Results of the DNA test for furnishings in dachshunds

If you have not read our previous post about the DNA test for furnishings in dachshunds, click here. We sent three DNA samples to Vetgen te verify genetic status of Bernie, Paika and Tommy for the mutation  controlling furnishings in dachshunds. To quote Vetgen:

"A mutation responsible for “furnishings” or “satin” coat in dogs has recently been identified in the RSPO2 gene. Furnishings refer to the variation of longer facial hair seen in all wire haired breeds as well as some others. This finding was the result of an extensive collaborative effort by researchers from a number of universities and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NIH). The work was published by Cadieu et al. in the journal, Science (www.sciencexpress.org / 27 August 2009 / Page 2 / 10.1126/science.1177808), and the test offered here is based on that work. The mutation is a dominant one, so in breeds where the coat can vary, it is possible for a furnished dog to carry the “unfurnished” trait (called satin by some)."
 
In dachshunds dogs with furnishings are considered to be wirehairs, and they are either homozygous or heterozygous for the mutation RSPO2. When Vetgen reported results they used a letter F for the dominant mutation coding the presence of furnishings. Dogs with two copies of recessive allele f don't have furnishings and are considered smooth.

This is Bernie, who is a son of two wirehairs (Alfi and Elli) and he does not have furnishings. The DNA test confirmed that he is a homozygous recessive ff.

Paika also came from two wirehaired parents but because she has a full coat with profuse furnishings and all her siblings were wirehaired too, I suspected that she has two copies of the mutation. I was right as she tested to be homozygous dominant FF.

We imported Tommy from Germany, and in his first litter he produced only wirehaired puppies. We wanted to know his genetic status, and the DNA test confirmed that he is homozygous dominant FF.

As breeders we are happy that now the DNA test for furnishings is available, and we will be able to know which dogs are FF and which ones are Ff. Most of the time we are pretty sure as wirehaired dachshunds Ff usually have harsher and more wiry coat than FF. FF dachshunds quite often have a full coat with softer texture. There must be other minor genes controlling the degree of harshness/softness of the wirehaired coat as both Tommy and Paika tested to be FF, but certainly their coats are quite different. Paika's coat is softer than Tommy's and from the point of field work is less desirable.

A tracker who owns of a wirehaired dachshund with a soft coat observed:
"My dog Hank's coat is on the soft side. The first time I had him out, he did well-no find but advanced the track well...but after the track he was a MESS!! He was covered in stick tights, bur docks, cockle burs, beggar lice, sand burs, devil's pitchforks and every other kind of method of plant dispersal mechanism known to taxonomic botanists!! The whole family plucked him from end to end for a while. Of course, he was none too pleased. From that point forward, I try and keep him pretty stripped/cropped when it is time to get him out but he still picks some stuff up. The big cockle burs in the paws are the bad ones. IMHO, I think a smooth or very tight coat, in our area (MO) is much better than the softer coat."

Well, this is a reality of wirehairs bred for the field work! And this is why we are not going to breed Paika to Tommy as we would end up most likely with quite a few soft coats that would be a nightmare in the field. We are going to breed her to Moose whose coat is like Bernie's and this breeding should produce puppies Ff, all wirehairs with pretty good coats.

Furnishings in dachshunds - a practical application of scientific research and DNA testing.

Regular readers of this blog are familiar with the coat problems in wirehaired dachshunds. For those who have never heard of the issue, I'd recommend reading article 1 and article 2.

Well, we are happy to report that  Vetgen has a  DNA test for the mutation associated with the presence of furnishings. The original scientific paper examining genetic basis of coat in canines was published as "Coat Variation in Domestic Dog Is Governed by Variants in Three Genes" in October 2009. It is a highly technical paper, but it is well summarized at click here.

The bottom line is that  the researchers identified RSPO2 as a potential wirehair gene. It is a dominant mutation.  Actually, it has been known for a very long time that absence of furnishings (smooth coat)  is recessive to the presence of furnishings (wirehaired coat), but now we have a specific DNA sequence responsible for it.

