Blue Herd

Here's a little advise to breeding blues, that I use in my herd.

I believe in keeping blue to blue, and crossed out to black for coat/type. Find a good base line, with a strong color, so you can work more with type without worrying much about coat density or color. Color can be fixed in 1-2 breedings, type and coat take a few breedings to correct. Blues usually have few color problems if you use a nice strong line, don't breed lilacs in too often. There is no benefit to breeding two dilutes together. DO NOT keep any animal with scattered white hairs, I cull heavily for that by removing the ENTIRE LINE, this usually comes from black lines. You can find a nice line with type/coat that does not have the white hair issue. Blues can be taken to blacks and blues ONLY (and black/blue otters), do not cross blues to torts!! And also do not cross a blue to a black you know carries tort in the line (such as Pongo's line). This will add "blue tort" to your blue line. And most important - - CULL CULL CULL for white hairs in your color spots!! Once again this is all MY OPINION, and it has worked for me in my herd, once I learned the line.

According to the Standards of Perfection

A blue's entire body is to be a rich lustrous dark blue that runs deep toward the skin to a lighter blue under color. Color is to be even over the entire animal. Toenails are to be dark. Eyes - Blue-gray.

Faults - Faded or rusty color; scattered white hairs' frostiness or mealiness light under color' blue guard hairs that do not match the body color.