Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Vladimir on July 14, 2008 at 2:38am

I've noticed different textures for different colors in a lot of dogs!

My borzoi is white with blue and brown spots and I've noticed that his white fur as well as his brown spots is very,very soft and silky. It almost feels as if you are touching air when you pet him, but on his blue spots it's a lot courser and rougher then his white. I've noticed it on my previous dog, a corgi. He was red and white and his red fur was course and rough while his white fur was very soft and fluffy.

I've never seen a blue corgi before, they are very, very beautiful! :-)

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Permalink Reply by shelby geisler on August 24, 2008 at 4:04am

Congrats. I've had a corgi in the house since 1960. Today at the PWCCP Rescue Picnic for the first time I heard: You've got a bluie puppy. He's red/white (I thought sable with light eyes). Nope I was informed he's a bluie. He's almost 4 months old so they are out there.

I too could care less what the AKC says. I've only had him a week and he's a very smart boy.

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Permalink Reply by Anne on August 24, 2008 at 10:03am

I have not heard of 'bluie' before. Our cardigan has a much softer coat than my parents PWC, Punch who is a red & white. Le-Le's fur is beautiful and very soft plus she does not shed as much as Punch except during the usually change of coat. My husband calls her out kitty cat since her fur is so soft. Her black coat does have a shades of black and looks beautiful. Maybe you want a cardigan.... a blue merle. Le=Le's father is a very handsome blue merle.

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Permalink Reply by AkMotleyGal on August 24, 2008 at 3:16pm

My Zim is a bluie, he is turning darker the older he gets but was gunmetal gray when he was a baby. He is also really soft, much softer then his parents.

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Permalink Reply by Applejack Pembrokes on July 10, 2009 at 9:04am

I am a breeder in Michigan near the Ohio border. I just had a litter last night of 5 pups of which 3 are blueis, I have never had a bluei in 15 years of breeding, they are soooooo cute, but sooooooo blue. I am still shocked, this female has never had mis-colored pups, I think it was the male I used, never again. They will be sold as pet-pups and I am sure they will be just fine in a family home.

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Permalink Reply by Applejack Pembrokes on July 10, 2009 at 1:38pm

HMMMM, Also, I just had a litter of 5 pups and three are Blueis...never had a bluei in my life and never saw one either, very much a surprise. I am going to do some extensive research and if I find anything interesting I will pass it along, Cute pups, def corgi, but strange coat color...

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Permalink Reply by Kyle, Megan and Loki on July 10, 2009 at 4:07pm

The only bluishness mine gets is when he needs a brush (just about every day right now as his coat is going. His undercoat is grey on the body, white on the pants and a mix on the back legs so makes him look lighter by far. Cute puppy definitely, I am not one to care about 'colour faults' either, its all a tad silly.

Loki is a red headed tri (I think) but has more black on his head than a lot of standard pictures.

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Permalink Reply by harlin on October 9, 2009 at 5:56pm

I dont know much about the blue corgi gene, but i bought a blue corgi puppy and he is 5 weeks old, we will bring him home after his 1st shots in about a week. i dont understand why the breed standard doesnt like the blue color, after all its still a corgi and in my oppinion they are as pretty as any of the other colors. the cardigan comes in almost all colors and their breed standard doesnt mind. the guy i got mine from has 2 blue females left if anyone is interested, they will be ready to go in a week.

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Permalink Reply by Kendal & Bleu (Chris & Randy) on October 9, 2009 at 9:15pm

The breeder of at least 2 of these puppies is on this board and this group, but not sure if she going to do another litter or not, the breeder she also got her dogs from in Texas also has blues. I believe her name is Stephanie - but I'd have to look.

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Permalink Reply by Alice on October 12, 2009 at 1:18pm

I don't think the coat color effect the texture. Even within the same color, one may have more smooth, soft hair and another may have areas with more coarse and wavy hair. Both are normal for Corgis. Finnigan is my blue merle Cardigan and his fur is very soft and silky but along his back the hair is more coarse and thick with some wave to it. My Mom's blue merle cardigan is not as soft as Finn anywhere on his body.

Growing up I had blue merle Aussie and she was not as soft as Finnigan is. Nutrition and diet can affect this as well.

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Permalink Reply by Joanna Kimball on December 28, 2009 at 3:21pm

I know this is an old thread, but I used to breed blues (Great Danes, not corgis) so I know a little about the color and why it's accepted/not accepted in the breed standard.

Blue in Pembrokes and the merle color often called blue in Cardigans is not the same thing. It drives me crazy, in fact, that so many breeds call merle "blue," because it's not. Merle is (basically) a black (or solid color) gene fighting with a white gene, and sometimes one wins and sometimes the other does. So the mouse-grey color of a merle dog is actually a salt and pepper of white, grey, and black hairs. It's not a blue.

Blue is also called the Maltese dilution and it's found in many animals, not just dogs. It is a recessive gene and both parents must carry it to have it expressed in the puppies. In other words, it's not the dad's fault or the mom's fault. It's always (and must be) equal on both sides.

The reason blue (Maltese dilute) is discouraged in so many breeds is that the color is not just a dilution of normal melanin, or a genetic quirk that only allows certain melanin pigments to show up (like red or chocolate or fawn). The dog looks blue because it actually has abnormal melanin granules that clump up in the hair shafts and in the hair follicles instead of being normally spread out.

In a lot of blue dogs, you just have the clumpy melanin granules and he would look very weird under a microscope but that's as far as it goes. The dog is perfectly healthy otherwise. However, in some dogs - and at this point we don't know why, or what the genetic basis is - the melanin clumps enough that the hair shaft and follicle become deformed. Picture stuffing six dog toys in a nylon stocking and you've got the basic idea.

Where the melanin clumps have bulged out the hair shaft, the shaft can break in half and spill the melanin and its associated "stuff" (various chemicals, basically) on the skin (or the melanin can spill into the hair follicle). Those chemicals are cytotoxic; they kill cells. The result is a dog who has "hair loss" - actually hair breakage - over the blue areas and a constant low-grade infection and damaged skin where the hair loss has occurred. They're itchy and scaly and greasy and, while it can be managed well, it's no fun for the dog or the owners.

Many breeds - Danes and Weimaraners would be great examples - have very little of this disease, called color dilution alopecia. Their blue individuals seem to do just fine, and breeders are very careful to keep it that way. However, "very little" doesn't mean "none" - the disease has been recorded in both breeds. And some breeds, like the Doberman, have CDA so widespread that it's incredibly rare to find ANY blue or fawn (which is chocolate + blue) dog without some hair loss and skin issue. The black or chocolate parents have completely normal coats but the blue or fawn puppies will begin to lose hair at a year or 18 months old.

Because of this disease, and because blue is always to some extent evidence of abnormal hair, where the blue (Maltese) color has not been an important part of the breed's history or where it is not widespread, many breed clubs have chosen to discourage it. They'd rather not have it become common in a breed. If and when the genetic or environmental cause of CDA is discovered, maybe some of the attitudes will relax, but at this point it's actually not a bad idea to avoid deliberately producing the color -- especially in a breed where we don't have good data on CDA incidence and when you can't look at a baby puppy and tell whether it's going to have CDA. By the time it did show up the owners would be very attached and then be stuck with a lifetime of intensive management of an uncomfortable disease.

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