Tica is from a litter of 7 puppies, all the other pups display liver colorings as do her parents.  She was certainly the odd one out .  Tica is a beautiful rich honey color and white.  She has the traditional pattern with the honey colored patches, solid color head (definitely has the solid head but it is a softer honey color) and lots of freckling.

Is this color a ancestory throwback?  Is it very common?  Is this the color referred to as "lemon"?

We love Tica to bits, regardless of her color, she is the best family dog, as well as a brilliant hunter.  We have a fellow at gun club that talks about her in a negative manner because of her color and he says "it's not right", and has even said she is not purebred .  So I want to find out as much as possible about her color, so I can put an end to his slander!!!!

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your feedback , by all means keep them coming.

I did see both parents, both liver GSPs, and I believe the breeders to be reputable from word of mouth, the pups were offered as registered or unregistered (we chose unregistered because we didn't need to pay any more for that piece of paper).... but I guess that doesn't always guarantee that someone else hasn't "jumped the fence", lol.

But yes, we definitely love her for whatever she is  and she's just brilliant with the kids, and loves her hunting... there's no doubt about that.  

Not having much luck loading another picture... tried to use the photobucket idea, but just not working for me .  I will keep trying because I'd really like to show some better photos, as to me, other than the creamy color, she doesn't resemble a lab in her build.  The breeder's facilities were just brilliant, so although I completely understand that she could have a different sire, it just seems unlikely given their facilities, professionalism and reputation.

I have also researched the French Pointer (Braque du Bourbannais) and have found some very interesting reading in relation to their origin which has was in 1500s, earlier than the GSP and some believe that the French Pointer had an influence of the development of the GSP.  She is the spitting image of this breed in head shape and size.  Just a thought???

If both parents are GSP's why did they not dock tails? Only one way to know for sure, DNA if  it is important to you...

If you go far enough back in the breed history you occasionally find this color.  It's a mutation, essentially a broken liver gene.

There's a guy here in Texas that has a pair of liver/white dogs that when he breeds them together frequently gets this color.

In fact they go out of their way to produce it because of the "novelty factor".

If you have any doubts as to the lineage you can always send in DNA but odds are it is as represented.

The dog doesn't care what color it is though and as long as it makes you happy the rest doesn't matter.

Personally I would never breed a dog with that color because it is not a color that the GSPCA/AKC recognizes as acceptable but again, it doesn't matter to your dog.

 

An individual doesn't remain true to type.  "True to Type" refers to subsequent generations producing the same trait.

To see if you can maintain the type in subsequent generations you'd need to breed two a pair that each posess the trait and see if the trait repeats.

That would be a completely irresponsible thing to do since this is either a mutation or a recessive gene producing a color that is not acceptable to the GSPCA.

If I owned the pair that has repeatedly produced this color I would never breed either of them again unless and until we had a definitive answer as to what is causing this color.

An individual doesn't remain true to type.  "True to Type" refers to subsequent generations producing the same trait.

Not sure I follow your logic.

If GSPs for the next 10 years produced short ears, that this would become the new type?

If you had two short eared GSP's and bred them together, and produced short eared GSP's, and when those offspring were bred they continued to produce short eared GSP's in subsequent generations you would have fixed a new trait, and the subsequent generations would be breeding "true to type" for that new trait.