LOATHSOME LIVER

There has been a lot of discussion about the colour liver recently. Liver, of course, is a forbidden colour in Papillons. That is, as far as showing is concerned – a liver Pap would make jjust as good a pet as any other. The colour doesn`t carry any defects with it. It`s just cosmetic.

A lot of the discussion centred on just what liver is and what it looks like. That`s a good sign. It means that lots of people out there have never seen a liver Pap, and that in turn tells us that there aren`t many livers about out there.

Well what does liver look like?

The liver Papillons I have seen have had the colouring of Springer spaniels. The essential thing about liver is that the dog has no black colouring anywhere on its body. That includes nose, eyerims, eyes, pads and nails. Where you would expect the black you see a uniform brown., except in the eyes, which can vary from chocolate to a greenish colour.

Now there are lots of odd colours in Paps, especially in some of the reds, and I have heard people say of the deep rich red which I thnk of as “Swedish red’ because a fair number of Scandinavian imports have had it, “That must be liver.” Well, if he has any black anywhere on him it isn`t.. It`s that simple.

Why does it turn up at all?

Like PRA, it is carried as a recessive and doesn`t appear until a dog and a bitch (neither of which is liver coloured but which both carry it) are mated together..Then some of the puppies will be liver/white. (Of course liver to liver, or liver to black/white would also produce the colour, but I am assuming that no-one would do such a mating). If the carrier bitch is never mated to another carrier she will never produce liver puppies. Add to this the fact that the colour is evident in the young puppy and that responsible show people would never breed from a liver dog, and you can see why it is rare.


Why is it forbidden anyway?

That`s a hard one. I think the answer is in the eyes – liver ones tend to look a bit hard, and in toydogs, where the head is so important, we like to look into those deep black melting ones, not pale washy ones.

A final thought. Where there are livers there are usually blues – animals where the black is entirely replaced by blue-grey. Has anyone out there seen one of those?