THE BLUE FACTOR and HEALTH CONCERNS

We are continuously asked for blue coloured babies. Firstly understand that we put colour way down the list when breeding preferring to breed healthy, strong, sound, well conformed puppies and secondly you need to realise that blue and blue pigmented fawns are occasionally affected by "CDA" (Colour dilute alopecia) which means that as your dog gets older it may start to lose hair down the back, on head and tail and gradually over the body caused by the mutation of the black gene that produces the blue colour which is a dilute and not a natural colour for a dog. As a breeder there is no gene marker or proof of hereditable cause and we know that some pups are affected and some are not from the same litters so we have no idea when selling a blue/blue fawn puppy if it will or will not ever be affected. I liken it to male baldness in humans. Some brothers lose their hair as adults and some don't. It is a bit of a lottery so when buying a blue pigmented puppy of any breed you risk it being a possibility and as a breeder I prefer not to deliberately breed for the colour. I do however occasionally get one pop up in a litter and if looking to buy one please realise that it is at your own risk. Aside of early onset hair loss the pups are completely healthy and will still be a wonderful companion although will need sun and wind protection as they are prone to sun and windburn without their coats protection which can lead to skin cancers and often does.

There are a few illnesses that we are as yet unable to test for that can affect an Italian in later life. CDA - Colour Dilute Alopecia (above) and Epilepsy are a couple of concerns but as new tests become available we will be checking our dogs and until then we will not keep any dog that may be remotely affected in our stud team.