Hi, i have been told that Irish staffy dogs stay blue whilst the KC Reg Staffy's lose their colour, is this right?
Basically the answer is no, that's not right. Being an Irish Staffordshire Bull Terrier that happens to be Blue (coloured) does not in it'self mean that the colour is bluer that the Blue of a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Simply put, The colour Blue is a genetic dilution of the colour Black. So it very much depends upon whether the colour has been allowed to continue to dilute during Blue to Blue matings, or whether the colour is strengthened by the infuence of Black (carrying Blue) in the ancestry. The popularity of the colour Blue has been influenced by money grabbing breeders that breed Blue to Blue to ensure getting Blue puppies for the money aspect. They have seemingly convinced the gullible public that Blue is 'rare' and therefor more valuable. Blue is actually very common, what is not common, is a good Blue.The fact is, Blue puppies cost the same to rear as Brindle or Red or In fact any other colour so should be priced the same, definately not more. Anyone who charges more on the basis of colour, is greedy, plain and simple. Dawn R.
So so true, I think i have only seen a couple of very well bred good blues in the last 20 years. Blue is actually more common now than pieds or reds But most are bred for money As Dawn has said the colour blue is a washed out black as i put it and comes about from continually breeding black to black for generations and generations.The same is also true of reds,reds continually bred over generations produce fawns or money making breeders call them rare creams I would like to see a black mated to a red once in a while to keep the variation we have with colours in the breed, and to keep pigmentation. There are no rare colours in staffords.
I know it is popular belief that breeding blue to blue continuously will further dilute the colour but there is no genetic basis to this. It's also said of breeding brown (chocolate) Labradors, that these will progress to paler shades if black isn't incorporated. The brown gene, as in the dilute (blue), is a simple recessive so there is no way the genes can accumulate to further reduce the shade and a blue from two blue parents is no more likely to be pale as a blue from blue x black or black x black. There are some breeds that only have brown or dilute colours so breeding continuously together in unavoidable. They don't get progressively lighter. The Weimaraner is the best example of this being dilute brown (lilac) and having both these genes. There are other genes which influence the shade of colour and these are inherited independantly of the dilute and brown genes. If it happens that Irish Staffies have more of these in their population than KC Staffies then it could be that they are paler blue or more likely to fade with age.
Thanks, i actually got the pup for a very reasonable price although ALL the blue pups i've seen are priced at a minimum of around £700
Yes blues are sold for more than other pups,i personally wouldn't pay more than what the average price is which is around £500-£600. How old is your pup?
