I can quite see why genuine breeders worry about their puppies being bred from. I have and love Weimaraners, but have been exceptionally saddened recently because of what I have heard. There are people out there breeding the totally wrong colour and marketing these pups as being 'exceptionally rare' because they are brown, (not Roe grey) or have brown heads, or brown markings similar to say a piebald horse, or brown points. I have to agree they are rare, thank heaven, at the moment at least till these are bred from,   but these pups are being sold for £750-£1,000 because of their 'rarity'. Some carry excellent bloodlines (if the kc reg doc and pedigree are to be belived) and yes, I know there can be a throw-back in this breed to brown points, and sometimes the 'roe grey' can be a bit to 'roe'. At one time these pups would have been destroyed, but thankfully now we live in a society that would not do that simply for colour, but would not register them and let them go to a very carefully selected pet home. (well, no more carefully selected than any other home I hasten to add!) Also, someone has imported a 'blue' dog (not a show/working kennel) and this colour is not recognised by the KC and I know this dog is to be used at stud. would the pups be able to be kc reg? I don't know if the dog has been used yet, but I have seen pictures in an advertisement showing a mix of silver and what looks like black pups in a kc reg litter of weims.

In my opinion the KC should insist on its new breeders policy as being a provision to register puppies, not just an option, and when using their advertising the breeder should be made to state how many litters are bred each year and if they are a licensed breeder or a private breeder. And they should inspect the premises themselves, regardless of if the owner is licensed or not, to see if the facilities are as they should be, and not rely on puppy purchasers to do the job for them. But then, I would imagine the profits would fall from this....but I'm sure all responsible breeders would be happy to pay more for registrations if the welfare of their breed was more closely monitored and registration actually made the puppies stand out from the crowd and Kc reg actually meant something more than simply a higher priced puppy.

Non standard colours are, unfortunately, and will always be registered by the KC. My breed, Large Munsterlanders, should be black and white. We get brown and white puppies, as well as the occassional tri colour, which can be registered by the breeder, but only if they are NOT members of the breed club as this would be contravening the Breed Club rules. The only thing you can do is to keep faith with your own breeding, and not use a dog/bitch of non standard colour, and hope that everyone else feels, and does, the same. Letting the general public know that these colours are wrong is the only way to keep the true colours just that, true.

At the end of the day, if these would be buyers are willing to pay over the odds for a dog who are we to stop them? The saying fools and their money comes to mind. :(

I agree with Lindylou. Unfortunately things always aren't so Black & White (if you'll excuse the pun!!) In my breed we have a colour which is allowed in this country but not in its country of origin. As a very small breed, if that colour had been banned by the KC, our gene pool would be practically non-existent. It is a rare colour which is almost impossible to breed successfully for but a number of dogs of that colour which have been bred have produced quality dogs in the more accepted colours. In minority breeds there are far more important things to consider when breeding than colour, but those which are discarded from breeding programmes should not be sold at extortionate prices, though fools & money once again come to mind.

In my breed we register all colours, again a minority breed!  I think again colour is the last thing to worry about, BUT and it's a big BUT, these are sold for less than the correct colours, not more because they are a rarity (aggggghhhh people annoy me when they say that) and their new owners have to sign that they cannot show or breed from them!

This kind of thing is also a big problem in several popular breeds who are numerically large in number. The sad fact is that some people will always pay lots of money for a novelty if they are told it's rare, exotic, exclusive etc... It's like people who pay a fotune for a suit just because it's got a label saying Gucci rather than Marks & Spencer. They're probably made in the same sweatshop in China, but one costs 4 times as much. Sadly it's the same with dogs - some people will see 'status symbol' where somebody who has done their homework will see a mismark and know that some wide boy is trying to shaft them for money.

The thing is with the Kennel Club is that each standard says this:
Any departure from the foregoing points should be considered a fault and the seriousness with which the fault should be regarded should be in exact proportion to its degree and its effect upon the health and welfare of the dog.

To be honest, incorrect coat colour is very obvious, but there are conformation faults that show up later in life that are just as serious. For example, what if a puppies bite goes off and it end up seriously under or overshot. Or it ends up having no hip sockets. I don't think you can unregister a dog if that happens. And how would the kennel club ever know in most breeds if the puppy had a non standard coat length? It's a similar problem to coat colour and has similar implications, but it is rarely marked down in most breed registrations. Breeders are supposed to police themselves as all the Kennel Club registration in reality is a glorified database that allows your dog to take part in events they run. It is just a club that entitles it's registered members to certain priveliges. Contrary to popular belief, it is no guarantee of a good quality, healthy dog and even the puppy being from the parents stated relies on the honesty of the breeder. And there's always going to be somebody who deliberately breeds mismarks or unsound dogs for big money if there is a ready market for them.