Colour – Fashion or Function

On reading the recent responses to the Dog World forum I became concerned - when did dark red wheaten become a colour in our standard? There are even some breeders stating that they prefer it.

The dark red colour appeared around the early 1990’s and originated from South Africa. but has been consistently getting darker and darker. It is well known that the South Africans’ sold their best breeding stock to the US around the ‘70/80’s. Some of the first ridgebacks which were imported to the US in 1950 and hand picked by Major Hawley had their coat described as “tawny colored like a lion” by a journalist at the time. Judging from a video I saw of the Westminster show a few years ago, ‘The Ridgeback Register’ and US websites the very dark reds do not seem to be evident over there. So this a relatively recent trend from South Africa.

Breeders like us who have been in the breed for 30 years or more have had the privilege to have known breeders who owned the first generation from the original stock. We listened and learned from them, we didn’t try to tell them what was correct! To quote the late Wyn Hayes in the early ‘90s having seen a video of the stock in South Africa at the time “Where have all the lovely light wheatens gone, this colour would not discrace a red setter”.

I have heard it said that their monoblock dark red dogs are “wheaten” and justify it by saying that there are a few lighter coloured hairs on the shoulder. This is poor justification. The Standard is quite specific about the colour and states “Light Wheaten to Red Wheaten”, it doesn’t say desirable and it doesn’t say dark red wheaten or pale light wheaten for that matter.

Surely it is more important to breed for function rather than fashion? Ridgebacks were bred to hunt in African terrain having similar colouring to a lion. I have seen white lions but have yet to see a dark red wheaten lion. The white lion is a rare colour mutation which has been perpetuated by selective breeding in zoos. In the wild they do not fare well as they are at a distinct disadvantage, their colour making them visible to prey and hunters.

It was said in the forum that a darker dog perhaps gives a more solid outline in the ring. Is it not then likely that it would not be able to fulfil its function? The dog with the solid colour being more of a target for an angry bayed lion – that is if it ever got that close. This is a classic example of the way the showring can conflict with the original function and eventually alter breeds.

I think it is important along with correct conformation to have a good colour range and combination of black and self coloured muzzles, livers, light wheaten to red wheaten and all the shades between within a bloodline as then you can be sure that you have retained all the characteristics of the breed as required by its founders. Breeders should endeavour to breed to the middle of the Standard. Sometimes that is difficult as there are certain traits that take time to correct but to breed for an extreme is a mistake.

We, ourselves have bred some larger dogs in the past, the stud dogs we chose had the conformation, type and movement we wanted but bred over the height standard. The progeny won well but we corrected the height and are still correcting it whilst retaining the characteristics we want to keep. We haven’t tried to change the Standard to fit them or tell judges they are correct.

I am not a colour fanatic, I am far more interested in function and conformation but I feel that there is a move to change the Standard to suit particular tastes. I feel passionately so I had to write on this subject. We are the present custodians of the Breed - all the good work that has been achieved by our predecessors can be undone in a few years if fashion and ticket winning is the only aim. If dogs exhibited to the extreme of the Standard are rewarded when there are more correct exhibits present, up and coming breeders will see this as they way to go in order to win.

Over the years we have seen fashion trends come and go. In conjunction with the SRRA we produced judging seminars to train judges about the importance of conformation and type long before the kennel club started their Judges training programme.

I am not saying that judges shouldn’t put up dark red wheaten dogs but it should be seen as a fault albeit a cosmetic one and not a virtue.