Articles:
Article:
- Understanding Coat Colour Inheritance
- A thing of beauty is a joy forever
- The Italian Greyhound in Art
- LEG FRACTURES Nature or nurture?
- A GUIDE TO BUYING A PUPPY
- CH TAMORETTA TAILORMADE
- Dog tails:
page 1 (442 KB) , page 2 (422 KB) - About Cataracts
1: Understanding Coat Colour Inheritance
Do you want to know why some Italian Greyhounds are blue, some
fawn, and some black or red, but you freak out as soon as genetics,
alleles, A ay d D recessives etc. are mentioned! Well here it is made easy - well, made easier I hope. For these purposes I am not going to be strictly scientific as
I should be using the term allele to denote an alternative form
of the gene and using the correct letters for the genetic code.
These can be found at the end of the article if you make it that
far! You know that you are half your mother and half your father. This
is because you inherit one gene from each parent. All genes come
in pairs just like Levis! What you see on the outside is called your phenotype. What you inherit but may not be visible is called your genotype. There are basically two genes for coat colour in IGs. And there is one gene which modifies the coat colour called the
dilute gene. The gene which gives the black coat colour we shall signify by
the letters BL The gene which gives the red coat colour we shall signify by the
letters rd The gene which dilutes BLACK to BLUE and red to fawn we shall signify by the letters dil The gene which does not affect coat colour is the NON
DILUTE gene which we shall signify by the letters ND
You will notice that BL and ND are in capital letters And rd and dil
are in lower case letters. The reason that BL is in capitals is to show that it is
it is a dominant gene. ND is
also a dominant gene. rd and dil
are both recessive genes. What does Dominant and Recessive mean? Well it doesn't mean that one is more likely to be inherited than
the other - a common mistaken belief. It simply means that if your IG inherits one dominant gene from
one parent and one recessive gene from the other it is the dominant
gene that will give the visible coat colour.
Important point!
One gene from each parent will be for coat colour the other will
determine whether the coat will be diluted
or NOT DILUTED
Example
Dog BL BL dil
dil is a Clear Blue Bitch BL rd ND
dil is a seal/black
Possible gene combinations their puppies may inherit: 1. BL (from dad) BL (from mum) dil
(from dad) ND (from
mum) -Black
2. BL (from dad) rd (from
mum) dil (from dad) dil
(from mum) - Blue
3. BL (from dad) BL (from mum) dil
(from dad) dil
(from mum) - Blue
4. BL (from dad) rd (from
mum) dil (from dad ) ND
(from mum) - Seal You will see how we got to the colour when you read on.
Examples of colour genetics
- Jack is a BL BL ND ND . He has inherited dominant genes from both his parents. He will be BLACK. Because he has all dominant genes all his offspring will be black too as he can only give them BL for colour and ND for non dilute irrespective of the colour of the mother. This is called a Clear Black. What you see in his coat colour is what he will pass to his offspring.
- James is a BL rd ND dil . He has inherited a mixture of both dominant and recessive genes He will also be BLACK or possibly Seal - but he could pass on his recessive genes to his offspring and depending on the genotype of his mate could produce BLACKS, BLUES reds or fawns! Unlike Jack his phenotype and genotype are different. That is, what you see is not necessarily what you will get!
- Jeremy is a BL BL dil dil . He has inherited the dominant BLACK gene but no dominant ND gene so the dil genes have a chance to work their magic. He will be BLUE. He can only pass on his dominant colour gene and his dil gene so all his offspring will be either BLUE or possibly BLACK if his mate passes on a ND gene to prevent colour dilution or seal if his mate passes on an rd as well as an ND . He is known as a Clear Blue. He cannot produce reds or fawns as his dominant BL genes will always overcome the rd gene that gives the red or fawn coat. N.B. Clear Blacks and Blues are relatively uncommon.
- Justin is BL rd dil dil . He will have the diluted coat colour and although he has the rd gene his BL gene will be dominant. He will also be BLUE but unlike Jack and Jeremy but just like James his phenotype and his genotype are different.
- Jazz is a rd rd ND ND . He has inherited only the recessive red gene and only the dominant non dilute gene. He will be red. His offspring will either be rd or BLACK as his non dilute gene will prevent dilution of coat colour whatever the genotype of his mate.
- Jonathon is a rd rd dil dil . He has inherited only recessive genes. He will be fawn. His offspring
can only inherit recessive genes from him and depending on the genotype
of his mate he can produce any colour as a mate with dominant genes
will always overcome his.
fawns mated to fawns will always produce fawns. fawns mated to BLUE can only produce dilutes i.e. fawns or BLUE There are two other variations: BL BL ND dil - is a BLACK dog who could pass on his dilute gene. rd rd ND dil - is a red dog who also has a dilute gene which could be passed on to his offspring.
O.K. so far but how can you tell a red fawn, if you don't know it's parentage from a red? If you know it's parentage you will know that the parents are either fawn or BLUE i.e .dilutes. Genetically true reds will have black noses and eye rims. You may think your red fawn has a black nose but closer inspection will reveal it isn't truly black. Although it might be a little tricky to see, the nose on the red fawn in photograph is not black - and that's not due to the result of the camera flash. Paler fawns often have lilac/ light brown noses to match their coat colour. These are colour true pictures.
red
red/fawn
palefawn
deep blue /fawn almost chocolate
blue with bronze tones
Good question!
