Does anybody know of any pedigree wheaten deerhounds? I have never seen one and at a recent show, neither had anyone else, and yet if you look at Victorian paintings of deerhounds there were wheaten and brindle versions a plenty! Wolfhounds still come in some lovely wheaten colours as do Greyhounds, so why not Deerhounds? Have they officially died out? Would there be any way of re-introducing the strain? It seems a shame to me...

We've lost the 'old' colours, I'm afraid. The closest hound to wheaten currently alive is Sue Rose's Gentiehun Tain, but he's not a true wheaten and will probably grey up as he matures.

You're right Trowsahound, it is a shame we've lost the old colours. Sid raised an interesting point too, that our deerhound puppies often do show these old colours but as they mature they disappear. I was quite excited, for example, at the reddish brown colours in my boy from Ladygrove/Kilbourne when he first arrived here at 3 months but slowly, surely, as he grew he turned silver. And now with this litter I have from him there is plenty of this red/brown hue and distinct brindle markings on some too, but will they last? I doubt it.

thats funny,at the deerhound funday a lady loved my rough coat wheaten lurcher and was saying wouldnt that be beautiful colour for a deerhound!

You certainly seem to get the lovely old colours in the deerhound lurchers. Our first one kerry was a 'heather tartan' from what I understand - a beautiful brindle (of various colours) and grey check effect, which changed with the seasons. Shame our deerhounds aren't like that too!

Sid wrote:


Oh please please please humour me can I not just pretend he is wheaten

I think sometimes people are told to strip out puppy coat and stipping the coat will change the coat
It would be a dream to breed a wheaten deerhound

Yes I nearly drove into a hedge passing a lovely wheaten lurcher that looked exactly like a deerhound, and chased the owner up the street. Sadly though he was a lovely lurcher rescue.

I wonder if a wheaten strain could be re-introduced somehow? I know nothing about breeding or kennel club rules, or how many generations it would take to be accepted as a pedigree deerhound!

Here is my Lurcher, back in 1989 with my daughter Kerri. He was a beautiful colour.

suerose wrote:


I'm happy to humour you, Rannoch is a true one off and if any dog can bring a lighter colour, it's him

Take a look at the "recessive colouration genes" thread in general d/h chat,lots of info...apparently in Australia there are wheaten dogs still..but no pictures seen..

I have been talking to a person that has been with deerhounds forever and she was saying that she thinks there was something in the old breed standard about the colours

Sid have you got a copy

Unfortunately rumour lies, there are no wheaten Deerhounds in Australia. Maybe someone saw a Staghound, which are Deerhounds crossed with various breeds mostly for hunting Roos. So I don't know why they are called staghounds

Pam

suerose wrote:


Not to hand, but the standard's on the Deerhound Club site. The colours are still in it, even if we no longer have them.

Not sure of this without pictues to compare to but our Freya is very brindley with a fair smattering of wheaten here and there. She too may lose it of course as she is just 13 months but several DH folk have commented on her colouring.

all the golden reddish on top are new growth

this is the back end but shows the wheaten bits more clearly(if that is wheaten??)

Tavish was very similar when he was that age, but he's grey all over now. When he was a baby pup, he was tiger brindle.

I've seen several deerhounds with these lovely brindly markings, which are quite common in young dogs I think! I wonder if it would be possible to breed this colouration back in? Does anyone know? In fact I'm surprised no-one has thought about doing this before now, but as I said, I know nothing about breeding!

Trowsahound wrote:


It's not a question of breeding brindling back in, it's just that it's masked to a large extent by the adult coat, which is normally grey. Deerhounds' coats change throughout their lives and even with the seasons - summer coats can appear to be a different colour from the winter coat and so forth.