So tomorrow we are sending three samples to Vetgen, specifically cheek swabs taken from three dogs:

Bernie does not have furnishings even though he came from wirehaired parents. His test should show that he does not have RSPO2 mutation.

Paika von Moosbach-Zuzelek  comes from a litter that was 100% wire and my gut feeling is that she has two copies of  RSPO2 mutation. If this is a case, she'd produce 100% wire litter with a dog like Bernie.

Tom vom Linteler-Forst has produced so far just one litter, which was 100% wire. I'd like to check whether he is homozygous for mutation.

We'll keep you posted when the results arrive. The test for three dogs is $165.

"Shorthaired wirehaired" dachshunds without beards - use them or lose them?

This is the comment under my post http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2010/06/chuck-and-moose-and-some-random.html

Hallo,
I'm very suprised you don't breed for the DTK breeding policies. So you don't breed for the FCI breeding policies too. And as you know, dachshunds are an original germann breed and the DTK establishs the standard for this breed. If you don't breed for this rules, you don't breed dachshunds!

If you tell the people, that a wirehair that looks like a smooth would be a very good match for bitches with fuller, softer coat, you know nothing about genetics.

If it would be so easy, the wirehairs would have no problems with the hair. It would be interesting to see the result: Albert Einstein and Marylin Monroe, smile.

K.-H. K.

------------------------
This is my response:

It has taken me a week to think about this comment, which has been awaiting my response. There are so many points that need to be made.

I usually don’t talk about my professional training and career, but in this case I have to bring it up. I do know something about genetics. Before I left Poland in 1981 I completed coursework and Ph. D (doctorate) research thesis with focus on plant genetics. I left before the thesis defense. This was done at the Institute of Genetics and Plant breeding at the Agricultural University in Warsaw. I came to Canada and enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the Horticultural Dept. of the University of Guelph, and four years later I got my Ph.D. there. Again the focus of my research was plant genetics and breeding. After that I worked as a research scientist at Biotechnica Canada, which was purchased by Pioneer Hi-Bred Inc. From 1990 to 1994 I worked as a manager of canola breeding station and was responsible for the Brassica rapa breeding program. Since genetic principles are universal (though breeding strategies might differ depending whether you deal with plants or animals), I think that I have some ideas about genetic basis of a dachshund breeding program.

I don’t follow all the DTK breeding policies, but use the FCI standard as a guide for our breeding. Following all of the DTK breeding policies here in the USA would do more harm to dachshund breeding than good. I am very familiar with the FCI standard and DTK breeding policies since, after all, I was a co-founder of the North American Teckel Club, which is a group of the DTK, and I was the NATC first president. However, when the DTK started to insist that American breeders who have their kennels registered with the DTK follow all the DTK breeding rules, I left the club. In clear conscience I could not stay in because it would mean that I would have to compromise our breeding program. Why?

There are many reasons why DTK breeding policies cannot be implemented successfully in the USA. The USA, in comparison to Germany, is a huge country, and what is possible in European countries is simply impossible here because of the vast distances. DTK regulations require that a dachshund to be used for breeding has to be inspected by a German judge at a Zuchtschau. Until last year, the NATC used to hold one show a year, in the PA/NJ/NY area. Yet, there are many dachshunds out of European hunting lines living in mid-west (I know because we sold many blood tracking dachshunds to hunters/handlers living there), and it is impossible or impractical for their owners to travel to the northeast to attend a Zuchtschau. So these dachshunds just because they are never inspected by a German judge get automatically eliminated from the DTK breeding pool. This situation is not going to change unless the club grows at a very rapid pace and establishes its presence in great numbers outside the northeast, which so far has not happened.

