When we venture into areas in which we’re a bit weak, we call it “wading into the tall grass” (and it usually has to do with genetics). This is absolutely one those posts in which we offer the caveat that we defer to breed experts, so here goes.
The Pointer‘s breed standard indicates that a good Pointer can’t be a bad color, but solid colored Pointers are somewhat rare in the United States. Genetically speaking, the solid color is a dominant color pattern in the breed, so a solid-colored sire or dam is necessary to produce a solid colored puppy. A parti-color, when bred to another parti-color, will never produce a solid regardless of the presence of solids in the pedigree.
Most solids are “hybrid solids,” and by that, it’s meant that they carry the recessive gene for the parti-color. When these dogs are bred to a parti-color, roughly 50% of their puppies will be solid-colored. It follows that they carry the parti-color recessive gene, but AS a parti-colored offspring carrying a recessive, they won’t produce a solid colored puppy. Approximately 25% of puppies will be pure for solid, but roughly 75% will be solid-colored.
We couldn’t find a photo of a solid colored Pointer for which we had permission, so we’re using a lovely sculpture image to accompany this post, but if you have such a dog at home, we’d love to see their picture!
Image: “High Paw ” ceramic sculpture by Pippa Hill
Stockbridge Gallery