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			For a few years I considered that the coat colour was the only real difference between Mudi and Croatian Sheepdog. Even the height can't be used as a difference, many Mudis are not only higher than the Mudi height limit (47 cm) but also higher than the Croatian Sheepdog height limit (50 cm), and some 53 or even 55 cm high dogs can be found in the two breeds ! In the same way, small Croatian Sheepdogs (smaller than 40 cm) can be found too. As for the other morphological differences, they are nothing else than normal differences which can be watched between several dogs of one and the same breed, just theses differences prove to be more considerable in such breeds which are not very homogeneous ; then man, artificially, decided than some characteristics belong to one breed, some others belong to the second one, but all this is nothing else but artificial thing which permit two breeds, two FCI standards. As for the coat colours, the two standards flaunt important differences : one allows only one colour, black, and the other nearly all colours. But actually things prove to be less simple than they seem at first sight - and that made me and still makes me think ... Anghi and some other authors mentioned the current coulours of the Mudi standard but some other things seem interesting to me. In 1936, the Hungarian Anghi wrote about the coat colours they could find in the Mudis (1) : just after the pure black (without marks), he cites the blue-merle, so it seems that this colour was spread in this time, he wrote too about other colours : white with marks and three-coloured (this colour isn't mentioned any more for a long time !), also red and wolf-colour, black with "reddish brown" (on the head and the legs) was very often found in this time too. As for the Croatian Sheepdog, I've been sent a writing about his historical account  (but the same things can be found too on Internet). The first mentions of a Croatian Sheepdog type would date from the 14th century, in the district of Ðakovo  : the colour was "black".  In the 18th century, always in the district of Ðakovo, two authors wrote about the Croatian Sheepdog, one use "black" and the other "black to grey-black". A last text was quoted, dating back to the middle of the 19th century : the coat was said black. I would like to come back to the "black" colour in the Croatian Sheepdog. First, I can quickly handle the case of the "grey-black", which is called nowadays "blue" ; so blue is a historical colour of the Croatian Sheepdog, dating at least for the 18th century, but probably before too ; it's quite understandable, because blue is directly derived from black, with the action of d gene (d is recessive, that is too say that blue dogs are dd and their two black parents are Dd) ; luckily, this ancient colour isn't lost in the Croatian Sheepdog breed and it can still happen that blue pups can be found in a litter from black parents, but unfortunately this colour isn't allowed in the current standard and so breeders generally either kill blue pups or don't register them (when it's possible, in France that's forbidden)  and because of this one day (or soon...) this fine colour may be lost definitively ; of course the blue Mudi comes from the blue Croatian Sheepdog, there's no ghost of a doubt ! But I come back to the black colour in the descriptions dating from 14th, 18th and 19th century : were ALL the dogs black ? And were the "black" dogs really perfectly black ? I want to say that may be only most of the dogs in the district of Ðakovo were perfectly black and some others could have get another colour, black gene is dominant so logically most dogs are black and the other colours are few ; and how were the dogs out of the district of Ðakovo ???  In addition, what is the accuracy of the description ? Novices called "black" not always pure black (without any marks) but any coat which is overall black, that is to say black with small enough marks, whatever their own colour, of course novices call "black" the blue dogs too, and from a distance, theses colours appears simply black ; the black and tan Mudi was rather spread and the black and white Mudi was allowed by the first standards till the last one, dated 2000 ; and I'm convinced now that black with marks (white, fawn or cream-coloured ...) is a historical colour of the Croatian Sheepdog, who gave it to the Mudi. Black with white marks and black and tan (with either dark fawn or light yellow marks) still can be found in the Croatian Sheepdog, small white marks are allowed but not black and tan - and that's the same remark as the one for the blue Croatian Sheepdog : these ancient colours are meant to be eliminated if there's no new standard or an additional clause to allow them quickly enough. What about brown coat ? I think that a dark brown coat could also be called "black" by novices, and as a recessive colour, it would have appear only scarcely and could simply not to have been mentioned. I agree that colours which appeared in a too scarcely way during the previous centuries could be considered that not characteristic of the breed. That's not the case of blue which was spread enough to be cited on equal terms with black in the 18th century, while it was probably include in the word "black"  (most of novices call "black" the blue colour, just a pale black, not shining black, sometimes grey-black, etc...)  ; its a bit less sure for the black and tan, but what makes me convinced that this is an ancient colour too, it's the fact that it was really spread in the Mudi till the standard dated 2000 didn't allowed it any more (I wondered why, then I understood, it's precisely because black and tan and maybe wolf-colour can be relatively easily found in the Croatian Sheepdog breed that these colours have turned into an eliminating defect, while the others non-allowed colours are not eliminating defects ...) As for the "light" colours (from dark fawn included red to off-white), they square with the E gene, recessive, the dogs must be ee to show a "light" colour ; then either dd or cch cch thins the fawn colour to give more or less light yellow and even off-white (other minor genes intervene) ; dd thins black into blue and so fawn into cream colour ; cchcch thins fawn into cream colour but has no action on black ; the outcome is that d and cch exist in the Croatian Sheepdog breed (and so in the Mudi one), because of blue and black with cream-coloured marks (blue is due to d, cream colour can be due to both d and cch but if the main color is black and not blue, that means that cch and not d thin the fawn). ee is needed to give fawn, and with dd or cchcch in addition to give cream colour and even off-white ; the Mudi got ee, may be from crossbreeding, maybe from mutation, but what about the Croatian Sheepdog ? It can happen that some fawn/cream-coloured pups appears in some Croatian Sheepdog litters, it's impossible to turn down neither the possibility of a crossbreeding (especially with a Mudi !) nor the possibility that e exist in the Croatian Sheepdog for a long time : black dogs can't be ee (they would be fawn !) but they can be either EE or Ee, and so if the two (black) parents are Ee, one or several ee (fawn) pups can be born. For me it's impossible to know if e has been introduce in the Croatian Sheepdog from other breed(s) or if e has been inside the Croatian Sheepdog breed for centuries ... It can be thought that e don't belong to the Croatian Sheepdog breed if, in the past and nowadays, the fawn/cream colour happened really scarcely in the litters (not in the alive dogs, for such pups could have been eliminated systematically, remember what happened in the German Sheepdog and the origins of the white sheepdog ...) But who knows what happened in the past, particularly if the shepherds would have kill the light coloured newborn pups .... A few writings handle the Croatian Sheep dog breed, and always in the district of Ðakovo, they tackle the colour, black or grey-black ; but who knows the colour of the dogs out of the district of Ðakovo ? Who knows the colour of the dogs before the 14th century and between the 14th and the 18th century ? Who knows the colour of all the pups of each litter ?   The blue-merle colour is due to M, which is dominant : MM+ turns black into blue-merle, and brown into brown-merle ; M+M+ has no action, MM gives blue-merle (or brown-merle) dogs but with important risk of several serious diseases ; the first point (dominant) could explain that this colour has been spread around in Anghi's time, the second point (diseases) could be the reason of its decline till the Hungarians decided to save it. Some think that this colour has been introduced in the Mudi breed by crossbreeding (especially with Collies), some other think it's due to a mutation.  It's difficult to know the truth, both possibilities are not incompatible too (both can have happened !). However, I can think that this colour doesn't concern the Croatian sheepdog breed. If black and blue are surely historical and characteristic colours of the Croatian Sheepdog breed, seeing that ancient writings certify this,  I'm convinced now that the word "black" was used for overall black dogs, with small enough marks, with dark enough marks, probably for blue dogs and why not for dark brown ones too. As for fawn and cream-coloured coats, the question is still unresolved. Nonetheless, it appears that coat colour cannot really be considered as a real difference between the Mudi and the Croatian Sheepdogs ; the difference is rather between the Hungarians and the Croatians ! Undeniably, the Hungarians proved to be quicker : they made their dogs be recognized by the FCI before the Croatians (then the Yugoslavians) did, they understood the value of all these ancient and historical colours, which were also becoming scarce, before losing them definitively, while the Croatians still abandon the historical colours but black (at least blue, which was spread enough to be mentioned in the middle of the 18th century !) and take the risk that the corresponding genes disappear quickly and definitively in the Croatian Sheepdog breed. (1) Csaba Gheyza Anghi, in "A Magyar Pasztor Kutyàk és a Külföldi  Rokonfajtàk" , Springer-Nyomda Bethlen Gàbor-utca 33, Budapest, 1936) 23/06/11 Isabelle Coquinot
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