"Champion Anika's Felicity Candy
Ann-L"
See her
pictorial pedigree
here!
The two coat varieties are
intertwined in the pedigrees of most Chihuahuas. Most champion lines
seek the two best dogs suited to each other in structure and good
temperment. Color and Coat are "secondary desires" in this
breed.
Now, there seem to be instances where two longs bred to one
another will produce what is apparently a smoothcoat puppy but it is
actually has the long coat gene but lacking in thickness of
"under-coat" and or length. Sometimes a weird coat
texture,which,if "wirey",is best suited for "non-breeding",pet
status.Some soft-textured smooth coats produce lovely long coats
with beautiful coats. We refer to smooth coats with the long
coat gene and fuller, softer hair as "Rough coats". Some
appear to be very smooth coated dogs, despite their parentage.
Their coats will usually grow a little longer as they get a few
years on them.
There is some controversy over this "poor coat gene" topic.
Remember, bareness in long coats is a fault mentioned in the AKC
breed standard! Many breeders feel adding smooth coat's gene
actually produces thicker coats.We believe this too! Dog breeding is
challenging and it breeds a lot of controversy in itself.
(Often someone absolutely will not believe in something until it
happens to THEM.)
At
our HOME,we breed mostly smooth chihuahuas and alot of our
fully coated long coats came from this smooth line. We have
consistently line bred our dogs, not just breeding for a certain
coat type or color; but to intentionally improve on or maintain the
strengths in a particular dog's offspring. As you can see, our dogs
coats are all very nice.The American Kennel Club
doesn't make any distinction between the two for breeding purposes
but they do not compete against one another in the show ring (except
in group competition).
There has been talk through the years of separating the two
coat varieties into two separate breeds of dog. There is no way to do this
since the varieties have been heavily interbred and they will continue to be. FONT>
Some colors seem to be dominant within the Chihuahuas, while
others are more rare. We get a variety of colors within our dogs and
there do seem to be some variations that you can "sort of" depend
on. You can often predict a range of colors with certain
line-breedings in our "ANIKA'S" bloodline.
Anika's-Bloodlines started out with alot
of blue tri's and black tri's and chocolate-tri's in their pedigrees.
Below are some observations that we find to be pretty
consistent:
1.) "Black or black and tan seems to be dominant and
common." This is true for any color that has been concentrated too
heavily in a pedigree. One does not want to do over-emphasize any
particular color. That's why never breed two blacks together,either.
The only variation in black is that solid black
(no tan markings, white chest or white feet) is not extremely
common.But we do get them!!
2.) Pure white is rare. Many puppies are white at birth but
develop fawn markings or spots later on. They may turn cream-colored
or fawn over.
3.) Brindle bred to brindle or fawn will usually produce some
brindle pups but there may be other colors come from this breeding
also. Blue Brindle is an unpredictable color, and may appear when
neither parent is blue or Brindle. Our "Maggie" was a blue
brindled over white, out of a fawn and a cream, with blues tri's in
her backround, her daughters were all solids. Anika's has yet to ever
get another pup quite marked like Maggie. She never produced any
brindles but did produce some gorgeous tri's, mainly black tris when
bred to a solid fawn...
4.) "Two non-blue dogs may produce blue or blue fawn dogs but
it is not extremely predictable",unless they are line-bred to a blue
ancestor. However,"certain lines of blue dogs sometimes have coat
problems", so you should NEVER breed blue to blue you may be
asking for double trouble. At Anika's we never ever did that!
Occasionally, a blue spotted on white
long-coated dog will have a "thinner coat on all of the blue
portions", but eventually it will fill in... We often get blue dogs from our
chocolate dogs or from our black and tans and even out of two fawns
if they have the blue gene ancestor(line-bred) and absolutely do NOT
get skin problems or coat problems. The blue is usually a very distinct "indigo"
shade of blue, and the lighter shades often fade to fawn shades of blues or red fawns.
Choclates and blues are NOT "very rare",however,
they are difficult to get if the pedigree contains too many of the
other dominant colors doubled up;the blue, etc., must be in the
pedigree on both sides of the pedigree to insure you will produce a blue
in the litter. Because I kept most of my pedigrees with coat, color and size,
for many generations, prediction was often relatively easy.
5.) Spotted dogs often produce more spotted dogs, as well as
other colors. I prefer to breed spotted dogs to a solid or tri
for full range of colors and markings! Brindles bred to spotted dogs
will sometimes produce Brindle spotted dogs. Spots can be
lovely on a dog if large and placed right ;or they can create an
negative looking "optical illusion" if placed inconveniently!We try
Remember....
Blues and
chocolates are DILUTES! Breeding two dilutes together will negate
any full expression of color in your future litters!!!It can also
double up on other hidden defects on genes that link to certain
colors.For example,we will NOT be breeding Matilda(blue tri bitch
pictured above pictured female dog) to a blue stud.....because we
will not breed to dilute our range of possible colors in our dogs.
We also used to not to breed two spotted dogs together as well any
color that is
bred to itself will limit our range of
colors.....
6.) "If you have a black dog you can usually breed it to a
light-colored dog and get a percentage of colors besides
black." This, in our opinion, is a limited statement: it goes
for any color..
7.) "Two dogs, bred to one another repeatedly, will often
produce similar colors within the litters. Sometimes the sexes may
be different but the same colors often reappear." This has not
been true at our home, we get a wide range of
colors...
My mentor told me that breeding should always be planned
and yet new each generation with newly anticipated results. Through
the years we have come to love breeding FOR COLOR, because the structure
was "set" in our bloodlines. Often we get a rainbow effect in
our litters because we do not focus on any one color. One of the
most exciting, appealing, and challenging things about the Chihuahua
breed is waiting to see what that next litter will contain.
Therefore it is our opinion that, although one should not limit the joys of
this breed by simply reducing the breedings to mere "color or coat
selection", one should always try for the best markings, best shaes and hope for flashytypey dogs,
generally what the Chihuahua-family contains will be produced .Know your pedigree!
A note on breeding special colors in
Chihuahuas, like blues......
You can get a blue Chihuahua from a black and tan, a chocolate, or
even a fawn parent. Obviously, to get a blue Chihuahua, the parents
must have a recessive blue gene in their heritage, even if it is some
way back in the line. The blue of a blue Chihuahua can be part of a
brindle pattern or a tri- or multi-color coat. You can enhance the
possibility of having a blue or blue brindle chihuahua pup by making
sure that you are mating dogs with genetic blue in their lines,
but there is absolutely no surety in this.
The Anika's Chihuahuas theory is this....for breeding blue chihuahuas:
"Blues and Chocolates are DILUTES! Breeding
two dilutes together will negate any full expression of color in your
future litters! This is primarily if the color gene is linked in some
way with another defect,such as thinness or bareness of coat,
which can happen. A breeder does not want to double up on
other hidden defects on
genes that link to certain colors."
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