For the dachshund to be eligible for breeding in the DTK system, its conformation has to be rated at least “very good”. During evaluation a judge pays a great deal of emphasis on the dog’s size, topline, tail, dentition, gait etc. For example, if a dog misses one incisor, it gets disqualified, and according to the DTK breeding regulations is not eligible for breeding. In the country with many thousands of dachshunds such as Germany, the strict selection of the breeding stock and its purification might make sense (though I don’t share this opinion). In the USA, where we have just a handful of breeders of dachshunds out of European lines, this strict and severe selection would to be harmful in the long run, and prioritization of traits is a must. On the scale of importance, the smooth coat appearing in a population of wirehaired dachshunds is, in my opinion, a minor fault. I would say that the major faults are related to health and temperament, and only a breeder or owner is fully aware of this information. The dachshund’s biggest health problem is disc disease, which is partially controlled genetically, and removing affected dogs from a gene pool makes a great deal of sense. There are other issues related to health that are present in European wires, and should selected against. Temperament problems in their extreme forms such as severe shyness or aggressiveness have a genetic component and should be selected against as well.

But when it comes to the smooth coat showing up in the wirehaired dachshund breeding, this trait is not correlated with health, temperament or working aptitude. It is a recessive trait that is not that easy to eliminate. The FCI standard penalizes it heavily, and one would think that over many years the exclusion of the “smooth wires” from breeding would bring the frequency of the gene down. I have no hard data to say whether the policy has been effective or not (and the DTK probably does not have it either), but I have seen at German hunting tests many dachshunds with the short wild boar coat. I would say that 90% of wirehaired dachshunds we have imported from Germany carry the gene for short hair and absence of beard. We know because subsequently these dogs produced short-coated offspring when bred here. I suspect that when correct harsh and wiry coats are favored in breeding, the way they should be, automatically the presence of the smooth gene is selected for also. Maybe the gene for short coat is needed for the harsh and wiry coat, and selection for the correct coat is associated with selection for the gene for the short coat. This would explain why this gene is still present at a high frequency. While in Germany I heard an opinion from a long time breeder of wires that wires with softer coats should be used for breeding to avoid short coats in the offspring. But to me this situation does not make any sense at all – you have to use softer coats for breeding so you don’t get shorthair puppies, but it is a wiry and harsh coat (not the soft one) that is described as ideal according to the standard!

We put a premium on a correct wirehaired coat in our breeding stock, and I have never used for breeding an individual with a soft and longish coat (we used a smooth “wire” twice). Yet, in almost every litter we get a broad range of coats – on one extreme softer coats, on the other extreme short coats and no-beard, and everything in between, all in the same litter. This has happened in numerous litters over many years (I bred my first litter in 1991).

It was actually Einstein who said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So in the light of empirical evidence collected over many years, I choose to face reality and adjust my breeding practices. I am not saying that the short coats with no beard are favored by us over correct harsh and wiry coats, but I choose not to throw them out any more out of the breeding pool. If a smooth dachshund out of wire parents is healthy, friendly and outgoing, talented in the field, and complements a bitch on the basis of pedigree, conformation, working strengths and weaknesses, I am not going to exclude him from breeding just because he does not have beard! There are many more important issues that I am concerned about, like the small gene pool of wires.

These days the old way of breeding dogs through linebreeding and the purification of lines in favor of cosmetic trivial traits of purely esthetic value has a lot of critics. Many scientists have spoken against it and the literature on the issue is widely available. One can access some papers at http://www.canine-genetics.com/  and http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/  (go to canine health) like this one http://www.terrierman.com/mcgreevey-some-practical-solution-dog-breeding.pdf . The dachshund is already fragmented genetically enough according to the FCI standard – after all it compromises 9 different breeds (standard-, zwerg-, kaninchen-size multiplied by 3 coats), which are not allowed to be crossed. Why to exclude smooth wires just because they do not fit the coat description of the wirehaired dachshund? They can be useful in breeding. I am not the only one who thinks this way. At The Zuchtschau 2009 I talked to Mme Agnes de France, President of French Teckel Club. She has authority to approve smooth wires to be bred either with wires or with smooths, depending on an individual dog and his merits. This is exactly the way of thinking I applaud. The last time I checked, France is following the FCI standard as well. I also like the way VDD (Verein Deutsch Drahthaar) deals with beardless Drahthaars. They are not allowed to be shown as they are not true representatives of the breed, but some such individuals get approved for breeding.

