Not sure the exact date it was written,
but the prince was born in 1926 and this was printed in an Australian
magazine in 1988
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Dapples – as old as the Dachshund itself
By : His Royal Highness Prince Rasso of Bavaria
(German: Rasso Maximilian Rupprecht Prinz von Bayern)
(b. May 24, 1926) is a member of the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach.
Translated by Eve Marso)
The Dapple Dachshund is as old as the breed itself. From historical
information it is gleaned that the dapple Dachshund has existed since
the ancient Egyptians. In the hunting history, dapple Dachshunds, which
were bred mainly for groundhunts, were mentioned during Napoleon’s time.
According to the oldest literature I have been able to unearth, there
existed two large dapple Dachshund kennels in Saxony as early as 1848.
Breeding managers were employed to breed pure dapples only. One kennel
emphasised the breeding of silver dapples with relatively few white
marking. The other kennel produced a large number of dapple and whites,
so that they were forced to outcross with black blood. Long before
Dachshund pedigree registers ever existed in Germany, breeders bred
dapple Dachshunds in the south-west of Germany, and these were used
specifically for hunting. My father purchased his first dapple Dachshund
early in the century, and it proved to be an excellent hunter. Only
after World War I in 1918 did he start his own breeding line in Hungary.
He built his dapple bloodline from predominantly German lines.
The end of World War II caused the disintegration of his breeding
program. Most of the relevant documents of all our dogs were destroyed
during the confusions of war in Hungary. We arrived in Bavaria after the
war with only two dapple bitches, and started ournew lines with these
two foundation bitches. After the death of my father in 1956, I
inherited his kennel, ‘von der Karlsruhe’, and continued breeding
according to his wishes and breeding programmes. Since then we have bred
over 150 puppies, the majority of which were dapple. We endeavoured,
wherever possible, to mate dapple to dapple. Only when no suitable stud
was available was a black and tan used.
In all those years we had only two blind dapple and white puppies in a
litter which contained a silver dapple and a chocolate dapple, (who
proved himself to be an excellent hunter) – out of the dapple and white
dam, Harfe von der Karlsburg, from the chocolate dapple stud, Eddy von
der Golg. And now to focus on the genetic inheritance of the dapple
Dachshund. Quoting Winge 1950 and Burns and Fraser 1968, the ‘wild boar’
(pepper and salt) colour is the wild inheritance of the dog. It is
therefore dominant over any other colour of the Dachshund. One can
presume that the ‘wild boar’ and dapple coat pattern are equally
dominant. They can, however, alternate in their dominance.
It is especially noticeable with Wirehaired Dachshund that ‘wild boar’
lines will suddenly throw dapples; in a proven case recently it happened
after eight generations. The reverse is also true, that the dapples will
suddenly throw ‘wild boars’. This indicates that the gene responsible
for dappling is equal in dominance to the ‘wild boar’. The hereditary
component of the dapple is called the merle factor, designated as M. M
is dominant over the allele m, which does not control colour. Scientific
literature stipulates generally that if MM meet, the result will be
dapple and white. Therefore, as the dapple proves itself dominant over
all colours except ‘wild boar’, dapple and white can be inherited solely
through a double dapple.
That is incorrect! We have had black and tan puppies from our bitch,
Hexe von der Karlsburg, herself registered as black and tan, de factor
dapple and white, as well as from a dapple ad white bitch, Harfe von der
Karlsburg. Our bitch, meta won Wolfachstal, also a dapple and white,
threw a red puppy. It is therefore incorrect that dapple and white dogs
always carry MM, but it is correct to say that the dapple and white is
part albino. The lethal factor such as blindness and deafness, which the
dominant dapple is blamed for, is, in my opinion, not part of the dapple
pattern but of albinism.
The famous animal behaviourist, Eberhardt Trummler, related to me in
conversation that the dingos which he breeds for continuous colour-paling
have blue eyes. They can hardly open their eyes during daylight hours,
yet have perfect vision by night. The factor responsible for the
eye-defect is proven to be the paling of colour, ergo pigmentation
weakness. I wish to add the following to the phenomenon of colour-paling:
‘Wild boar’ colour is a mixture of dark pepper and salt and fawn, where
the second is a colour-paling of the first. The next strongest colour is
red. However, this is rare in the dapple pattern. Red is dominant over
black, recessive over ‘wild boar’. The second weakest colour is black.
Black is mixed with grey or blue in the silver dapple, which is a colour-paling
of black.
The colour component with chocolate dapples is brown,where the lighter
shade of this colour produces cream of fawn, ie colour-paling of
chocolate. Chocolatebrown is the weakest colour pigmentation; only
weaker still is white – ergo albinism. The dapple and white has light
coloured patterns between white slabs, and interspersed with darker
spots. When a white skin pattern appears on the nose, it will become
red. If it appears over the eye, it will become light blue. If it
appears on the nails they become pink. If a grey component appears over
the eye it will become a darker blue. It is the light blue of the
part-albino that harbours the danger of blindness. The same applies to
the ears and the hearing defects.
The denotation of dapple and white is an unfortunately chosen
description as the inherent colour carried by each individual is thereby
not evident. There are dapple and whites with brown, black, grey, red
and ‘wild boar’, and one never knows how these colour components assert
themselves. The afore-mentioned bitch, Meta vom Wolfachstal, was dapple
and white, presumably ‘wild boar’ with white. Harfe von der Karlsburg,
registered as dapple and white, had a white breast-patch and white
forepaws, yet was ‘wild boar’ on her rear. Hexe von der Karlsburg,
registered as silver dapple, was actually dapple and white, with grey
background colour and black spots. The dapple and white bitch, Harfe,
who had perfect eyesight during her youth, had a closure of the pupils
and the iris burst in three places in her later years. I presume that
she had triple vision, yet she had no problem with her eyesight, and has
been worked as a hunter all her life. She recognised game from quite a
distance by sight, and in old age had no difficulty avoiding obstacles,
not the case with a blind dog.
For these reasons I warn against the use of dapples with predominantly
white patches. However, Dachshunds with only small white spots (ie,
small breast-patch or single white claws), otherwise will marked
dapples, may still be used successfully for breeding. Caution should be
exercised, however, with chocolate dapples with weak pigmentation, as
their albinism will come through strongly, which brings forth the lethal
factor. I will continue breeding dapples to dapples. My silver dapple
bitch is presently in whelp to a sire of the same colour. When both sire
and dam have one parent each of a solid black and tan colour, there will
be a lower rate of dapples and more black and tans in the litter.
With older breeding experiments where there were only one or two solid-coloured
dogs as far back as the third or fourth generation, there were no
disaster in the dapple breeding. I hope that the dapple breeding will
continue to flourish. It would be a pity for these good utility dogs to
disappear. They have always proven themselves as good hunting dogs, and
I hope they will continue to be used as such.
However, one must always follow the correct breeding rules. According to
the motto of the German Dachshund Club:“The best performance in the
nicest mould.”