Saturday, October 2, 2010

Icy-Retriever







Kathy has Golden Retrievers and one Icelandic Sheepdog. This fall there was an “oops” litter between one of her male Goldens and her Icy female which was also a golden color.

Five beautiful mostly black Icy-Retriever puppies were born.

Our Golden expert explained how two golden colored dogs could produce a litter of nearly completely black puppies. (The puppies have a small amount of white on their bellies and some feet.)

Many people know about flat coated retrievers and curly coated retrievers. There was also a third related retriever, now extinct, known as wavy coated retrievers which were normally a black color with small amounts of white. However, occasionally some pups were born to wavy coated retrievers that were golden in color. These were selected for in breeding programs and eventually became the Golden Retrievers of today.

When the male Golden and the female Icelandic mated, some of the previously ‘turned-off’ genes for black fur turned back on and produced some lovely puppies.

We expect they will look very much like the now-extinct wavy coated retrievers when they are full grown – but who really knows!

We expect them to be larger in size than an Icelandic Sheepdog and slightly smaller than a Golden.

The temperament should be a combination which should make them fantastic obedience dogs. Three of the five pups are already extremely people oriented and show great promise for the agility or obedience ring. Two are a little softer and should make wonderful pets.

It looks like they will be mostly black adults with some white toes and chests, the floppy ears of typical retrievers, a retriever face, mostly straight tails and be long furred. Think of a slightly leaner and slightly smaller Golden with their long, but black, fur.

The pups are eight weeks old now and available to good homes. If you’ve been looking for a nice performance or pet dog but cannot afford a pure bred dog, these should be ideal dogs. Their temperaments are wonderful, they are extremely smart and love to cuddle.

Please give us a call.

Kathy – 734-461-9314
Jim – 248-288-0947

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