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Sun Sentinel Picture Perfect Pet: Fedor
FEDOR Breed: Boxer Age: 1 year, 4 months Owner: Branden Hernandez, North Ridgeville Dines on: Iams dog food Favorite food/drink: Water and Iams Occupation: Dishwasher Favorite pastime: “Cuddling and giving puppy kisses.” Best trick: Shake Shared trait with owner:...

When most people picture a Weimaraner, they picture a large, regal-looking dog with a short, gray coat. This gray is often a muted brown, giving the dog's color an overall sepia tone, like an old photograph. However, there is another coat color for Weimaraners. This color is also gray, but is richer, darker, and has beautiful undertones of blue. Whereas the standard Weimaraner's gray coat color is derivative of a brown coat, the Blue Weimaraner's coat color is a muted black with no brown hues. Blue Weimaraners range from a slate gray to a dark gunmetal color. These dogs are quite beautiful, though somewhat rare.

Many Weimaraner clubs accept this gorgeous coat variation without hesitation. Unfortunately, most large canine registries refuse to recognize the Blue Weimaraner and see its coat color, however attractive, as a flaw. Until the 1970s, this was not always the case. In '72, the American Kennel Club altered its regulations for the breed to ban Blue Weimaraners from competing in the ring, however, the American Kennel Club will allow registration of a Blue Weimaraner under certain circumstances. For instance, if both the dog's sire and dam are AKC registered, he or she can be registered with the AKC as well. The thing is, registration with the AKC doesn't imply full acceptance. Blue Weimaraners are only allowed to compete in non-breed specific competitions, such as agility trials, obedience trials, and other various competitions that are based on performance instead of appearance.

It is assumed that the Blue Weimaraner is an intentional variation of the genetic breed, as this darker coat coloration has only appeared very, very rarely when not specifically bred for. In fact, there are only two documented cases of Blue Weimaraners being born to a gray sire and gray dam in the twentieth century, the first of which was in Austria in the latter half of the '40s. A man called Captain Holt was traveling through Germany and was entranced by this different-colored dog. He purchased his new Weimaraner, imported him to the United States, and used him to sire many generations of beautiful Blue Weimaraners. This single dog is considered the primary reason for the expansion of the Weimaraner's blue coat variation in the United States. Many of the dogs sired by Captain Holt's Blue Weimaraner were champions of their breed.

Originally, when Captain Holt discovered the Blue Weimaraner, it was assumed that the blue coat gene was recessive. In previous years, studies of the genetics and breeding patterns of the Weimaraner have proved just the opposite. The genes that dictate coat color of a dog are called "alleles". The Weimaraner breed posses only two of these: blue and gray. Not all blue alleles are passed down from sire or dam to puppy, so it is possible that Weimaraners of blue parents can be born gray. However, if the puppy does inherit the blue allele, its coat color will most definitely be blue.

The Blue Weimaraner is a beautiful and impressive variation of the standard Weimaraner. Many Blue Weimaraner enthusiasts consider it very unfortunate and short-sighted that this fascinating coloration is not recognized by the American Kennel Club and other large dog registries. Fans and breeders of the Blue Weimaraner are fighting to not only ensure the health and longevity of the breed, but to have the AKC recognize the Blue Weimaraner as a valid breed in competition.

This article was written by John Jackson and has been contributed by http://www.greatdogsite.com For more information on the Weimaraner, please visit our page http://www.greatdogsite.com/breeds/details/Weimaraner/

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