Black and floppy-ears Samoyeds
From the beginning, we had more colouring in our breed. Colours that was removed in the breedstandard after a few years. It also goes to read about how they, unfortunately, was killing puppies that were born with different colour than White. This is only because the completely white dogs were awarded higher at the show by the judges. A tragic event already early in the breed's history linked to the negative downsides of the exhibition business. Through the influence of the judges, breeders removed much of the all-important genetic variation in the breed by eliminating all colored dogs from breeding.
There is a lot going on in research about the past and genetic context. For those interested, it can be exciting to follow along in the studies that are presented. For a long time, people have, among other things, talked about that the Samoyed is genetically not white but has a pale gene. E.g. pale isabel, which can be perceived as white. This is usually used as an alternative explanation for why the Samoyed does not have problems with deafness and blindness that are normally linked to the pure white gene.
BLACK AND FLOPPY-EARED SAMOYEDS
From my Dog World Blog on 9 May 2016.
https://leeconnorblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/black-and-floppy-eared-samoyeds/
Once again this weekend saw us on our usual 'house-hunting' expedition along the south coast of Devon. For lunch we stopped into the dog friendly Visto Lounge and ordered their Thai green curry. As the weather was unusually clement we decided to sit outside and soon a couple (accompanied by a gorgeous Samoyed) claimed the next table. Eventually our meal was brought out to us and I don't know whether our smiling Samoyed friend was a secret connoisseur of Thai cuisine (or a budding food critic) because just as our plates were set down he decided to come over and join us.
'Oh, I'm so sorry,' apologised his red faced owner profusely as he tried to drag him away but we quickly told the Sammy's owner that we didn't mind their dog's company in the slightest. Of course such incidents allow you to get into conversation and we all happily talked about the breed and exactly why they had chosen a Samoyed. Throughout our conversation it was incredible to witness the constant stream of people (and especially children) coming over and asking to cuddle and stroke their dog. All of them commented on, what are the breed's distinctive hallmarks, the delightful 'smiley' face and of course the dazzling white coat.
My grandfather also had a much loved Samoyed (back in the 1950s) so later that evening I decided to read up on the breed from a book I had bought from a much-loved Bournemouth bookshop that was sadly closing down. It was the 1950's Second Edition of The Samoyed published by the Samoyed Association and in it I discovered a fascinating article on the 'Black Samoyed'.
I also own a copy of Robert Leighton's New Book of the Dog and this article makes reference to a photograph that appears in that valuable old book. It is a photo that shows black and white splashed young Samoyeds by Peter the Great (the well known black Samoyed).
This photo sparked some debate and the article says;
In some reminiscences of the early years (Our Dogs, 1935) Mr Will Hally declares that the first Samoyed he ever saw in the show ring in the early 1890s was a black with a little white on the chest, he also remembers (not necessarily in the show ring) some blacks with here and there white splashes, and some white and blacks with more white than black about them and hazards the guess that these were never quite pure Samoyeds. Further to this, he says, that when he traced the origins of these self blacks (that is self black except the small white path on the chest) and the parti-colours he invariably found that they were of Russian origin. In any case he dismisses them out of hand particularly the black and whites which he calls 'mongrelly'. Samoyeds from the area between the Kara and White Seas were always, declares Mr Hally, either white, cream or biscuit shaded.
A little detective work here yields an interesting result. In an article (Our Dogs, 14.12.23) Mr Kilburn Scott glances through his first kennel book and notes a puppy (by Sabarka out of Whitey Petchora) by the name of Peter the Great, born 1897 and marked down as being sold to the Hon Mrs MacLaren Morrison. In the paragraph, 'Foreign Dog Fancies' there is a note that MacLaren Morrison won first prizes at the Cheltenham show with her favourite black, Peter the Great, 'who beat last year's winner under Mr Marples, viz. Mrs Ringer's grand white dog, Olaf Oussa'. It is fair to deduce that either the cream Whitey Petchora or the deep biscuit, Sabarka, had somewhere in their ancestry a cross with a Russian dog. As Whitey Petchora founded a family that has consistently produced champions to present times, it would seem fair to assume that Sabarka was the dog with coloured forebears.
'Sabarka, the original import brought to England by Mr Kilburn Scott in 1889. His colour was described as 'deep biscuit''
Mr Kilburn Scott does not comment on Peter the Great's colour and there seems to be a certain amount of disingenuous reticence on this subject! (That mischievous recessive black gene, however can still crop up. The late Miss Thomson-Glover quoted a case in Scotland many years ago, of several black and white puppies in a litter whose owner was certain that no mis-mating had taken place. Even as recently as 1953 she records that an English bitch, mated to a noted English stud dog, produced a whole litter of black or nearly black pups which to her personal regret were all put down. But she also notes an instance where a bitch sired by a black produced puppies by Snow Cloud which were all white. Several people who had the puppies hoped that they would get blacks but perversely none appeared.)
Curiosity about black Samoyeds still persists, and as recently as 1943 a breed correspondent received a letter in which the writer describes seeing the Leighton picture mentioned earlier. The correspondent goes on to say that he saw a true black Samoyed in Portsmouth some years before and reminded us that M Le Comte de Savignac had always bred a large number of black dogs which he claimed were pure Samoyeds. Whether he was right, or Mr Hally and the Kilburn Scotts, cannot be finally decided since conclusive evidence either way is not available. Peter the Great was the Sire of the black Pedro who was bred with some of the Kilburn Scott bitches as his name appears on some of their early pedigrees.
