Shades Of Blue

Some questions I was asked on Facebook made me decide to write this today.  A person I recently added as a friend was looking at some of the pictures I have posted there and she came across one of me with Morgan, Bunny and Blueberry at the dog park.  She wanted to know if the blue dog was mine.  I told her that all three of them were mine and that Blueberry is actually a blue brindle.

For those who aren't familiar with Greyhound colors, blue is the term used for a grey Greyhound.  It is one of the rarer colors for the breed.  Blueberry is actually a blue brindle.  She has mostly blue fur with some blue fawn stripes on her, but her brindling is very light and doesn't show much.  Bunny is also a derivative of blue -- she's a blue fawn.  Blue fawn dogs are a light fawn color, but instead of black tips on their hair and black masks or noses like a regular fawn or red fawn, they have blue highlights, masks and sometimes grey noses.  Blue fawns often have lighter brown eyes and can appear pinkish outside in the sun.

When this came up in the conversation, the woman asked if that also was rare.  It is.  The blue gene is recessive, so it tends to be seen less often.  It also tends to make a lot of Greyhound people a little obsessed.  There are many Greyhound adopters that I've seen post on message boards who are just determined to have a blue dog.  Some of them will even see a blue dog at the track and go to great lengths to secure it when its racing career is over. 

Rumor has it that many blue dogs used to be culled.  Trainers believed that they were unlucky and bad racers.  This was a long time ago, and I haven't heard of that happening any more.  I don't know if it has anything to do with how rarely they happen now.  I also don't know if it happened with the dogs who were blue derivatives.  By blue derivatives, I mean blue fawns, blue brindles and white dogs with blue patches.

There are also people who believe that blue dogs are a little off.  Some believe they're more prone to disease and genetic problems.  Blues are often referred to as quirky.  I haven't found that to be the case.  Blueberry was a handful when she was young, but some of that wasn't her fault.  She'd been taught some very bad habits by the woman who'd had her before she came here.  Now she's known as Miss Almost Perfect here at our house and I don't think her behavior is any different than that of any of the other Greyhounds we've had or met.  The fact that she ran down an intact male named Try at the adoption kennel who got fresh with her isn't something we hold against her or attribute to her blueness.

I haven't ever really understood the status that comes with the blue coloring and Greyhounds.  Yes, they are pretty, but looks aren't everything.  I've always said that the most beautiful Greyhound is the one on your own couch.  I think after you've had your own dog for a little bit, you always compare others to yours.  The blue mystique also fascinates me because it isn't the rarest color that you can find in a Greyhound.  The most unusual color that I've ever seen is liver.  I'm guessing that it's an extreme red dilute.  I've only heard of about a dozen dogs who are this color.  Of those, I have heard of a few with some odd diseases, so I'm guessing that the gene is recessive enough that it is pretty closely linked with some genetic oddities. 

I didn't choose Blueberry or Bunny based on their coloring.  I don't think choosing by looks is a good way to find a good match in a dog.  Maybe it speaks to my quirkiness that I've been drawn to two dogs with strong blue genetics.  The only part of Blueberry's color that played a factor in our decision to keep her here was that she was a young dog who needed a very strong hand and someone with a lot of Greyhound savvy to keep her in check, and we did worry that someone would choose her based on her looks only without being able to work out her issues.   I can't say that we've ever been sorry that we decided to keep her here.  When we went to the adoption kennel to choose a new dog after Treat died, I really just didn't want to get another brindle, because I didn't want to keep comparing that dog to Treat.  If Bunny had been brindle, though, it wouldn't have mattered.  She came in, leaned against me, and I was hopelessly smitten.

I suspect that all breeds have their color or other breed status symbols.  I just might not be aware of what they are.  Are there status symbols in the breed that you own, or would like to own?  Are there certain colors or traits that you'd add to your dream dog, if you could mix up your perfect dog?  I freely admit that I have preferences and things I'd like to have if I could just order up my perfect dog.  Nature doesn't work that way, but I am guessing we all speculate on it to some degree.