If I am wrong in my thinking, I would like to see some data and good justification how the gene for short hair and no-beard hurts the breed of wirehaired dachshunds. What harm is done when occasionally, based on strengths and weaknesses of both parents, a shorthair dachshund out of wires is used for breeding? I am not saying that keeping these beardless dogs for breeding solves the issue of coats in wires, but it does not reduce the small gene pool even further. To me we just have to accept the fact that the correct wirehaired coat in dachshunds does not breed true and eliminating shorthaired beardless dogs is not going to change it. The way we choose to deal with the problem is different – the DTK eliminates the dogs from breeding, and I choose to use them in breeding, occasionally, when needed.

The NATC 2010 - three littermates demonstrate very well a range of coats in the litter produced by two parents with very correct wirehaired coats.

Related posts:

http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2010/06/chuck-and-moose-and-some-random.html

http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/2010/03/problems-with-coats-in-wirehaired.html

Chuck and Moose, and some random thoughts on breeding

We are going to continue the thread of  spring field trials with some pictures of Chuck Collier and his three-year-old male dachshund Moose. Moose's registered name is Nurmi von Moosbach-Zuzelek and we wrote about him before.

Because of his remote location and long distances Chuck attends only local field trials in Michigan, and this spring he went to one weekend of trials given by Wolverine Dachshund Club on May 8-9. on Saturday Moose was first in the open dog stake and he also was the best of open stakes. I got really nice pictures of from that trial taken by Patt Nance (thank you Patt!).

We received a very enthusiastic feedback from friends who attended the field trials. They all loved Moose, and were very impressed with his performance. We are impressed with him too. As far as blood tracking goes, Chuck and Moose have found so far 26 deer and 3 bear. Moose has a terrific temperament, nice size and he opens freely on rabbits. We are thinking about breeding our Paika to Moose next year, when Paika turns two years old. Some people, especially in Germany, will shake their heads as dogs with the coats like Moose's are disqualified from breeding in the German DTK system.  The smooth coat like his is inherited as a recessive trait. In the US we are working with a very small gene pool of wires bred out of hunting European bloodlines. A dog as talented as Moose should not be excluded from being used in breeding just because of his coat. Actually he would be a very good match for bitches with fuller, softer coat, and Paika falls into this category. Our litters are not registered with the DTK anymore, and currently we breed only AKC-registered pups. I found that DTK breeding policies were too restrictive for our American situation and the exclusion of smooth dachshunds out of wire parents from further breeding would narrow our gene pool too much.

Anyway, I know that there are quite a few nice, talented dogs out there now. However, if these dogs are never brought to any events such as blood tracking tests, workshops, seminars, field trials, NATC shows etc, other breeders will never have a chance to see and evaluate them. So if you own a male that you would like to be used at stud, you must particpate in some performance events so others can see the dog for themselves. We will never breed to a dog that we have not had a chance to evaluate, even when he comes from our own breeding.

Do wirehaired dachshunds shed? How to groom them?

I was reminded about grooming needs of wirehaired dachshunds this morning when I was feeding our beagle Rip. Right now Rip is losing his winter coat and he is shedding profusely. Shedding is a natural process and for outdoor dogs such as Rip its timing is very seasonal. My guess is that many beaglers do not brush their beagles, but when dogs are worked on rabbits and go through heavy cover, they will lose the old and dead hair quickly as a new coat grows in. The natural brush will act as a grooming tool.

