Position on Brindles

Open Letter to All

An explaination why the Pug Club of Canada(PCC) does not consider Brindle as an acceptable Pug colour.

By the 1880s, firm interest in purebred dogs in Canada was indicated by a proliferation of dog shows held in Saint John, Montreal, Toronto, and London and in Manitoba. With the formation of the American Kennel Club in 1884, these shows were held under AKC rules, and purebred dogs were registered with that club. By 1887 it seemed obvious that a National Canadian Club was needed and the following year, at a general meeting held at Tecumseh House in London, Ontario, The Canadian Kennel Club was formed. The purposes of the club were to promote the breeding and exhibiting of "thoroughbred" dogs in Canada, to formulate rules for the governing of dog shows, to recommend suitable judges, and to open a registry for purebred dogs.

The first Pug Club was formed in 1883 in the UK. The Pug was recognized as an Official breed of "The American Kennel Club" in 1885, "The Kennel Club" in 1918 and "The Canadian Kennel Club" in around the same time. Up until this point Pugs were undefined. The Pug we all love and have dedicated our lives to protect and improve by selectively breeding out undesirable traits and concentrating desirable traits was born the day the Standard was adopted and records establishing ancestry were instituted.

The "Standard" or description of Breed perfection was adopted and a registry with Studbooks and ancestry records to maintain purebred integrity was put in place. This document is the HOLY GRAIL for Pug Conformation.

It is unknown what traits existed in the Pre-Standard Pugs that were first Registered. As all Breeds do, Pugs had to start with dogs that look like Pugs, of unknown ancestry. At the starting point most of the 20,000+ Canine genes were potentially present. The task of the purebred Pug Fancier was to create a description of the Perfect Pug(Standard) and then to concentrate the breeding genes that best produced healthy Pugs as closely resembling the Standard as possible.

In the original Pug Standard the colours were silver or apricot, fawn and black. Brindle or other Colours were not included. It is irrelevant what genes were present in the original Pre-Standard Pugs registered as a Standard was now in place to guide Pug Breeders. Science can offer us some insight into the genetic makeup of these original Pre-Standard Pugs.

We know from genetic research that Fawn Pugs cannot carry the Brindle Gene. This was proven by DNA analysis done by Dr. Sheila Schmutz at the University of Saskatchewan. In her research she found that because all Pugs have a black Mask, all Pugs are fixed at the E locus as E^M/E^M. No e or E in pugs.

The possible alleles present at the K-Locus are:

K^B causes the production of black pigment (eumelanin) [note could be brown or gray too]

k^br Brindle

k^y allows the production of yellowish pigment (phaeomelanin)

All Dogs that are e/e at the E-Locus suppress the K-locus. Since Pugs are fixed E^M/E^M, only one copy of the k^br = Brindle is required to express the Brindle colour when bred to a Fawn. It is impossible for the Brindle gene to hide in the genetic makeup of a Fawn Pug. So we know that all the original registered Fawn Pugs did not have the Brindle Gene in their genetic makeup.

The is no genetic fact that eliminates the originally registered Black Pugs from possibly being carriers of the Brindle gene like there is with the Fawn. However, it really does not matter as all the original Pugs registered were, in essence, dogs that resembled Pugs. It is what happens from this point on that has defined Pug Breed Type. Brindle, not an accepted colour, and therefore outside the Standard correctly was selectively bred out along with many other traits for reasons of health(PDE, HD, etc.) or conformation(eg. not allowed in the Standard). Just because a gene can exist in a gene pool does not make it part of the accepted Genome as described by each Breed Standard. Many genes are selectively bred for and bred out to conform to the various Breed Standards.

This is no slight to Brindle dogs. And if Brindle had been an allowed colour in the original Pug Standard, this discussion would not be happening. Arguments can be made back and forth that Brindle should have or should not have been included in the original Standard, but the fact is that Brindle was not a colour the framers of the original Standard associated with the Pug. It is not believable that there was some elaborate conspiracy against Brindle. The more probable truth is that there were no Brindle dogs that resembled Pugs. Brindle has never been an accepted Pug colour in any Pug Standard ever written. The choice not to include Brindle as an accepted colour for whatever reason and therefore not to selectively breed for was made in 1883. The appearance of the Brindle gene into the Pug Gene Pool can now only be accomplished by inadvertent or intentional crossbreeding a Pug to another breed that allows Brindle. These incursions compromise the years of record keeping of the purebred Pug Fancy by introducing whole new sets of unknown genes (good & bad). Since there is no way of knowing if the good outweighs the bad it is an unacceptable risk to take and undermines the very integrity of the purebred fancy. It is not a matter at this point of if you like the colour Brindle or any other non-accepted colour or not. It is in large part a question of maintaining purity of the Breed gene pool and the Pug Standard that has been in place since the Pug was accepted as a recognized Breed. Brindle is not in the PCC Pug Standard and historically never has been described in any Pug Standard throughout the World.