My answer to that where the Panda is concerned as there are no required DNA testing for Parentage and if they are what about the grandparents? Can another breed not enter to produce this and so answer SPONTANEOUS MUTATION is a good one. As Jen and Dr's pointed out the problem with breeding Panda's is that not the issue in other breeds? It would be interesting to hear though how many white pups you have gotten in all your years of breeding? Personally I do not know of any throughout the years family or friends GSDs had. So yes it can be omitted through careful breeding of staying away from white or the faded color dogs that genes carry it and sticking with the GSDCA Standard. Theresa GSDCA Member scenecrest@xxxxxxxxx -------------------------------------------- On Fri, 8/1/14, Evan wrote: A question that I always wondered about is, can a gene be eliminated from the gene pool, or do we continue to mask it, or avoid it. What made me think of this is the statement that the Panda was a SPONTANEOUS MUTATION of a gene. It seems to me that every gene that ever existed in our lines, is still there. We try to breed away from it, but can we eliminate it from the dogs permanently? Just a thought that makes me wonder what we are doing, other than trying to breed away from some traits, not eliminate them. Evan ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2014. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Each Author is responsible for the content of his/her post. This group and its administrators are not responsible for the comments or opinions expressed in any post. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org SUBSCRIPTION: http://showgsd.org/mail.html NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================