Like Karen said, the white coat color has always appeared in the GSD breed. When I got my first WGSD in 1973 I remember being told the DQ was made because of "health reasons" associated with the white coat color. Of course that was an old wives tale that has been put to rest. Next I heard that it was due to the paling factor, a completely separate gene from the white gene, another old wives tale put to rest. I've heard that human shepherds can't tell the difference between their white sheep and their white dog shepherds which I find questionable that anyone can't tell the difference between a sheep and a dog even at a distance. I've heard that you can't see a white dog in the snow which I found to be untrue from just being around them. Now you often hear it's a DQ because it's a DQ in the breed standard with no reason. Gayle & the Hooligans! http://www.picturetrail.com/arycrest - Link to The Hooligans Albums ---------- Original Message ---------- From: Karen M. Carloni <kmc@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: cnnpmm2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [ SHOWGSD-L ] Re: White GSD as a separate breed? Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:40:28 -0500 On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:01:38 -0500, <cnnpmm2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >Are you saying the Breed clubs just didn't like the appearance of >white dogs and decided to disqualify them simply because of this? Hi Paulette! To answer your question, white GSDs didn't just "appear" in the breed one day. By virtue of the fact that one of Horand's close-up relatives was white, they've been there from the very beginning. When the GSDCA was first forming and dogs were being imported to this country from Germany, whites (and the white gene) came along for the ride. Early breeders didn't seem to mind. Even some of the early pillars of the GSD breed produced white dogs, including Mrs. Dodge and Anne Tracy. Up until the mid-1950s, there was NO disqualification on white dogs! According to information gleaned from old copies of The Review, the GSDCA Standard was first amended in regard to white dogs in 1959. At the annual club meeting (October 3, 1959) with 58 members in physical attendance, the new Standard was adopted, to read as follows: "Predominantly white dogs and albinos are disqualified." Under Disqualifying Faults, it read: "Predominant white color (50% or more)." By the way, the vote tally was: 306 for, 110 against establishing the DQ. >I really want to understand *why* white is a disqualifying fault. There was a lot of concern about color paling and things like that. However, I'd have to guess that the chief reason why white is disqualified today is because the club took a vote all those years ago and the vote passed? ;) -- Karen C. Email: kmc@xxxxxxxxxxxx --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 100114-1, 01/14/2010 Tested on: 1/14/2010 5:40:29 PM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2010 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com ===========================================================================POST is Copyrighted 2009. 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. 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@xxxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ===========================================================================____________________________________________________________ Nutrition Improve your career health. Click now to study nutrition! http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2241/c?cp=VlL8uoc7q640f0uN1ApOdAAAJ1GelRymJ9x4HjViBUg-o6cOAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASQwAAAAA=ÿÿ; ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2009. 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. 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@xxxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================