It would appear that BL can be affected by rd in some dogs. Many of us have had litters that contain deep blues
and mucky blues, some verging on the pale chocolate. Hence dogs
which have the dominant BL gene and the recessive rd gene can be either a deep blue or a blue fawn in the presence of
two dil genes or a black or
a seal in the presence of an ND gene. Possible seals; BL rd ND
dil ( which is
the same genetic code as James ) or BL rd
ND ND
Possible blue /fawns BL rd dil
dil ( which is
the same genetic code as Justin )
Quiz time
- 1. Let's mate James ( lucky dog ) who is BL rd ND dil to a beautiful fawn lady who must be rd rd dil dil What possible basic colours might the puppies be?
- Now Justin who is BL rd dil dil meets the same lady next year. What possible colours will this mating produce?
- The following year it's Jazz's turn. He is rd rd ND ND What possible colours will their puppies be? Now we have a mating that has produced these puppies. All we know is that the dog is blue and the bitch is pied red/white
From the colour of these puppies can you work out the genetic codes for sire and dam?
There is one BLUE, two fawns, one red and one seal. All answers please to our e- mail address. If you would like to know the correct letters for the genetic codes here they are; BL = A - this stands for the Agouti black gene rd = ay - this stands for the sable gene* ND = D - this is letter for the non dilute gene dil = d - is the letter for the dilution gene Strictly speaking we REALLY should be using the term allele instead of gene as it is an alternative form of a gene but....we don't want to confuse you any more!
- Italian Greyhounds do not have the true red coat of say the red setter which is the e gene. Instead they have black tips to the red hair hence it is called the sable gene.
Jo Amsel Top
2: A thing of beauty is a joy forever
The Italian greyhound is a loyal and devoted pet first and foremost. He will let out a warning that there is someone or something strange around, however he will then be content to go back to what ever he considers his bed and let you deal with it. This is not a numerically large breed nor is it a commercial breed, they generally have very few pups in a litter and it is not unknown for the bitch to need a caesarian to get the pups out. Because of the fact that they are such a precious breed people frequently find it hard to get an Italian, breeders tend to only breed when they want something for themselves and then they will often have a waiting list for other puppies in a litter. When you do find a breeder willing to sell you a puppy expect to be asked a lot of questions, these will be to do with why you have chosen the breed, what you know about it and your home life. These questions are asked not for the good of the breeders health, but because as custodians of this special breed they take their role very seriously. No breeder wants one of his or her puppies to fall upon hard times, to end up in breed rescue or even worse an animal sanctuary. These are not dogs for a kennel life, they love to be able to exercise and to be as close to their owners as possible. Sometimes you will feel that you have Velcro attached to you and your dog at others your dog will not be seen for hours because he has made a nest somewhere and is warm and happy there. A good breeder will invite you come and look at Italians and puppies in the home, get a feel for the breed, those that you see at shows are not in there natural environment and are on there best behavior. At home they are full of fun just like any other dog though often twice as fast! Do not expect them to respect rules, the sofa, you and any food is there for them, they wrap their way around your heart and quite often you will find that one is not enough. They are endearing and it is easy to see why they are possibly one of the oldest lapdogs and as such have graced most of the royal houses of Europe, as well as countless family homes, this is a lover not a fighter and should be treated as such. Read up as much as you can on the breed, if you still feel that this is dog for you be prepared to wait, it will be worth it in the long run. You will have a devoted friend and family member for many years who will bring so much happiness and joy you will never look back. Good luck and happy hunting! Jimmi Johnston-White
We recently received this email which we feel is well worth reproducing. We have had problems in this area too and know of others that have had cataract operations for posterior cataract.
For instance our own Artmeis Fancy Free developed them at 8 years old although retains some sight at 12/2 years.
We have removed the names of sires and dams but will contact those breeders so that they are aware of the problem which is known have heritable components.
We would be grateful for input from anyone else who has bhad experience with this problem.
Jo.
" My eldest dog Lorenzo -----, 10 years old this July was 7 years old when we first noticed that something was wrong..... it happened so quickly first in one eye and then the other. Within
6 months he was totally blind. It was heartbreaking to watch him becoming introverted and not able to join in playing with the other two. However , he did adapt well and continued his duties as a Pat Dog bringing much pleasure to the nursing home that he still visits.We were lucky that our Insurance covers treatment for this ailment and we took the decision to have surgery and our local vet recommended The Willows Practice near Birmingham. They removed the cataract from the most favourable eye successfully which transformed Lorenzo's life....we were thrilled with the results.
This March we noticed that Lorenzo' s son Elio, aged 7 was beginning to show the same symptoms and we took immediate action in taking him to our local vet who confirmed early cataracts in both eyes so we have just returned from another trip to Birmingham to collect Elio from the same surgery as his father. We are now into the 2nd week after surgery and touch wood he is doing very well but it is still early days.
We find it strange that after thoroughly researching the breed , we found no mention of cataracts but as these aren`t age related cataracts wonder whether we were unlucky or they just weren`t being reported.
We believe that you are right to introduce new bloodlines from abroad as perhaps the UK gene pool is too small ,causing these problems.It has been very distressing for us to go through this twice and hope IG breeders act responsibly to breed for soundness and not just beauty.
Gillian "