The original import Sabarka (1889), the fat puppy who, had he not left his homeland, might have been used to eke out the food supply, is variously described as brown, biscuit or deep biscuit. Mr Hally says, 'I remember him as being outstanding in every Samoyed feature, his head, coat, carriage and tail were all beautiful.'
Lastly, mention might be fittingly made here of the Flop-eared Samoyed. There seems to be no doubt that this type belonged to the Yenisei River area and was a recognised variety of the breed, and had its sponsors pressed ahead with the matter it is reasonable to suppose that the two varieties would have been allowed by the Kennel Club. Mrs Grays, Landsberg Yougor of Halfway is described as 'white with a yellow spot under the curl of the tail and has a few tiny spots of colour on his ears, black eye rims and a deep coloured nose, but not quite black. His body is perfectly proportioned, he is as agile as a cat and his carriage is perfection. He is not a heavy dog but weighs nearly 51lbs and is the right height.'
As usual, a dive back into the archives proves fascinating!
Black Samoyeds
One more article aboute black samoyeds.
Sometimes, they still are mentioned – black Samoyeds! Julius Wipfel talked about them in his book "The Eurasier" and correctly identified the selection for white coat colour as one reason for the loss of many original traits in the breed. From time to time pictures of these non-white dogs still appear on Facebook or forums and one question is raised almost every time: do they still exist? And, if not, would it be possible to get them back by selection within the breed alone? The answer to both questions, of course, is a decisive "no". In the Eurasier breed, the black coat colour was brought in by the Samoyed Cito vom Pol, all of his direct offspring out of seven litters were black! So, why aren't there black purebred Samoyeds, anymore?
The actual era of the black Samoyed in Great Britain only lasted for four generations, the last black Samoyed was born even before world war one. Since then, they have disappeared completely and without outcrossing to another breed (or a very unlikely mutation) they'll never come back.
It started with Sabarka, a dog originating from the area of Archangelsk in European Russia and brought to England in 1889 by Ernest Kilburn-Scott. Sabarka's coat colour wasn't white, but solid brown - liver, as we'd call it in the Eurasier - with a few white spots and if you ever paid attention to colour genetics, you'll know that his basic coat colour, therefore, was black. It's impossible to determine whether he was a dominant or recessive black dog, both forms seem to be present in the gene pool of present-day Samoyeds. Sabarka was mated to Whitey Petchora; she was genetically white even though you wouldn't guess from seeing her picture; today her coat colour would probably be called "biscuit". This mating produced two dogs that were important for the development of the breed – the white Neva and the black Peter the Great. This litter proves that Sabarka was a carrier for white, his genotype at the E-locus was E/e. Whitey Petchora's genotype was e/e, same as Neva's. Peter the Great had the genotype E/e (and B/b, but that's irrelevant here) and he was used for breeding. His son Pedro, too, was black, but as his dam Alaska was white (e/e), he also was heterozygous for white. Two sons and one daughter – Am. Ch. Tamara (pictured on the left) – continued his line to the present day, you'll find them in the pedigree of every living Samoyed, but unfortunately, all three were white, genotype e/e. As they were bred solely to white dogs, the black coat colour in the Samoyed was therefore extinct in the breed. Pedro did have some black offspring, but I don't know if they were ever used for breeding. If they were, their lines went extinct quickly.
Beneath its white coat, the Samoyed still has some variation in coat colour left. And so, in hindsight, Cito's black offspring wasn't a surprise at all – he was homozygous for dominant black, KB/KB, but for recessive black, too, genotype a/a. All that was needed to bring the black coat colour back to the light was a working Mc1-receptor. Kriskella's Kiowa of Whiteline produced three black offspring with two different Eurasier dams, one of these has had three litters so far without black puppies, so it's very unlikely for him to carry the KB-allele, but he does carry the at-allele! Whether the b-allele is still present in the Samoyed is questionable, but there is a slight possibility.
So the explanation for the complete disappearance of all colours but white in the Samoyed breed is actually quite simple – Samoyeds don't have any working Mc1-receptors left in the breed. Getting rid of a dominant trait is easily done, especially if breeders actively select against this trait.
There's only one way to get the black Samoyed back – the E-allele has to be reintroduced into the breed, which is only possible by crossbreeding.One more thing - many Samoyeds have a few black hairs or even patches. These are due to somatic mutations which are not heritable at all (you'd need a mutation in germline cells for that), so breeding Samoyeds with black patches will not bring back black Samoyeds.Tamara's pedigree:
Above: Am. Ch. Tamara.
Pedro x 2
When you study the history of the breed, you discover that the same name for dogs can appear on different individuals. The name Pedro is one of them and both Pedros from most of the time in the western world were black. But one of them had white spots. This can be interesting to pay attention to so you don't mix them up.
The black gene can still show up in some modern litters of today
Tylor Harper: That mischievous recessive black gene, however can still crop up. The late Miss Thompson-Glover quoted a case in Scotland many years ago, of several black and white puppies in a litter who's owner was certain that no miss-mating had taken place. Even as recently as 1953 she records that and English bitch, mated to a noted English stud dog, produced a whole litter of black or nearly black pups which to her personal regret were all put down. But she also notes an instant where a bitch sired by a black produced puppies by 'Snow Cloud' which were all white. Several people who had the puppies hoped they would get black but perversely... none appeared).
Above: Elisa Perkiö in Sweden got a litter of purebred Samoyeds where one of them got a black tail. The picture is uploaded in a discussion in Samoyed History on FB 2019. This seems to happen a little from time to time in different places in the world. So our dogs probably have their colored heritage somehow.