The AKC Weimaraner standard expressly states that a distinctly blue or black coat is a disqualification. The Internet, however, is filled with available “blue” Weimaraners puppies, and, there is a “Blue Weimaraner Club of America.”

Proponents of this color say that their dogs are just like the gray dogs except that their dogs’ coats are diluted black instead of a diluted chocolate. They say that the difference between gray and blue in Weims is a difference in tone, not in the darkness of the color (a dark charcoal gray sometimes with hints of bluish tones), and cite a dog named Cäsar von Gaiberg (“Tell”), an unusually dark Weim who was imported from Germany in the late 1940s as the progenitor of the Blues in America. Some sources believe the blue color is a genetic mutation as a result of severe inbreeding.  Some believe that it was the result of a Doberman and Weimaraner breeding somewhere along the line. There are also those that believe the blue color was simply called mouse-gray in Germany and had been around all along. Before the Weimaraner Club of America voted to disqualify the blue coat color in 1971 (it was also classified as a very serious fault in the approved 1953 standard), the color was accepted in the original standard from 1943/1944.  Color aside, any purebred Weimaraner, whatever its color, can participate in AKC performance events.

We’re hoping Weimaraner owners can help us understand this?

“A Good Yawn” by Jo Campin is available as a print here.