Afghan Hound Coat Colours 4

AFGHAN HOUNDS COAT COLOUR CHANGES

(Dog World – April 21st 1972)

ALL COLOURS ACCEPTABLE

By Margaret Niblock

Kindly supplied by Sylvia Evans

With the importation of new bloodlines over the past 11 years have come some unusual and exotic colours, with many and varied mutations, hitherto unseen in this country. This wide range of different colours now appearing in Afghan classes, off-setting one another and adding even more beauty to the breed, is very much the talking point at the moment, and keen interest is being taken in colour breeding.

Fortunately in Afghans the committee who revised the current Breed Standard in 1946 had the foresight and wisdom to include again “ALL COLOURS ACCEPTABLE”, thus emphasizing the relative unimportance of any specific colour and laying the greatest stress in breed characteristics, general appearance and performance.

The inheritance of different colours is extremely complex, and even fully fledged geneticists agree that many uncertainties exists, especially in Afghans, partly due to the short history of the breed in this country, a lack of colour records, and complete lack of records of the hounds ancestry in Afghanistan. The choice of colour is a personal one, and because there is no colour bar, judges must never be tempted to condemn a dog which happens to be a colour not to their liking.

The obvious danger in trying to fix a certain colour is over inbreeding, particularly where there may be only one or two lines available to use, then great care must be taken not to lose type, health and temperament.

A grounding in genetics is helpful in working out a suitable breeding programme if a special colour is to be included, although, and provided all other factors are satisfactory a hit and miss mating for the colour can do no harm, and can be extremely exciting and even rewarding, because if the confirmation and temperament and so on is suitable and because all colours are allowed in the Standard, the mixing of colours is of little importance anyway.

It must be remembered however, that colour genes, just as much as genes producing good or bad points of conformation are inherent in bloodlines and cannot always be separated so, unless these lines are correctly matched genetically, it is not always possible to produce a desired colour or breed point.

Breeders who have established over the years, their own particular interpretation of the Standard or strain are nearly always associated with with a special colour, because their breeding programme has been dominated by the same strains which carry not only the breed characteristics of that particular strain but the colour also.

Colour breeding is not new in Afghans and has, in fact, been practiced for many years, possibly quite unconsciously by the culling of unwanted or unfashionable colours at birth until they have finally died out, as did the brindles during the last war for instance, and which were not seen again until the re-importation of lines carrying the genes in 1959.

Every breed has, or will, suffer from fashion and Afghans did not escape this danger, for around the early 1960s a few ill informed breeders, backed by ignorant judging decreed, that any Afghan without a black mask was unacceptable and would never win in the ring, brought the breed to it’s all time lowest standard by the late 60s. The unfashionable and unsaleable , self coloured, reds, golds, creams, blacks and whites which were destroyed at birth, so not only did the beautiful rich reds and sandy fawns vanish, but with this type went some breed characteristics, chiseling, expression, level toplines and sweeping hindquarters for example, and we were left with literally rings full of dull untypical, black faced, bull necked, sway backed lumps, which stumped round the ring in stodgy mediocrity.

By now novice breeders were rushing into the breed, thirsting for knowledge, encouraged by older breeders and swelling breed clubs, and with the help of the Breed Standard at every conceivable opportunity, the fashion hunters were shaken off.

Miraculously, the Afghan took on a new look, flashy in their medley of exquisite colours and well groomed gleaming coats, striding round the rings in all the aristocratic dignity that only this magnificent hound can achieve.

So remember, breed intelligently, enjoy your hounds and never be bigoted about colour.

Margaret Niblock

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Updated 22/12/2008 09:10