I haven't written for a while uncle had gone through "treatment" and didn't feel well so we didn't had a long chat. I wish that the hospital in Thailand will allow the "therapy dog" to visit the patient soon. I think he needs that.
We talked today and I showed him the pictures of Sunee that Jessica sent me and pictures of Kai, MaryAnn's dog. (Sorry MaryAnn I did it without your permission but it's only personal use. I email them to his son who print them out and gave them to him at the hospital.
He looked at Kai's picture as I told him what MaryAnn posted that she bred Kai from short hair red to the blue velvet. He said "I was so close". He was wondering about the genetic mix up of Kai's mom and dad. He had tried that mix before too but never get the red velvet.
I asked him about the "Standard" of TRD. What was the standard back then. He said "As you like it". As long as the dog has ridge on the back then it's ok. There is no dog show in Thailand up until the late eighties. The dog shows in the beginning was generally for "western" dog not the TRD and it's usually held only in Bangkok.
TRD breeders just breed for the ridge most of the time. In the seventies a lot of breeders cross breed the TRD to the western dogs or other Thai breeds just to see the result and some try to get TRD with longer hair. Yes you heard it right longer hair. The western dogs had become so popular because they look different. They generally friendlier and "cuter" than the Thai dog including the TRD in the Thai eyes. That was the era when everything western is considered better than "made in Thailand". (still do until these days) Some breeders start breeding western dog and sell them! During this time the TRD lovers group are quite small and the dogs were bred for experimental than aiming toward "standard" which no one ever think of it existence.
The long hair TRDs show more pronounced ridge and the dog generally are bigger than the original TRD but they are just an experimental. The breeders were not that please with the result and discarded the idea. (thanks god)
Uncle had tried that himself of course. I remember the set of the "farang name" TRD he had. Uncle has his own naming convention. His first generation dogs was name after Durian's names, Chanee, Kob, MhonTong, Kradoom, KanYaw and TongYoy. Then Thai fruits, LongKong, KaNhoon, LamYai, Linjee, Ngao, SomO, LangSad, MaPrang. He kept doing that and named his crossbred TRD with Christian name, Sam, David, Mary, Jane, Ann and Laura (she had one ear folded down).
Back in the day other than ridge and color the breeders had some features he/she focus on and normally they were personal preference, bigger head, more square body, deeper chest, more muscular built and etc. It's known among breeders in the Eastern who got what feature they might need to improve their own line to their own perfection such as Ms Kong has big head dog, Mr Lan has deep chest dog...(not a real name)
Uncle focus was on the more square body. I did asked him if the original TRD has longer than now. He said "They were mixed and I just screened the long body type out because I don't like them."
He said he started to have more stable blood line in the eighties, took him almost twenty years. He even try to have his own line of blue. He bred black to red and take the pup and bred it back to red until he got the blue or fawn. It took him a while. He said an older breeder told him he will get "green" dog before he get blue. He didn't get it for at least 3 generations. The said "green" dog was just the sable light red with black hair. He got a few litter with blue puppies but sometime they change the color when they full grown. He already named them with the name associate with blue color such as, kram, see sward then puppies shade their blue hair and change their coat to black!
I only have time to talk this much and the nurse stopped us.
His son told me that he kept looking at Kai's picture and touching the picture with his finger tip. We also discussed about Sunee's legs that Jessica concern about the angle. He said he's not the right person to ask about that issue. He saw that as a "common". He even said that it even a drawing of the angle legs like that in the "Standard" chart as one of the acceptable leg feature.
I will post again soon as I get to talk to him.
Thanks so much for the responds. I copied all of them in to email and sent them over to uncle so he can read them at his own pace. Please, feel free to ask any question you want to know. This is really help him a great deal. The improvement in his mood is quite remarkable...Thanks guys.
Thai-Ridgeback news 
