Let's learn about the panda pattern in German shepherds! Unlike the other nonstandard colors I’ve talked about, panda is only present in German shepherds. Let's get into why.
HISTORY:
The panda pattern was a mutation that first appeared in October 4th 2000 when a puppy called Lewcinka's Franka Von Phenom was born. She was the only puppy out of the whole litter that had these unusual white markings and blue eyes. (You can see a picture of her in the collage- she's the second head from the left). The pairing was repeated, but all of the puppies turned out normal.
Franka was DNA tested to see if she was mixed breed, but the results confirmed that she was indeed a pure breed German shepherd. She was health tested and bred. And with that, more panda puppies were born. Meaning that panda is a dominant trait.
Today we can see pandas of different breeding paths, some better and some worse, but if they truly are panda German shepherds (NOT piebald, those are 2 completely separate and different genes); they are all descendants of Franka.
GENETICS:
Panda is a pretty recent gene and not as researched as others out there, but we do know some things about it. The panda marking is a result of dominant mutation of the KIT gene, or the CD117 gene. The panda markings are NOT caused by the S gene that causes piebald or Irish spotting. The way to correctly write a panda dog's genotype is to write N/P (A non-panda dog would be N/N). No homozygous panda (or double panda) puppies have ever been born as they get absorbed in the womb.
How does panda look and what does it do? Panda removes pigment and turns some places of the dog white. Panda is seen mostly on the dog's paws, legs, chest, neck, and muzzle. There have been no cases of pandas that have white past their shoulder blades or on their body. If you see a German shepherd with white on their whole body (not recessive red), it is piebald not panda.
Panda can cause lack of pigment in a dog's eyes making them blue. A panda dog can have: 2 normal color eyes, 2 blue eyes, 1 blue and 1 normal color eye, heterochromia in one or both eyes. Blue eyes are mostly seen in pandas with white around their eyes or close to their eyes. Their eye color isn't caused by crossbreeding and you can see this by comparing a blue eyed panda to its non-panda puppy. The puppy won't have blue eyes as it doesn't lack pigment.
As panda causes white on the dog's body, you can sometimes see ticking. It can be extreme and not look white (Like in Australian cattle dogs) or it can be almost fully white. You can see different amounts of ticking in the collage. Ticking can't be tested for so unless your dog has white on their body, you can't know if they carry for ticking or not.
All panda puppies will be born with bright, white on their coats, but they might develop ticking when they're older.
Panda is a pattern that can be on any other non-true white color or pattern. That means that panda dogs can be black, blue, liver, Isabella, sable, saddleback, even recessive red (although it would be harder to see, especially if the dog doesn't have blue eyes).
HEALTH:
There has been no color related health defects observed in pandas.
Panda itself doesn't have any health defects, but there is a controversy related to panda breeding. Breeding a panda dog to a non-panda dog is safe and produces a healthy 50% panda, 50% non-panda puppies. But breeding a panda to another panda, although produces healthy heterozygous pandas and non-pandas, produces a litter of 25% non-panda, 50% panda, 25% double panda puppies. All of the double puppies get absorbed in the womb so they die before being born. This results in a loss of about 25% of the litter. A panda to panda breeding can't be compared to a merle to merle litter as no defected puppies are born, but should you do it really comes down to this- is it worth it? Is it worth the backlash you will get from the many uneducated people? You might know that no sick puppies are born, but in their minds, you're doing something terrible and without investigating, it will look terrible to everyone who hears about it. Is it worth the lost puppies? You won't be getting more pandas by breeding panda to panda; you're losing 25% of the litter that could be healthy, great non panda puppies if you breed panda to non-panda. Is it worth it if there are more and most likely better non panda studs out there? I would say no.
IN GERMAN SHEPHERDS:
As panda is a dominant pattern, it is the easiest nonstandard color to ''perfect''. And my predictions for the future are that panda will be the first nonstandard German shepherd color to be well received. It can easily be produced without inbreeding and sacrificing health, you can breed to champions for a few generations and boom, and you have a practically perfect panda! There will always be the people who choose to believe conspiracy theories like pandas being Akita or husky or Border collie mixes, but with more valid information being put out in the world, I think we can expect to see more open minded people.
There are still many false articles out there saying that panda is the same as piebald (It is NOT and I think you've gotten how frustrating it is to hear that), but panda German shepherds have their own Wikipedia page now and with so, we can hope that more people find valid information rather than lies and conspiracy theories. How can we help? You can write or share valid information. Private Facebook groups can't go far, but you can publish info on your timelines or breeders can put info about these colors in their websites. You can also help by sharing the truth if someone is spreading misinformation.
And the best way to show the world, that pandas are great, is to get your panda from a responsible breeder, show it, work it or title it in any way you can, if you breed them, do it responsibly. With better breeding practices, we earn more respect. And we can show the world that these dogs are as amazing as their standard color counterparts.
Writen by
Karina Veipa
HISTORY:
The panda pattern was a mutation that first appeared in October 4th 2000 when a puppy called Lewcinka's Franka Von Phenom was born. She was the only puppy out of the whole litter that had these unusual white markings and blue eyes. (You can see a picture of her in the collage- she's the second head from the left). The pairing was repeated, but all of the puppies turned out normal.
Franka was DNA tested to see if she was mixed breed, but the results confirmed that she was indeed a pure breed German shepherd. She was health tested and bred. And with that, more panda puppies were born. Meaning that panda is a dominant trait.
Today we can see pandas of different breeding paths, some better and some worse, but if they truly are panda German shepherds (NOT piebald, those are 2 completely separate and different genes); they are all descendants of Franka.
GENETICS:
Panda is a pretty recent gene and not as researched as others out there, but we do know some things about it. The panda marking is a result of dominant mutation of the KIT gene, or the CD117 gene. The panda markings are NOT caused by the S gene that causes piebald or Irish spotting. The way to correctly write a panda dog's genotype is to write N/P (A non-panda dog would be N/N). No homozygous panda (or double panda) puppies have ever been born as they get absorbed in the womb.
How does panda look and what does it do? Panda removes pigment and turns some places of the dog white. Panda is seen mostly on the dog's paws, legs, chest, neck, and muzzle. There have been no cases of pandas that have white past their shoulder blades or on their body. If you see a German shepherd with white on their whole body (not recessive red), it is piebald not panda.
Panda can cause lack of pigment in a dog's eyes making them blue. A panda dog can have: 2 normal color eyes, 2 blue eyes, 1 blue and 1 normal color eye, heterochromia in one or both eyes. Blue eyes are mostly seen in pandas with white around their eyes or close to their eyes. Their eye color isn't caused by crossbreeding and you can see this by comparing a blue eyed panda to its non-panda puppy. The puppy won't have blue eyes as it doesn't lack pigment.
As panda causes white on the dog's body, you can sometimes see ticking. It can be extreme and not look white (Like in Australian cattle dogs) or it can be almost fully white. You can see different amounts of ticking in the collage. Ticking can't be tested for so unless your dog has white on their body, you can't know if they carry for ticking or not.
All panda puppies will be born with bright, white on their coats, but they might develop ticking when they're older.
Panda is a pattern that can be on any other non-true white color or pattern. That means that panda dogs can be black, blue, liver, Isabella, sable, saddleback, even recessive red (although it would be harder to see, especially if the dog doesn't have blue eyes).
HEALTH:
There has been no color related health defects observed in pandas.
Panda itself doesn't have any health defects, but there is a controversy related to panda breeding. Breeding a panda dog to a non-panda dog is safe and produces a healthy 50% panda, 50% non-panda puppies. But breeding a panda to another panda, although produces healthy heterozygous pandas and non-pandas, produces a litter of 25% non-panda, 50% panda, 25% double panda puppies. All of the double puppies get absorbed in the womb so they die before being born. This results in a loss of about 25% of the litter. A panda to panda breeding can't be compared to a merle to merle litter as no defected puppies are born, but should you do it really comes down to this- is it worth it? Is it worth the backlash you will get from the many uneducated people? You might know that no sick puppies are born, but in their minds, you're doing something terrible and without investigating, it will look terrible to everyone who hears about it. Is it worth the lost puppies? You won't be getting more pandas by breeding panda to panda; you're losing 25% of the litter that could be healthy, great non panda puppies if you breed panda to non-panda. Is it worth it if there are more and most likely better non panda studs out there? I would say no.
IN GERMAN SHEPHERDS:
As panda is a dominant pattern, it is the easiest nonstandard color to ''perfect''. And my predictions for the future are that panda will be the first nonstandard German shepherd color to be well received. It can easily be produced without inbreeding and sacrificing health, you can breed to champions for a few generations and boom, and you have a practically perfect panda! There will always be the people who choose to believe conspiracy theories like pandas being Akita or husky or Border collie mixes, but with more valid information being put out in the world, I think we can expect to see more open minded people.
There are still many false articles out there saying that panda is the same as piebald (It is NOT and I think you've gotten how frustrating it is to hear that), but panda German shepherds have their own Wikipedia page now and with so, we can hope that more people find valid information rather than lies and conspiracy theories. How can we help? You can write or share valid information. Private Facebook groups can't go far, but you can publish info on your timelines or breeders can put info about these colors in their websites. You can also help by sharing the truth if someone is spreading misinformation.
And the best way to show the world, that pandas are great, is to get your panda from a responsible breeder, show it, work it or title it in any way you can, if you breed them, do it responsibly. With better breeding practices, we earn more respect. And we can show the world that these dogs are as amazing as their standard color counterparts.
Writen by
Karina Veipa
