Shih Tzu Color - Highly Prized Colors And Markings
By Connie Limon, Fri Dec 9th

By the 1930's, the Peking Kennel Club was faced with theexistence of a variety of colors. The Peking Kennel Club wantedto do justice to the facts of history regarding the highlyfavoured Imperial color of "Tawny or honey-coloured or Golden -The Yellows." At that time, their Shih Tzu standard read: "Allcolors permissible, single and mixed. Tawny or honey-colouredhighly favoured." The British Shih Tzu standard read: "Allcolors permissible," but adds the words, "a white blaze on theforehead and a white tip to the tail are highly prized." And nowthe French Shih Tzu standard of the mid-1950's comments"honey-colored and white are rare and much appreciated."  

It has been said the color "white" in Shih Tzu is recessive andsuch Shih Tzu should not be bred. However, there is fact that aleading French breeder in Peking - not the Countess d'anjou -had a large number of all-white Shih Tzu. There is question ofwho actually appreciated the all-white Shih Tzu. Was it theWesterners more than the natives of the Peking? This questionarises out of the fact that there seems little doubt that a "apure white dog, being the color of mourning to the Chinesepeople, was not an asset, because the Chinese people truly hateto be reminded of death." The aversion did not apply to thewhite markings on the head or the tail. This could also accountto the scarcity we now have of the all-white Shih Tzu. Downthrough time, the American Kennel Club judged them in theMiscellaneous Class, which ran "all colors are allowable but ingeneral the darker shades predominate. The white blaze, collar,socks and tail-tip combine to create a highly prized ensemble"of a Shih Tzu.

Since the Chinese regarded the yellow-colored Shih Tzu asespecially precious we can also understand that it wasparticularly difficult for westerners to get hold of them. Inthe Lion Dog Through the Looking Glass (a publication during the1950's) it is told that the black and white, and grey and whitewere the first found on the market at street fairs in China, yeteven in their cases exportation was at first forbidden. It seemsto me we can conclude, the Shih Tzu owners and breeders ofPeking, The Chinese People,

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were extremely possessive of theShih Tzu in their favoured color, of Yellow, yet were alsosomewhat possessive of all of the other colors as well. The ShihTzu was surely very highly treasured by the Chinese people inthose days. They were selfish with them. Makes one think theyknew something about them very secret and most likely it wassomething that brought them great emotional pleasure. All humansare drawn to anything that brings them great emotional pleasure.

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When it did become possible to export specimens of the breed,the least favoured colors were the most easily obtainable. Someyears later, in the Great Britain show ring the dominant colorswere black and white, grey and white and shades of brindle andwhite with a few solid blacks. Even today, these are the sameexact colors I started out with in my breeding of the Shih Tzu.I have a few of the Chinese Yellow, honey, or golden colors.Most plentiful to purchase for me has been the black and thewhite, the grey and white and the brindles. I still tend tobelieve our deep hershey chocolate color is a "new" color in thebreed, as is the "blue." The American Kennel Club has justrecently added the color "blue" to their list of colors on theirAKC registration forms.

Color in the Shih Tzu is so fascinating and to me are the mostbeautiful shades of several basic colors of the black, gold andgrey. We might even owe the highly prized white tips to the tailand on top the head to the very early French breeder who had theall-white Shih Tzu that left us few descendants. White stillseems to be harder to find, and does not seem as popular as theblue and chocolate in the years of 2000. I have one whitefemale, Bailey of whom I am hoping to produce other solidwhites, but also the chocolates and blue's as I mate her to mydifferent males. Visit us and sign up for our NEW weekly ezinefor future breedings to see what we come up with.

About the author:Connie Limon, Breeder of the Shih Tzu Austin, Indiana StainGlass Shih Tzu http://www.stainglassshihtzus.com

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