Breed Representatives

CCRanch · May 2005

Ok, I have noticed how many unrealistic colors of dogs are available on VP. I know Nef is busy so I have this idea. When someone becomes a breed representative they do research on the breed/breeds they represent. They find out their colors, their stats in real life etc. Then they tell Nef and she fixes it. She doesn't have to look up a thing. All adjustments can be made at not much work more than adding new breeds, and Virtual Pups will be much more realistic!

deedee1 · May 2005

I think the purpose of having the unrealistic colors in there is to encourage people to breed responsibly. If you want a true colored dog, then you focus your breeding program to gain only true colored dogs. Just as you would select against bad stats, one should select against unrealistic colors. It's a neat suggestion though, and I'm glad that you had the games realistic goal in mind.

LynneSilver · May 2005

LOL.. I can definitely understand your point DeeDee, but still, when I see Tri-Colored Golden Retrievers it just makes me want to cry... rofl. I would be SO happy if, instead of having the current system where dogs all come in "default" colors and the "rare" colors are breed-specific, we had a system where each breed came only in "normal" colors for its breed, and you could still get truly "rare" colors for the breed on occasion. For example. Border Collies would no longer come in Fawn, but most BCs would come in Black&White and the "rare" list would be Red&White, Blue Merle, etc. It truly does make me sad seeing dogs of breeds that could not POSSIBLY come in a certain color, lol.

CCRanch · May 2005

But, you could still breed for better stats. There really are many unrealistic stats.

Ravette · May 2005

I personally like the challenge of breeding the wrong colors out of my dogs *shrugs* What do you mean by unrealistic stats?

deedee1 · May 2005

Some examples of unrealistic stats would be the Collie loyalty averaging so low. Collies are incredibly loyal dogs and, in theory, should have average loyalty higher than 2.5. But again, this is part of the breeding strategy. If the average stats for the dogs were exactly what they are supposed to be, what would be the point of trying to improve them? It's just another challenge to creating your "perfect dog". I personally like things the way they are with respect to the breeding challenges involving color and stats.

CCRanch · May 2005

I am just sick and tired of "Salt and Pepper" Collies etc.. If the colors were changed for the better, you could still breed for better stats. Those aren't even close to being realistic.

Marleen · May 2005

I so agree with this color gripe. I just got two weimereners (sp), a black and a fawn. Neither color occurs in the breed. The most distinctive thing about the breed is the beautiful blue-grey color. What's the point of breeding them if you can't get the color? Same with the Kerry Blue terriers; the color is so important to the breed they put it in the name. I imported two for a friend, neither one was blue. There are several breeds where color is so important, deviation from the standard is grounds for disqualification. As it is now, the only things which distinguish one breed from another are the name and the stat caps. This has nothing to do with gift colors. Those are a nice bonus. It is a shame, though, that some people had to use their Christmas gifts to get the normal colors for their breeds.

Newnameplacement · May 2005

i happen to like things the way they are..it encourages you to train up the 'bad' dogs and breed them to get the colours you want then slowly you can breed out the 'bad' colours for the right ones.

Ravette · May 2005

Righto Krimes. How do you think those colors came about? By selective breeding. Say you get a litter of 5 and one of those puppies is correct color then release the rest. Take that one puppy train it , fame point it , condion it ect. Then breed to another dog. Woot this time its a litter of 6 with 2 being the 1st puppy's color and 1 being *gasp* a new correct color. Release the rest. I like this challenge and once you get several "correct" colored dogs then you can start breeding for stats if you wish. Or this whole time you could have been. I know I do. If I have two puppies that are almost 100% alike I'll keep the correct colored one over the non correct. *shrugs*

Marleen · May 2005

If we're going back to the basics and starting over, we might as well be creating our own breeds. It's nice to say 'wait for the color to show up', but that can take a long, long time. I just bred a litter of Shetland Sheepdogs. The mother is fawn, the father is black. I got ten puppies, eight fawn, two black, none blue. What if that had been the two weimereners I mentioned earlier? So, I keep the best one or two and 'release' the rest, right? How many times do I do this until I either get sick of it and quit, or get lucky enough to get a blue one? And Blue is the only color I'm looking for. Now, out of that litter of ten shelties, and this is an actual (game) litter, every single one meets or exceeds the breed standards in everything except hyper, and we know there's a problem with hyper. Four have double 4star stats. Do you want me to 'cull' these because they're the wrong color? Remember, we're pretending they're weimereners. So, somebody else finally produces a blue stud and, wonder of wonders, they'll let other people breed to it. Of course, it's over height and vastly underweight, and doesn't come close to meeting the breed standards, but, hey, it's blue. And slow, and stupid, and cowardly. But, it's blue! Am I supposed to breed to that? How many generations of puppies am I going to have to produce and 'cull' before I can correct the damage I would have to do to my breeding program, just to get the color that's supposed to be there from the beginning? Say I've produced some pretty good dogs by this point, and let's pretend I'm having a hard time finding decent dogs to breed to that aren't related to mine (no inbreeding allowed). So I import a new stud. *gasp* He's brindle! Of course, I can avoid this whole problem by ignoring colors altogether, or avoiding all breeds with real life disqualifying colors. Can somebody tell me what breeds are left? By the way, I have shelties for sale. They're the wrong color, but the stats are nice. :P

Ravette · May 2005

Ravette wrote:

 Or this whole time you could have been.

