At the June meeting it was decided to put a vote before the Membership to include the color Black in the Breed Standard after the language has been decided on with the assistance of the AKC.
The reason this is being put to vote is that members have asked why there is a disqualification in the United States but not in other countries and how this disqualification could be removed.
After investigating this issue, I have come to believe the following quote's from Westwind Kennels "Breed History" page and submit these quotes for your consideration. (Quoted with permission from Gary Hutchinson, Westwind Kennels)
"Oddly, when the breed was first recognized and records of actual breedings were being kept the Kurzaar hadn’t even developed into a recognizable type. The result being that our modern Greman Shorthair genepool comes from many different sources. The drawings and early photos of Kurzhaars clearly show this. Some of them were:
Hector I whelped in 1872 – the No 1 entry in the original German Studbook - was white and liver. Yes, there have always been white and liver German Shorthairs. Many of the early German breeders would dunk the whites because they didn’t want their Deutsch Kurzhaar to resemble the English Pointer. Much to their frustration they were unable to eliminate the white coats. What they didn’t understand was that white is a recessive gene that is carried by animals that aren’t white themselves - like red hair and blue eyes in humans.
Feldmann I, an early experimental animal, who looked more like a Basset Hound was tri-colored. Yes, there are still a few tri-colors born today - although most are quickly killed by ignorant breeders who assume that something they didn’t know about must have happened at breeding. NFC/FC Patrica von Frulord who won both National Field Trial Championships in 1971 was a tri-color. Normally a tri-color will have a small patch or two that is tan in color.
Treff 1010 whelped in 1881 - an important early dog used for his energy and drive - was solid brown. Because the patching gene that allows a dog to be a solid color is a dominant gene every solid dog alive today will trace back to him.
In 1912, fearing loss of pigmentation and eye color, the Germans outcrossed to the solid black Arkwright Pointers. It is from this cross to the magnificent solid black Pointers done in Prussia that we get the black dogs of today. Carried for some time in a separate Prussian Kurzhaar Stud Book these dogs have for generations been recognized as Kurzhaars in Germany. Because black is a dominant gene one of the parents of every black Kurzhaar had to have been black. Some of the great German dogs of the past generation trace directly back to this influx of pure pointer genes.
Inside Germany the Kurzhaar underwent tremendous consolidation following WWI, with breed development reaching a crescendo of incredible progress by the 1930s. The German National Dog had finally arrived and it started to draw the interest of sportsmen from around the world. The German breeders were ecstatic that people who had been importing dogs from England, Ireland and France for years were finally interested in their dog. Their response was to put their best foot forward and send some of their very best blood to the United States, Denmark and England. Interestingly they sent no blacks and only a few solid brown dogs to the US and a large number of really nice white and liver dogs to Denmark.
It was from the dogs originally sent to Dr Thorton of Wyoming as early as 1925 as well as Jack Shattuck of Minnesota, Joseph Burkhart of Wisconsin and Walter Mangold of Nebraska in the 1930s that our breed standard was written. Which is why black and tri-color were expressly excluded from the AKC breed standard even though they were clearly being registered in Germany at the time."
I am also of the belief, that the reason the Black Shorthairs were originally kept in a seperate Stud book in Germany, was quite simply, that until they had bred the Black Shorthairs back to the 15/16th of true to form GSP/DK, there needed to be a seperation to prevent the Arkwright Pointer from becoming a dominant feature of the, then being developed, GSP/DK. This, of course, is only my opinion and not necessarily the fact
I am not starting this thread to create a controversial argument and therefore will not participate in such an argument. I only submit these thoughts to you so that you may make your vote based on, perhaps, a bit of background info I have found to be the most logical reason why Black was originally excluded from the Breed Standard which our club, the GSPCA, originally proposed and placed into order.
Should this become a topic that cannot be discussed rationally, I ask that the moderators remove it for the betterment of the BB.
Thanx Kindly for Your Consideration of this Post,
Sincerely,
Bruce