Rip as a puppy, eleven years ago

How does Rip compare with wirehaired dachshunds? In my experience wires shed very little. And a little bit of grooming goes a long way. Since we usually have around ten dachshunds, it is hard to say which ones shed more than others. I have written about problems with wirehaired coats before on this blog. This is anecdotal, but I was told by a couple of friends that their softer coated wires shed less than they harsher coated dogs.

With most wires, the best approach to grooming is by hand-stripping. This is the only way that will maintain a correct wiry and harsh texture of the coat. By pulling out old coat you will make room for a new and strong coat to grow in. If you clip your wire, you will just cut the hair tips, that's all. The old coat will not be removed, and in the long run the coat will lose its desirable harsh texture. I tried to find a good guide to stripping a wirehaired coat on the web, and the article I like very much (not too technical and lengthy) is  at https://www.btcoa.org/research/groomguide.html. It deals with Border Terrier's coat but principles are exactly the same.

"Kuba" had a perfect coat. Here he is posed on a grooming table, after his coat was stripped.

A good alternative to hand-stripping is Coat-King comb by Mars. It pulls the hair out quickly, and you can groom a wire much faster this way than by hand. I use it a lot for the fast, casual grooming. There is a lot of good info about this tool at http://www.groomersmall.com/coat_kings.htm. Make sure you see "before and after" pics at http://www.groomersmall.com/ck_results.htm .

"Tasha", Kuba's niece, was an exceptional blood tracker, who passed last year at the age of 14. This picture shows her with her natural coat, not groomed. If I were to groom her, I would hand strip her body coat with some help of King-Coat comb, and I would clip her furnishings and hair on her belly.

Clipping is recommended if a wirehaired dachshund has a very soft, fine and fluffy coat. Pulling out hair from this kind of coat would be very painful.

These pictures show Gunnar before and after his coat was clipped.

Many hunters and tracking dog handlers like a rather short coat as grooming needs of such dogs are minimal. The below picture shows Zosia von Moosbach-Zuzelek, a wirehaired dachshund with pretty short coat and minimal beard. Sometimes this kind of coat is called "pin wire", and it may never need to be stripped.

As we said before, wirehaired dachshunds' proper coat does not breed true. Even if you breed individuals with a very proper wirehaired coat, you will get, most likely, a wide range of coat textures in their offspring. The below picture shows Blitz, who technically is a smooth dachshund (he has a short body coat and no furnishings), and his grooming needs are not different than of a "regular' smooth dachshund - occasional brushing and nail clipping. He is a son of Alfi and Elli, both with excellent proper coats.

How often do we bathe our dogs? Very rarely, only if they get into something stinky and so dirty that we could not brush it out of their coat. If they get into heavy mud, we might rinse them, dry and brush them. Some of our dogs have never been bathed at all. Giving frequent baths and using shampoos is not recommended as it strips the skin of natural oils leaving it dry and itchy. Our dogs are allowed to swim in the pond as much as they want, but this is a different matter - no shampoos are used in that process!

"Winnie" (Wynnona von Moosbach-Zuzelek)

Before and after

A big thank you to Alexandra Daley-Clark, a professional photographer, for the two beautiful pictures of her wirehaired dachshund Bogey - before and after grooming.

Bogey was bred by Maribeth McEwan http://www.dackelprincess.com/

Problems with coats in wirehaired dachshunds

The post about Charlie reminded me about problems with coats in wirehaired dachshunds. It would be a good opportunity to recall the below post from our puppy blog from almost a year ago.

I received some questions about wirehaired coats from Chris S., who is picking up his puppy in few weeks. Chris writes: "You wrote that there are more softer coats than the ideal wire coats. What makes one type of coat more desirable over another? Can you tell from the pictures or is it in the feel? I have heard that the smooth, smire coats, seem to be preferred by a lot of hunters now a days. What makes them more popular? Is it because the coat is less maintenance over the longer wire coats?" 