Did you miss that whole thing? I'm simply stating my opinion. Also this is a GAME the puppies do not DIE. Deleted from the game sure. You do not have to release you could sell them. "disqualifying colors" No such thing on this game color has no effect on conformation. I personally keep the best 2 puppies out of each litter male/female then release as in DELETE from game.

I don't like my bloodlines spread out. If you have a breeding kennel you have a HUGE chance of gettings GOOD colored puppies. My statement above was JUST an example.

deedee1 · May 2005

As Ravette said, color has no effect on how your dog does in shows. The color is just a personal issue. Whenever I get a grey or a salt and pepper collie, I just pretend it's blue merle and get a nice blue merle pic and there are no problems. Don't get me wrong, I like the real colors as much as the next person. But stats are the only things that really matter in this game. Oh and if you are so hung up on color, I have a breeding kennel. The first 2 people to message me at the Prestige kennel link below get FREE breedings (as long as you pay the stud fee) at the breeding kennel. That should get ya started on some nice colors. Or if you don't want to deal with me, then go to the "search people" option and hit up some other breeding kennel to do a litter for you.

Ravette · May 2005

Yes... I am willing to also let my breeding kennel be used. Just message Ravette. I only charge 10k

Magnoona · May 2005

Just to back up the handiness of leasing (or having) a breeding kennel... I've yet to have a litter (from two off-color foundations) in my breeding kennel that hasn't had at least one pup that ends up a color on the breed profile. Sometimes it'll be the runt of the litter, so to speak, but most of the time their quality is rarely below that of the off-color pups. If I have a ridiculously superior off-color pup, I just use her/im for the next generation to increase the chances of having nicer "on-color" pups. Now Bara needs to get in here and post that cookie graphic for deedee and Rave. X)

Ravette · May 2005

*nods* Yup thats pretty much what I do too.

Rowen · May 2005

Ravette do you still have your breeding kennel open for someone to use? If so, for how much? And on that same note, is your offer for that free breeding still up DeeDee?

Marleen · May 2005

Okay, lets get off the color side of this for now. There's another way that a breed rep could help, and that's in the standards for the breeds. The French Bulldog, per the AKC standard, is disqualified if over 28 pounds. The game standard calls for a dog to be 30 cm tall, and 24 kg. That's over 50 pounds! The FCI standard allows up to 14 kg. The game standard for the Belgian Malinois calls for a dog that's 28 cm and 60 kg. That's shorter than a french bulldog, but over 250 pounds. Not only that, but it's in the wrong group. It should be in the herding group with the Belgian Tervuron and Belgian Shepherd. Those are the only two I compared against the AKC standard, but I'm sure there are other problems. I'm not saying we should use the AKC standard. In fact, I would argue against the AKC standard and for one of the international registries, like the FCI -- Federation Cynologique Internationale. The AKC has the annoying habit of disregarding the standard of a breed's country-of-origin. In Germany, for example, where weimaraners were developed, fully 30% of them have long coats and the blue-grey color is allowed; both are disqualifications under AKC rules. Just something more to think about.

Rowen · May 2005

Tell me about it. The Keeshond, according to the AKC, is supposed to be about 18 inches tall for males and 17 inches on females (36 and 34 cm respectively), and weigh between 24 F-28 M lbs (12 - 14 kg), They're small-medium sized dogs. In VP though, they're 46 cm tall and weigh 60 kg. So their builds are 23 inches tall and weigh 120 lbs. That's not a keeshond, the height is 5 inches taller than the should be (based on male height) and weigh as much as I do. [In RL, physically they would look awful, short and wide]. In weight they're not Keeshonden at all, they're giant <a href="http://www.continentalkennelclub.com/Ads.aspx?BreedNum=119"; target="_blank" class="bb-url">Wolfspitz</a>. Kees are supposed to be middle ground dogs, larger than Pomeranians and American Eskimos, but smaller than the Samoyed, German Wolfspitz and Norweigan Elkhound (I cound them as spitz-type dogs too).

Ravette · May 2005

My guess would be the conversion table used for those had errors in them and I'll talk to Nef about fixing them.

Taurus · June 2005

i agree with deedee

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