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COLOR INHERITANCE IN THE GREYHOUND

GAVIN FITZPATRICK - 5th December 1996

My involvement with greyhounds commenced as an owner in 1965. Since then my wife has trained many greyhounds and we have bred and reared a number of litters.

For eight years now I have been the Keeper of the Australian and New Zealand Greyhound Stud Book which came with the role as Secretary of the Australian and New Zealand Greyhound Association Inc.

I am also Secretary of the National Coursing Association of Victoria Inc., the body responsible for the registration of all greyhounds in the State of Victoria. I am not a geneticist and therefore intend to present this article in layman's terms, which hopefully you the reader can easily understand.

The office computer which is jointly owned by both Associations has access to something in the order of 30,000 litters from which it is possible to obtain much detail, including that relating to colour inheritance.

Prior to taking up my position eight years ago, I was a member of the National Coursing Association Executive for some years.

It was well known to me that the National Coursing Association of Victoria had a policy which stated:-

Any litters found to have been whelped outside such policy were registered by the Association for "Racing Purposes Only" and were not admitted to the Stud Book.

I believe Victoria was the only State to adopt such policy and makes no apology for doing so, as it is now apparent that it had at least some knowledge of the colour requirements.

Some six years ago, I investigated a particular Stud Sire of white and black colouring. This greyhound showed in over one hundred litters that he had a propensity to produce only black, black and white or white and black pups.

At one stage late in his career, this greyhound missed getting a great number of bitches in whelp with the exception of two bitches in the very middle of all those misses.

These two litters produced colours such as fawn, brindles and blues.

When all details were put to the National Coursing Association of Victoria Executive, they were firmly convinced that the litters concerned were not by the reported sire, however, as there was no policy to cover the birth of fawns, brindles or blues in this situation and without the availability of DNA Fingerprinting, no action could be taken. However, I did write the Studmaster a letter explaining certain things. The greyhound concerned sired a further thirty to forty litters without producing pups of colour other than black, black and white or white and black.

Shortly after this episode, I had a visit from a Mr Maurice Cunningham who informed me that he was an amateur geneticist and asked whether we had any policy on the colours of greyhounds.

I advised him of the National Coursing Association of Victoria single policy which quite shocked him as he stated it goes a great deal further than that. He then supplied me with a list of colour matings and the expected results of same.

Keen to learn more, I contacted another amateur geneticist, Mr Mike Wilkinson of England.

Later, I corresponded with renowned Geneticists, Mr Ray Robinson of England and Dr Mike Goddard of the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales.

I am greatly indebted to each of the aforementioned people for fuelling my interest in this topic, as many hundreds of hours have now been spent researching our computer records, and writing to qualified geneticists in Australia and England.

From the research and answers to questions from geneticists, in 1994 I compiled a number of "Rules of Thumb" in respect to colour inheritance in the greyhound.

Such "Rules of Thumb" were that year put to the Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Greyhound Association for acceptance.

All but one were accepted, and adopted as policy. The one which was not accepted, was on the basis of a difference of opinion by the two geneticists.

One may wonder how important or valid the coat colour inheritance in the greyhound can be.

You can be assured they are extremely valid despite my pessimism some years ago on many aspects.

The acceptance by the Australian and New Zealand Greyhound Association was not taken lightly, nor without facts and figures.

The "Rules of Thumb" accepted by the Association are as follows:-

1: In order for black coloured greyhounds to be born, at least one parent must have black or blue in its colour.

2: In order for a blue coloured greyhound to be born at least one of its parents must have black or blue in its colour.

3: Blue coloured sire to blue coloured dam CANNOT produce black coloured pups.

4: Fawn coloured sire to fawn coloured dam can ONLY produce pups of fawn, fawn and white, or white and fawn colour.

5: DUN coloured Sire to DUN coloured dam can only produce DUN coloured pups.

