on him.


Darby

In the breed ring later that day it was just Tanner and Darby; Marie's boy special had some toenail problems so she wisely pulled him and Bryn was not entered. Darby won BOB so we got the joy of waiting around for Groups which didn't start until 5pm. Sheesh, I'm not sure who thought that was a great time to start groups. Meanwhile, Marie took Bryn into the all breed B Match being held on the other side of the show grounds . Bryn is a little diva, as Marie will attest, and I suppose she decided she was going to give this showing nonsense a good effort. It had to be Bryn's idea though (Bryn doesn't do anything unless she thinks it's her own idea). Obviously, she thought it was a pretty good one because she ended up with Best in Match; she beat every other dog competing!!!! After all of that Tam and Marie trekked back over to the Hound show to watch Darby and I in Group competition. Although he looked good and did a decent job stacking and gaiting (if you ignore the little fun-bounce-eat-my-armband trick he pulled on the individual go around), he didn't get pulled for a group placement. And that's fine by me, I was completely exhausted by the end of it all and just wanted to find a comfy bed and sleep. It was all I could do to stay awake long enough to get stuff in the room and get the dogs settled when I got to my
hotel room.


Bryn


Sunday it was Bryn, Tanner and Darby. Everybody showed really well. The breed judge took a lot of time with Bryn and went over her very gently but thoroughly, taking extra time and care to stroke her head and scritch at her neck and ears for a little bit talking to her and showing her that strange people who want to feel her up while she's expected to stand still are not really bad people. It seemed to work because Bryn stood for it and gaited beautifully for Marie. Tanner literally floated around the ring and stacked perfectly. I heard people on the sidelines comment on how striking he was and 'what a nice head that parti dog has'. It reminded me of something Helen used to tell me that I never really paid much heed to until I started showing Darby and spending more time in the ring. She said "Remember, whatever you say ringside is not between just you and whoever you're talking with, people are listening" She is spot on with that advice. Other people, especially the people in the ring and owners with handlers on their dogs standing ringside, can and do hear you. If you have something nice to say, please go ahead and comment, personally it makes me smile and get a little swelled up with pride. If you don't have something nice to say, please shut up or choose a seat out of earshot from the ring. Because it really isn't very heartening to hear someone blathering to their buddy about how '______ that greyhound is' or 'that's the _______-est greyhound I've ever seen' (insert whatever insult you like). But I do digress. Darby won Best of Breed and went on to do nothing but show very well for me in Group competition. No bounce and jump today, strictly business. Several people (in addition to Tam and her buddy) took photos of Darby for me. One photographer handed me a print of him from yesterday. I was shocked to look at it and see Lyric, with brindling, staring back at me from the glossy photo paper. It brought tears to my eyes that Darb is growing up to look so much like his beautiful mother.



Darby



All in all, a really good weekend. I got to visit with Tam a lot (even though I never made it to her house). It was relaxed and easy fun showing with Tam and Marie. The perfect ending? I pulled the van up to where Tam had set up her shade tent so I could load my dogs and help Tam dismantle stuff. I had put Darby in the van, told him to stay and was going back to get Dretti, unwittingly leaving the sliding side door open. Tam's friend was at the setup and mentioned to me "Um, you have an escapee". I turned and saw that Darby had decided to walk out of the van after me, but stopped when he saw me make eye contact with him. It took half a second to decide what to do. I turned to face him and stood with my hands at my sides (obedience style) and called "Darby, here!". Darby immediately broke into a full run, came skidding to a halt and sat square in front of me making and holding eye contact. It was the longest and most perfect recall he's ever done. I almost cried for the second time this weekend. I gave him the "okay" release command and we had a 'happy dance party' because I didn't have any food rewards on me. Out of everything he did for me this weekend, that recall was the thing I'm most proud of. There were many distractions, human and canine, and lots of fun things he could have run off to explore. But instead he focused on me and did exactly what I asked him to do of his own free will. PERFECT. I love you, Darby. And Tam? I wore my seatbelt all the way home.


Bryn

All Grown Up

Recently when all the puppies were back together at the Northern California specialty I realized they had all grown up. Time passes so quickly, in the blink of an eye they were adults at least in body.
A walk down memory lane with each puppy. My puppies are always registered and remembered in birth order.

Darby aka Ch Aragon Aroi Silver Lining then and now







Echo aka Ch Aragon Black Ice then and now







Tanner aka Ch Aragon Silver Oak then and now







Aragon Mystic Pearl aka Bryn then and now







And Becca aka Aragon Morning Mist then and now

Family Reunion

This past weekend was the Northern California Greyhound Specialty and for the first time since they were 8 weeks old all the puppies were reunited. From left to right is Darby,Tanner,Lyric,Bryn(and Marie),Echo and Becca.

For people interested in show results, they are as follows. For people interested in the dogs, pictures are as follows.


Darby showed well and was one of the four dogs to earn an Award of Merit.



Tanner won Best in Sweeps and his sister Echo won Best Opposite sex in Sweeps as well as Best Opposite sex in the show. A huge win for both of them.



Bryn was in her first show and made an excellent showing earning third place(her first ribbon) in a large Open bitch class.



Becca went Winners Bitch for another 4 points, Best of Winners, and earned an Award of Merit. She is now only 1 point shy of her breed championship.

After the show all puppy owners except Bryn and additional friends and their dogs were able to come back to the house for some play time.




The dogs played with each other until they were exhausted. The owners kicked back and drank appletinis and key lime martinis until they were exhausted. Then onto an Indian food feast. A good time was had by all.

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.