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Originally Posted by livingdustmops  I don't think your research said for sure Maltese was bred into the Yorkie...It said it was thought or maybe etc. I talked to a Yorkie breeder years ago that told me the Maltese was referred to in a newspaper article once and that rumor continues to this day. Also if you follow this thread in regards to the pedigree's going back to the Streamglen kennel for both the Parti's and the Biewers this kennel did not breed Maltese but Shih Tzu's. For some reason Yorkie breeders who have been against the Parti's/Biewers have always said it probably was a Maltese and I certainly do not see a Shih Tzu face in any of these dogs.
The other argument for the pie-bald recessive gene is that over 20 breeds recognized by the AKC and their parent clubs has the exact same coloring (pie-bald recessive) and they don't say a Maltese got in their lines (Great Dane etc, Border Collie, Dalmation, Shepard, Spinone, Irish Setter, to name a few). |
I had corresponded with a Dr. Phillip Sponenberg few years ago, he's an animal geneticist at Virginia Tech. I asked him his thoughts on where the yorkie breed got their parti gene, specifically asking if the Maltese could have brought it in? He said it's very possible, since a Maltese is basically one big spot - they are the extreme example of the piebald spotting gene. He went on to say that the yorkie parti gene could have come in from any of the early ancestors that carried recessive spotting genes, not just the Maltese.
Some of the early Maltese in the US, were piebald with dark ears/heads. If I recall correctly, I believe in the early 1900's there were classes for white maltese and a separate class for spotted - I'll have to double check on that though.