Tri-Del Research
The Great "Tri-Del Tries-Blue" Experiment
AKA
"OPERATION BLUE PRINTS"

I’ve been a dog woman all of my life. My granddad & dad were hunters, so naturally they bred and hunted with sporting and hound breeds. For my own taste, I have always coveted the working breeds with a special soft spot for the Doberman. The first thing I purchased when my husband Scott & I bought our first house? No, not a sofa ... but a Doberman puppy ... we didn't even have a dining room table. Showing Dobermans is not for those with a thin wallet … like mine. From showing Dobermans, I had MinPin friends who got me my start in MinPins, a place where the thinner wallet goes a bit farther. I brought from that love of Dobermans a keen appreciation of the Blue Doberman. I have always found it curious that Blue Miniature Pinschers are disqualified from conformation events. I have heard the lip service from both sides, pro and con, and I have decided to see for myself what the hype is all about.

I do not ask that my peers join me in my experiment, because I know the Blue MinPin is currently a taboo subject. I don’t ask my peers to particularly like my experiment. I am hopeful that my peers will indulge me my experiment as serious research. I’m not looking to change the world or reinvent the wheel. I’m most definitely NOT looking to sell Blue MinPins. I LIKE Blue MinPins and I’m just curious why they are said to have such horrible coats. I'm willing to devote the work into this experiment to hopefully get some veterinary documented studies on the Blues that I produce.

Supposedly Blue MinPins had such bad coats that they found themselves struck from our Breed Standard in the 1970s / 1980s. If you do your breed research it isn't hard to find that at one point, around the turn of the last century, the Blues were one of the Miniature Pinscher Breed Standard’s PREFERRED colors. What the heck happened to them, to fall from preferred and revered to hated and reviled in such a relatively short time? Why do other Blue coated breeds not have these coat problems? Why do Blue MinPins have such coat trouble when I don’t see these problems with Weimariners, a breed whose only color is the dilute & never black? Weims, whose grey coat should be ghost grey not appearing bluish, but IS produced by the same "dilution" gene, the dilution gene we MinPinners call Blue. Why do MinPins have all this trouble if not Blue AmStaffs? Why MinPins if not Silky & Yorkshire Terriers, Blue Chihuahuas, Blue Danes, Blue Chows, Blue Newfoundlands, Blue IGs? The only other Blue that has noted coat trouble is the Blue Dobe ... and that depends on the LINE, not the color itself. I have SEEN of plenty of AKC CHAMPION Ravenswood and Aquarius bred Blue Dobes that have a rich luxurious coat. Is it the BLUE MinPin? Or is the coat trouble in the LINE of MINPINS that some Blue specimens come from? My guess is that it is probably the latter rather than the former.

I have decided that I have had enough of the rumors from both sides & I plan to do the research on my own ... being as no one from either side of the aisle has presented the physical canine evidence to satisfy my curiosity. I’m not willing to write Blues off as “freaks of nature” without at least a little research to see if the coat imperfections are indeed a common product of the dilute genetics. I will need to see the documented evidence so that I will know if the coat rumors are true, true mainly in those specimens that are poorly bred or fabrications and exaggerations that were successfully campaigned by someone who simply didn’t like the color. I want to see first hand “what’s up” with the Blue Miniature Pinscher?

I found a Blue breeder who has the loveliest Blue MinPins, Robyn Thomason in Tennessee. Robyn breeds dilute MinPins, but she is a conscientious breeder who spay/neuters all of her pet puppies. Her Prancealots MinPins are very typey dogs and they just happen to be Blue MinPins with full “as full as is typical of a Red MinPin” normal type coats. Thanks to her trust and generosity, I will hopefully have Blue factored dogs to work with out of my Champion bitches. I’m using (in exchange for showing/handling) a BiSS CH Sanbrook Twist N Shout grandson named OohRah who carries the Blue gene through his mother, a stunning Blue bitch Prancealots Moonlight Margarita. About ½ of the puppies I produce with OohRah bred to my bitches will carry the Blue gene. As I write this preface to my experiment, it is currently April of 2006 and my first factored litter was born only days ago. It will probably be 2008 or later before I know which of the offspring inherited the Blue genetics from OohRah. This experiment will be YEARS, probably 10 to 20 years, in the making.

Only after years of research will I be able to see for myself, do Blues have these horrible coats? Or is it possible to have a LINE of Blue MinPins that is FREE from coat problems if bred responsibly? It is my hypothesis that I can raise Blue MinPins with coats and conformation as good as any other MinPin show dog. I aim to find out one way or the other and I’ll report my findings, the good, bad and the ugly, and follow EVERY Blue MinPin that I produce in my experiment from the whelping box to the grave. Perhaps this research can help save the Blue MinPin from extinction and get it out of the "rare color" puppymills.

Before my friends and peers pass out from hyper ventilating, take a deep breath ... hold it ... now breathe, breathe. I will continue to have my show dogs that are FREE FROM the Blue factor. For this experiment, I will only be using my show dogs to create a SIDE LINE of Blue factored dogs for the experiment who are related to but separate from my show line.

My independent show dogs will continue to be Tri-Del dogs. "Tri-Del Dog Name" will be NON-dilution/NON-blue factored as they always have been.

My Dilution/Blue factored dogs will be Tri-Del’s dogs with an apostrophe S; "Tri-Del’s Dog Name". A subtle difference that will be easily recognizable in a pedigree for me later generations down the road.

Will I be showing my Red, Black or Chocolate dogs from my Blue experiment? Sure! Why not? My guess is that they will look and act just like any of my other dogs.

Do I have permission from the parent club for this breeding experiment? No! Why, I see no reason why I would need permission or need to bother my parent club with private experiments? Do breeders get permission for breeding a dog with DQing white exceeding 1/2 inch? Do breeders get permission for breeding 12 1/2 PLUS inch oversized DQed dogs? Do breeders get permission for breeding Temperament Problem, Legg Calve Perthes and Patellar Luxation producers? No, they don't. I see no harm in experimenting with the DQed Blue, which is undeniably less harmful than breeding crippled legs. The worst thing that can happen is that I get some sparse coated dogs that resemble smooth coated Chinese Crested. Am I a scientist? No, and I don't even play one on TV ... but I AM a Thinker and I am a breeder. These Blue MinPins are just MinPins, I will give this a try. I will be happy to share my research with anyone or any organization including the MinPin parent club (of which I am a proud member) if anyone becomes interested in the progression of my personal private study. Maybe the club will want to conduct a study of their own if my findings warrant interest?

I welcome the participation of any private breeder/owners who have dilute MinPins. The more specimens who are documented, the more likely we will be to have a complete picture. I will be posting my findings as the project unfolds ... I’m sure it will be years in the making. So, if you’re curious, stay tuned and I will post my finding here:

Click on the BANNER below to visit the Operation Blue Prints website!


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Cindy McNeal, Tri-Del Miniature Pinschers, Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.

Last modified on Wednesday, April 26, 2006