6: Fawn to brindle can only produce fawns and brindles.
(Therefore, no Blacks or Blues)

7: Brindle to brindle can only produce brindles and fawns.
(Therefore, no Blacks or Blues)

8: Matings of the following colour combinations:-

Black to Black
Black to Blue
Black to Fawn, or
Blue to Fawn

can produce pups of Black, Blue, Fawn or Brindle, but should not produce Fawns and Brindles in the same litter.

Note:- there are some brindle greyhounds which are so devoid of striping as to appear fawn, but these greyhounds will breed as brindles.

9: Particolour (White and ?) to Particolour (White and ?) cannot produce solid coloured pups.

Certain sires and dams will readily show that they are unable to produce certain colours. e.g.

1. Unable to produce fawn pups
2. Unable to produce blue pups
3. Unable to produce fawn or blue pups
4. Unable to produce Particolour (White and ?) pups

NOTE:References to colours include such colours with white or where white is predominant to such colour.

Basic colours in greyhounds are:-

White itself is not a colour. It merely represents an absence of colour.

The order of dominance in colours is:-

A simple way of showing such dominance’s is:-

We now know that BLUE to BLUE cannot produce BLACK coloured pups.

The only litter from a total of 83 registered litters of this combination, to produce black coloured pups, has been DNA Fingerprinted resulting in confirmation that the reported sire was in fact not the sire of the litter.

A number of greyhounds are unable to produce blue pups, or fawn pups or brindle pups or maybe two or three of those colours.

Examples are:

A fascinating colour is DUN which is a chocolate or liver colour but can vary from red fawn to actual chocolate with the major feature being a tan coloured nose leather as opposed to the common black or sometime bluish coloured nose leather of the greyhound.

The dun coloured greyhounds are definitely not to be confused with any shade of fawn coloured greyhound as research indicates the following:-

In order for a DUN coloured greyhound to be born, one of the parents must have black, blue or dun in its colour.

1. A DUN coloured greyhound when mated to a brindle or fawn can in fact produce black coloured pups.

The mating of fawn to fawn, fawn to brindle or brindle to brindle cannot produce black coloured pups.

That which is applicable to Stud Sires is equally applicable to brood bitches; however, for obvious reasons it is a great deal easier to obtain statistics in respect to stud sires.

Research shows approximately 30 - 35% of black coloured greyhounds are unable to produce white pups.

Since 14th October last year every litter which appears to have pups born outside the accepted "Rules of Thumb" has been the subject of a request for verification of the reported colours.

Almost without exception, those for which I have received a reply it has been established that the litter in fact conforms with the "Rules of Thumb" and that a misinterpretation of colour has been made by the breeder or litter branding steward or has in fact been an office error.

A study of the Australian and New Zealand Greyhound Stud Book, Volume 43, showed there to be 85 sires with 50 or more pups.

Of the 85, there were 53 which were unable to produce at least one particular colour. This represents 62.35% of the 85 sires; a percentage which astounded me.

A breakdown of these found of the 53 in this category:-

Also of the 53, the following was determined:-

The computer of the Australian and New Zealand Greyhound Association has therefore been programmed to alert the user to many variables, particularly where pups appear in litters and the colour of a pup or pups is contrary to one of the Rules of Thumb. The user is alerted in all instances other than Rules of Thumb No. 9. However, monthly printouts looking for aberrant litters, covers all Rules of Thumb Nos. 1 to 9.

By programming the computer to alert the user the ANZGA is able to pick up any colours which appear incorrect, at an early stage whereby an inspection of the greyhounds can be undertaken.

It has been found in most cases that the problem has been a misinterpretation of colour by the breeder and even by the marking officials who upon further inspection have been surprised to learn they have erred in the initial examination.

The instances of improper practice, I believe are virtually non existent due to the implementation of DNA Fingerprinting and the Rules of Thumb of Colour Inheritance.

There will always be the dishonest person who may endeavour to beat the system. With these additional tools however, the unscrupulous breeder or studmaster is becoming an extremely rare creature.

Colour inheritance in conjunction with DNA Fingerprinting is a very valuable tool and no doubt will contribute to improving the integrity of the greyhound breeding and racing industry and the Australian and New Zealand Greyhound Stud Book.

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