Chris, because of the time constraint my answer will have to be relatively short, but I'll try to do my best. The AKC standard for the breed gives a good description of the wirehaired coat:

"With the exception of jaw, eyebrows, and ears, the whole body is covered with a uniform tight, short, thick, rough, hard, outer coat but with finer, somewhat softer, shorter hairs (undercoat) everywhere distributed between the coarser hairs. The absence of an undercoat is a fault. The distinctive facial furnishings include a beard and eyebrows. On the ears the hair is shorter than on the body, almost smooth. The general arrangement of the hair is such that the wirehaired Dachshund, when viewed from a distance, resembles the smooth. Any sort of soft hair in the outercoat, wherever found on the body, especially on the top of the head, is a fault. The same is true of long, curly, or wavy hair, or hair that sticks out irregularly in all directions. Tail-Robust, thickly haired, gradually tapering to a point. A flag tail is a fault."

 

The FCI dachshund standard (description of the ideal) states: With exception of muzzle, eyebrows and ears, perfectly even close fitting, dense wiry topcoat with undercoat. The muzzle has a clearly defined beard. Eyebrows are bushy. On the ears, the coat is shorter than on the body, almost smooth. Faults include: 

• Soft coat, whether long or short.
• Long coat, standing away from body in all directions.
• Curly or wavy coat.
• Soft coat on head.
• Flag on tail.
• Lack of beard.
• Lack of undercoat.
• Short coat.

Joeri would be a good example of ideal wirehaired coat - a nice bushy beard, yet tight wiry, harsh body coat, no hair on his ears. Wirehaired dachshunds need to be groomed, and Joeri is not an exception. This will be a topic for another post, but I just would like to mention that Joeri looks good when his coat is stripped 2-3 times a year.

 

 

Real wirehaired coats do not breed true, and this is a big problem when it comes to breeding wirehaired dachshunds for the field. Even when both parents have ideal coats, most likely their pups will have a whole range of coats. Those who have been following this blog, probably remember that Joeri and Emma's four pups included smooth Olive, Ollie with a very good coat, and Olana and Oak with softer coats.

When it comes to hunting dachshunds, who do you think will have a more functional coat - Bernie or Angie?
 

 
Above - Bernie came out of parents with ideal coats. He has a double coat typical for wires (true smooth dachshunds have a one-layer-coat), but his topcoat is very short, and he does not have a beard, eyebrows or leg furnishings. Technically he is a smooth dachshund.
 
Angie has a soft and fluffy coat, which has not been groomed. If she went like this into a thick cover, her coat would be a complete mess. If she were to be used for field work, her coat would have to be clipped and kept very short.

Both Bernie and Angie have faulty coats, but Bernie's coat is much more functional than Angie's. His coat is double layered and provides good protection; there is no grooming required. Angie's coat does not provide protection and would be a liability in the field. However, some people love the look of wirehaired dachshund with a beard, and would choose Angie over Bernie, if they were basing their decision exclusively on the coat type.


Different registries and breed clubs treat the smooth coat coming out of wires differently. In the USA there is only one breed - the dachshund - and a registration certificate does not even state the coat type. If Bernie were to go to a show ring - he would be shown as a smooth dachshund. In the FCI countries such as Germany, where crossing various coats of dachshunds is forbidden, individuals like Bernie are disqualified from breeding. There is some flexibility in the system in some FCI countries though. In France individuals like Bernie could be incorporated into the wire or smooth breeding depending on the qualities of individual dog.  In other countries, like Canada, he would be re-registered as a smooth.

The problem of smooth and soft coats does not exist only in wirehaired dachshunds but it is encountered in other wirehaired breeds such as Deutsch Drahthaar or Wirehaired Pointing Griffon. A good discussion of problems with coats in the latter breed is at http://www.griffonpoint.com/wire-coat.htm
  
In my opinion in Germany, since smooths out of wires are penalized and disqualified from breeding, many breeders try to avoid them and tend to breed softer, fuller coats, which are not very functional in the field. By the way, "smires" is just a made up term used by enthusiasts of this type of coat.