YORKY CLUB MAGAZINE #11 -- December 2008
"More about Color and Texture" by Hugo Ibanez
Richard Haynes (Eburacum,UK) - a nut as I am about Yorkie history - says “You judge the whole dog – I want the whole package. I will forgive some unevenness of color, whether light or dark, but I want it natural not artificially enhanced (Richard is a breeder/judge).”
Talking about being nuts about history, it seems appropriate to inject a bit of history here. Richard just found out details of the original Standard (1886) not known before that states “A bright steel blue” was required for the first 25 years by the Kennel Club in England. This was written by the first Yorkshire Terrier Club, The Halifax Yorkshire Terrier Club.
According to Richard’s research, Mary Ann Foster showed Ch. Ted year after year until he probably was nearly white (Ch. Ted was one of our founder fathers).
The Yorkshire Terrier Club was formed in 1898 – still the bright blue was in effect. But by 1911 (Richard’s research) the standard required “a dark steel blue”. This was a reaction to the light colored dogs that were being shown in the North of England. The implication here, as I understand it, is that “bright” in those days was equivalent or similar to “light”.
Finally, you must understand why we have so much trouble and tribulations with color and texture as well as other elememts of type. As I indicated before, I was coming back to touch a bit of history. Learning a bit about Yorkie ancestors will give you a better understanding of our breed and the Yorkie founding fathers, the consequences and difficulties with which we are confronted today. In 1845, one of them was described “resembling a Scotch (not Scottish) terrier, weight about 8 or 9 lbs., with good terrier head and eye but with a long body. The legs and muzzle only were tanned and hair on the body would be about 3 or 4 inches.” His mate was described as “a drop-eared Sky under 12 lbs with plenty of coat of blue shade but destitute of tan on any part of the body.” The third dog to play his part in the breed’s foundation was “a bitch, an old English Terrier with tanned head, ears, legs and sort of grizzle back.” Most of these English Terriers also had white markings.
These genes from these dogs are the beginning of our breed. It seems that after 163 years, those initial genes would have disappeared or have been diluted; apparently, they did no disappear, they just laid dormant, in sleep mode.
Some canine experts believe our purebred dogs are locked in a genetic trap due to the evolutionary and hereditary process. What does it all mean? It means that after so many years it is difficult to eliminate influences of breeds used in early foundation stock. Why? Well, it could be argued that at the beginning all were somewhat inbred, as any given breed would have a relatively small member of founding sire.
What are the consequences?
Well, as you can see we are attempting to breed the perfect dog from imperfect ancestors. 163 years seem legendary, but, genetically, Yorkies are newbies (babies)
As you can see our ancestors were “tutti frutti” which makes our breeding more complicated. Nevertheless, considering all the odds, we have succeeded in most of the elements of type. All we have to do to reassure our success just take a pick of pictures of Yorkies appearing in books and magazines from the last century, it would seem – to our reality now – that many were just pets.
No one knows better than you that as much we have progressed, we can not get complacent, still the hill that we must climbed is too steep. |