Loss Of White Blazes

[~Sarah~]

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Following on from another thread, I thought I would start a new topic about whippets losing the white blaze on their face, as Dolly has. Does it usually happen or do some retain their blaze into old age?

This is Dolly when she was a puppy, with a very defined white blaze. :wub:

This is Dolly this summer (aged 3) and no blaze in sight. :- "

 

[jok]

Whippets faces can go grey very young, hence the disapearing of the blaze on a pale coloured dog. The black on Frankie's face is very grey and he is only 2!! It is disguised by the fact that he has a big thick white blaze, so doesn't make it so obvious.

Ruby is not yet a year old and already flecks of grey are appearing in her black mask.

Pictures of Frankie's face as it is now - gorgeous but grey and how it was as a baby of around 4.5 months, just after i was lucky enough to get him :huggles:

Hence, it is not the blaze that disappears, but the darker coloured hair around it becomes lighter :thumbsup:

 

[hely]

gypsy is going very grey, and she's only 2!!

mind you her mum is very grey as well :wub:

 

[AnnSa]

Why do they go grey so early then

 

[jue332]

What a good question Sarah :thumbsup: ,

it's something I hadn't thought of with Gracie just presumed she would always have a blaze , she will be 2 soon so I will be keeping an eye out for any grey/white hairs creeping in :lol:

 

[~elizabeth~]

This is the only characteristic of whippets I don't like, premature greying in the 'mask' area of the face. Premature greying seems to have a strong hereditary element to it, and some dogs can be very grey by just 2 or 3; Gelert seems to take after his father in not being too bad, they're both only slightly grey at 8 and 10 respectively.

 

[~JO~]

If your whippet has a blue or black mask they are much more prone to going grey. Stan the man who had a blue mask and a white blaze went grey very early. But Mr Archie who isn't very blue on his muzzle has just a couple of grey hairs and he is over 5!!

 

[noopy_101]

the next whippet i will by will have a white face my blue fawn went grey at 1 year old. such a shame as i always wanted a blue fawn with blue face never mind she is still pretty

 

[beaker]

does seem to be tightly tied in with the masking gene in many lines such a shame

even though Rosa is 8 in 2 days time she's still bootiful to me :wub:

 

[pixieru]

I dont have a digital pic of Pixie when she was a pup but she had a huge blaze, its slowly going, here she is now!

 

[oakmoorehill]

When we had Bandit he was 16 months .One side of his face was white the other was black now his face is comlpetely white except for a black splodge on the top of his nose. He is now 5 years old I don't have any phots of him from when we first had him on the pc but will look for an upto date one later

 

[Rebecca Claire]

Oh my, its amazing at how young they are when they start to turn grey. I didn't know this, Rocky must have had a richer darker muzzle before I had him and now I shall see what happens to Bailey - I did just think it would stay as he is now!!!! :- " The pics of the before and afters are really lovely :wub: :huggles:

 

[Judy]

The premature greying on the face is believed to be linked to the gene for a mask and the greying occurs where there mask area is.

Sarah, if you look at Dolly's puppy photo, you can see that she has black shading around her blaze which suggests that she has the Mask gene but it can only be expressed in the pigmented areas i.e. not where here white areas are. A white blaze occurs in the same place a mask would so in effect it masks the mask

Later on she has gone grey in the mask area so it has turned her whole face white.

We've had dogs that have gone grey in the mask area except for a strip down the centre of the face. I'm not sure why they sometimes retain the pigment there., it may have something to do with pigment in the skin as opposed to the hair.

Ziggy as a pup



Later - he had gone like this by the time he was 3 years old

 

[~elizabeth~]

I don't think it's inevitable that all dark masks disappear early in life. Gelert's didn't really start to go grey until he was about 5 and at 8 it's still fairly dark.

As a puppy

At 8, not much different to his father at 9.

I imagine it will eventually go though - this is his dam at 15

 

[Rebecca Claire]

Learning something new every day :lol: I can't believe Ziggy's black muzzle has gone already - bless him! :wub: Lovely to hear that some blazes are still going strong

 

[~elizabeth~]

Later - he had gone like this by the time he was 3 years old

I don't know whether it's the photograph, but he also looks like he's greyed out a bit on the undercarriage/legs too. :unsure: Gelert's mum Poppy has a lot of grey in these areas too (they were jet black when she was younger).

I think white blazes can sometimes change a bit as the fur is quite thin on the muzzle and the underlying pigment on the skin can darken with age/sunlight, making the white markings look less strong.

 

[Judy]

Its the photo Elizabeth - the sun has bleached out the highlights a bit. Also his puppy photo was taken in tungsten light, making him look redder than he ever was. Actually the second photo was taken recently and he's 8 1/2 now but the muzzle had gone like that by the time he was 3.

 

[Fleesh]

does seem to be tightly tied in with the masking gene in many lines  such a shame
even though Rosa is 8 in 2 days time she's still bootiful to me  :wub:

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Rosa is a rather elegant older lady :wub: