A new breed based off blue GSDs, intended to create a dog with a distinctive wolf like look.

According to breed founder Vicki Spencer:

"The Blue Bay Shepherd is a new breed in progress that I have been working on for over 20 years. The first litters were finally produced in March 2011. Some of the foundation animals are from European German Shepherds imported from a top breeder in France with bloodlines from Germany and Holland as well. They are a color known as “Blue” and very hard to find in the shepherd. It has been my dream for many years to develop a dog that would have the willingness to please, the loyal nature and trainability of a well-bred German Shepherd with the extremely good health, loving nature and awesome beauty of their wolf ancestry. That has proved to be very difficult and at times a seemingly impossible thing to accomplish because finding just the right dog has not been easy. I always knew the German Shepherd had most of what I wanted. "

 

Yeah, I read the sight. LOL. I was hoping someone had hands on experience with them.

 

LOL! Its new so its not yet an AKC Foundation breed. Since its rare, I would bet no one on here has one.

What applies to the GSD, applies to the Blue Bay since it a GSD derived breed.

 

A really beautiful, striking dog. Here's what a Blue Bay Shepherd looks like

 

They are beautiful dogs.

 

Speaking of wolf-like appearance, this is uncanny:

 

I was reading the testimonials...This breeder allowed a puppy buyer to take a puppy home at 3 weeks???? Yikes...read the Elara testimonial...

Owner Testimonials -  Blue Bay Shepherds

 

I was reading the testimonials...This breeder allowed a puppy buyer to take a puppy home at 3 weeks???? Yikes...read the Elara testimonial...

Owner Testimonials - *Blue Bay Shepherds

No, she was taken home at 6-8 weeks of age after she gained 6 lbs. According to the testimonial, the pup was bigger than the adopter's resident kitty!

 

so they are mashing together Husky's, GSD's and what are possibly wolf hybrids. There was another thread on them a while ago. I hope you aren't looking at this as a potential breeder?

 

Not the same. Its a not wolf hybrid. Its more like taking the blue GSD, which is a color fault and refining it through selective breeding to look like a dog that looks like a wolf. There is no breeding with wolves or with other dogs to create that distinctive look. Its breeding blue GSDs to try to create that kind of dog and go from there. You do have to admit it looks stunning. I didn't believe a blue GSD could be the base for a new breed. I do wish the breeder success in making it a reality.

 

Meh. Just another BYB throwing together dogs based on looks to make a wolf looking dog IMHO.

There are plenty of wolf looking breeds already in existence and there are people out there going about it in better ways, Like the Alaskan Noble Companion Dog. Written breed standard. All breeding stock CERF and OFA certified plus CGCed.

Idk something about the about page for the blue bays have my spider sense tingling.

 

I would not recommend the Alaskan Noble Companion Dog either. A member was suckered with one of those. They aren't what they advertise.

Just another high priced mixed breed.

 

If they are everything they claim they are I would love to have one. Long coat blue.

 

I would not recommend the Alaskan Noble Companion Dog either. A member was suckered with one of those. They aren't what they advertise. Just another high priced mixed breed

Dang. See just when my faith that some out there might possibly be going about it the right way...

*puts cynical cap back on*

 

NormanF - yes I read that. I still stand by what I said. The entirety of the "history" page and the rest of the site has my spidey sense tingling.

 

Blue Bay Shepherd has a cachet to it that Blue GSD doesn't.

People are willing to pay more for a fancy-sounding name and certificate of authenticity.

 

The whole only one kennel in America and one in the UK has blue bay shepherds, to me doesn't add any negative undertones. No different then saying that a gsd without any proven pedigree or titles is a champion gsd. It simply isn't true.

 

If what the site says is true. I for one would love to have one.

 

If you like to have one, contact Vicki and discuss a possible adoption. You don't need our approval to acquire your dream dog.

Since the dog looks gorgeous, I say go for it and update us on having a new Blue Bay Shepherd in your family.

 

Something to research if you are interested in these. Many states forbid wolf/dog cross ownership. Because of the difficulty setting laws with different percentages and content, most have come up with a very lose but stringent law that allows prosecution if there is a bite or attack. Any dog that "appears" to have wolf content will fall under these laws and the visual look is enough for law endorsement and animal control to treat as a wolf/hybrid. IMO these would certainly fall into that category.

One of the first problems is that rabies vaccinations are not acknowledged as effective in any wolf/dog cross. Because of this, in the case of a bite - the dog will be treated as an unvaccinated. The process of rabies testing requires the dog be seized by LE and the head sent to a facility for rabies testing.

You can look further into this with your own state laws, which I would recommend. The laws vary widely from state to state but I believe the law that rabies vaccinations are not valid is a federal law.

This is something what was not in place when I owned my hybrid. I would think twice about what could happen today with these laws in place.

 

OP is not adopting a wolf-dog hybrid. I would not recommend one even to a very experienced owner. OP is seeking a domestic dog that has a wolfy look. The GSD excels in this respect and the Blue Bay Shepherd carries it forward without any wolf blood. I think this is the right approach. If a person wants a dog that looks like a wolf, there are plenty of breeds to satisfy the desire without the drastic step of acquiring a wolf-dog hybrid. Now GSDs and Czech Wolfdogs have had wolf ancestry but that was generations ago and they're domestic dogs with a friendly temperament. If you ask me candidly where a wolf belongs, the wild is its place and we should honor it. Domesticated dogs exist for a reason.

 

I'm not that adventurous. I like GSDs because they're a known quantity and my next dog will be a GSD.

As for others, if they want something different, they should be able to get their dream dog.

 

OP is not adopting a wolf-dog hybrid. I would not recommend one even to a very experienced owner. OP is seeking a domestic dog that has a wolfy look. The GSD excels in this respect and the Blue Bay Shepherd carries it forward without any wolf blood. I think this is the right approach. If a person wants a dog that looks like a wolf, there are plenty of breeds to satisfy the desire without the drastic step of acquiring a wolf-dog hybrid. Now GSDs and Czech Wolfdogs have had wolf ancestry but that was generations ago and they're domestic dogs with a friendly temperament. If you ask me candidly where a wolf belongs, the wild is its place and we should honor it. Domesticated dogs exist for a reason

I think what stone vintage was saying is because these dogs LOOK wolfy then local ordinances may treat them as such.

And to be fair these dogs DO have wolf ancestory according to the breeder's sight. Supposedly 5 generations back only, but that may qualify them as Wolfdogs/wolf hybrids under local law.

I certainly would be researching the local wolf ownership law before getting one.

I do find it worth noting that this breeder does also offer mid to high content wolf dogs as well
http://wolfhybrids.com/main.html
Same phone number.

 

"And to be fair these dogs DO have wolf ancestory according to the breeder's sight. Supposedly 5 generations back only, but that may qualify them as Wolfdogs/wolf hybrids under local law.

I certainly would be researching the local wolf ownership law before getting one.

I do find it worth noting that this breeder does also offer mid to high content wolf dogs as well " quote]

Voodoolamb is correct people who are considering a Blue Bay need to do a lot a research, not just laws in their respective area. Each paring is **VERY** different, in the US. Some of the Blue Bays can possess close to 40% WD , whereas some are as low as 17%. Yet all are being sold under the same name. What is being sold are not dogs. Each one has a percentage of WD in them.

With such a varying range anyone should know they are not created equally and will behave very differently. With the popularity of the breed along with lack of screening a serious event is bound to take place. People who do not ask questions (Who are the parents? Their lineage, etc) will just assume they are getting a dog because they will be lead to be think a F6 is such.

In addition the Blue Bay they are purchasing will come from parents who are not tested health or temperament. When there have been health issues with other Blue Bays.

 

Not so long ago there was another breed, I think they were called American Indian Dogs, that had a similar breeding plan except producing dogs in different colors. When the poop hit the fan, because so many people were having serious problems with the dogs, turned out it was nothing but wolf hybrids being sold under the same premise.

 

Good tracking job Voodoo. Ha! I guess we know at any rate what Norman thinks of wolf/dogs.

 

I don't recommend them. Too many unknowns. You can't predict their temperament confidently the way you can with a domestic dog. The Czech Wolfdog is a domestic dog that came about through careful breeding. Same can't be said for wolf-dog hybrids. The closest I'll come to keeping a wolf in captivity is a GSD.

 

The Czech Wolf Dog was created in 1955. Not recognized as a breed until 1982. How do you continue the wolf content? Simple way would be to only breed F6 to F6 for parents. Then the progeny will be F6 percentage what ever that was. It is my understanding that the eye color is the hardest to maintain as dog genetics are constantly fighting to go darker. The only way you can "freshen" the trait is to breed back into more wolf content and then again bring the content back down to F6 content and using dogs from that "freshened" line to breed.

As far as I know, though developed in 1955, the Czech Wolf Dog still has unpredictably in eye color.

 

Eye color is supposed to be amber like the Carpathian Wolf. But there's that GSD parentage and GSD's have brown eyes as virtually nearly all domestic dogs do.

 

Have you ever owned one Norman?

 

No. I owned a GSD. GSDs have enough of a wolfy look to keep a dog lover happy. Why risk a gamble with a wolf-dog hybrid?

 

Czech wolf dogs don't really even look wolfy IMHO. They have wolf color on a vaguely GSD body.

I'm dubious as to the ability to have a truly wolfy looking DOG. If you look at the Russian fox expirement they had neoteny within a few generations of selecting for dog like behaviors and this was in a purely wild/undomesticated genepool.

The recent wolfy looking dogs the native American Indian dogs and alaskan nobles have had fraud controversies being nothing more then hybrids.

The more established attempts of wolfy looking dogs all miss the marks. The ones that used wolves like the Czechs and saarloos missed the mark. Tamaskans miss it. On the whole they are obviously dogs.

Some of those blue bays look awfully wolfy. The breeder also breeds wolves. I question the claim of one wolf ancestory 5 generations back.

 

The Czech Wolfdog was an attempt to create a super GSD, by combining the stamina and endurance of the wolf with the tractability and loyalty of the GSD.

The Czech Wolfdogs, Saarlos and Tasmaskans are dogs. They don't act like wolves. They're simply dogs bred to look like wolves. The Blue Bay is much the same. People who buy these dogs expecting to get what makes a wolf a wolf in a dog are going to wind up being disappointed.

 

Disclaimer: I have an insane amount of nyquil coursing through my veins. So everything I am saying and thinking is through a cold medicine haze. So just ignore me if I say something stupid

 

Lol!I need some!I'm up way too late and spending way too much time on here

 

The Czech Wolfdog was an attempt to create a super GSD, by combining the stamina and endurance of the wolf with the tractability and loyalty of the GSD. The Czech Wolfdogs, Saarlos and Tasmaskans are dogs. They don't act like wolves. They're simply dogs bred to look like wolves. The Blue Bay is much the same. People who buy these dogs expecting to get what makes a wolf a wolf in a dog are going to wind up being disappointed

I'm familiar with the history of Czech wolf dogs.

My point is that they don't look like wolves! They have the same color, but head shape, ears, eyes, snout, body all scream DOG.

Looking through the blue bay breeding stock several look like they are higher content wolf then the claimed 5 generations ago.

 

Norman - Here is a link to answer some of the questions about an F6 cross. If you don't want to read thru all the pages just scroll down to the photos on page 10. Page 11 reveals the percentages of crossings and how far out or how long ago the crossing was from the original F1.

As you can see, photo #1 is an F6 and his wolf percentage is 47%.
www.floridalupine.org/publications/PDF/FWC_Pheno_Pamphlet_2011.pdf

 

Norman - Here is a link to answer some of the questions about an F6 cross. If you don't want to read thru all the pages just scroll down to the photos on page 10. Page 11 reveals the percentages of crossings and how far out or how long ago the crossing was from the original F1.

As you can see, photo #1 is an F6 and his wolf percentage is 47%.
www.floridalupine.org/publications/PDF/FWC_Pheno_Pamphlet_2011.pdf

If the F6 parent is nearly half wolf, then the Blue Bay Shepherd should be labeled and sold as a wolf-dog. The GSD parental contribution wouldn't dilute the wolf-dog content. They say the breeding program has no wolf blood but that isn't exactly true because half of the genes already come from a mid content wolf-dog hybrid. If they disclosed who the F6 parent is, would any one think that the GSD would make it a dog? As for breeding true, its only been bred like that for a few generations, too soon to know what kind of dog it would be.

 

I think a solid blue GSD is gorgeous!!!! However - don't have one, would not breed one. I don't care for the tan/blue dogs as they just look washy.

This site has ALOT of what appear to be purebred blue GSDs - they put them into their program and call them "Blue Bay" dogs.....yes back a few generations, they do have wolf/wolf crosses in some of the dogs....

Just the new generation of Shiloh minded breeders....just based on color instead of size here.

There are blue and blue long hairs out there....not easy to find - but you will find one if you look....send out emails to European kennels and eventually someone will produce one.


Lee