From out of the blue...
In 1985 Zella Llewellyn of Texas
discovered an intriguing surprise in one of her litters...a blue housecoat
puppy she named Zl's Blue Genes. This dog, became a CSPCA Champion and
is known as the first official Blue Shar-Pei in the breed.
Blue Genes lived to be 12 years old.
In researching
his pedigree it was discovered that a line breeding between a particular
pair produced this first blue. The only other original blue
line was developed by the Deborah Kiper (Kipers Shar-Pei) from
a then recent imported line known as Kipers Indeed It's True.
From that time to now, no other original Blue lines have been
discovered. ZL's Blue Genes and Kiper's Indeed It's True are
the 2 foundation lines on which all today's blues can be traced
back. Throughout the years these lines have been out crossed with
non blue lines to produce many varied pedigrees.
The blue color
family consists of 4 colors... light cerulean blue in
the housecoats. A dark inky blue develops in the brush coats
even though they are born a light blue. Isabella is a blue masked
cinnamon color. Oddly, some Isabellas begin life as all
blue except for a faint fawn spot on the top of their head.
By the time Isabellas reach 10 weeks of age, they go though a complete
color change from Blue to Isabella. Just as often Isabellas are born
cinnamon/blue and never change. The blue masking fades as the puppy
reaches adulthood and the cinnamon color grows stronger. Isabellas
can be dilute or non dilute. Finally, a color Shar-Pei
breeders call Lilac, which is a common color found in Weimaraners,
IG's and several other breeds. This color is found only as
dilute in Shar-Pei. The Lilac shade can vary from a dull flat almost
chocolate to a light silvery lilac color.
AKC accepts all
solid colors in Shar-Pei, without penalty, but at this time does
not acknowledge any other color than BLUE in the blue family group.
Most breeders, in order to identify blue in the pedigree, often register
Isabella and Lilac as Blue...
Blue can be integrated
into any pedigree in 2 generations. To produce the blue color, both
sides of the pedigree MUST carry a blue gene. Blues in this breed,
unlike some other breeds, do not have a tendency to produce any unique
auto immune or coat problems.
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