Progressive greying causes a dog’s eumelanin pigment color to fade over time. Black fades to grey or silver grey while brown fades to a beige, sandy reddish-cream shade. What is Progressive Greying? In some dog breeds, puppies are born with regular black or brown eumelanin pigment but over time the coat color fades to a … Read more
French Bulldog cocoa gives a dark brown coat color that is caused by variation in a different gene than the usual chocolate brown coat found in other dog breeds. Cocoa changes the color of a dogs eumelanin and can occur in a variety of different color patterns. What is Cocoa? A b/b genotype at the … Read more
A mutation at the Dilution-Locus can cause a color dilution of black or brown pigment. If a dog is homozygous recessive (d/d) at the D-Locus he can only produce eumelanin that is either blue (diluted black) or lilac/isabella (diluted brown). What is Color Dilution? The melanosomes found in a dog’s pigment cells produce and store … Read more
Dogs that are homozygous recessive at the B-Locus (b/b) will express brown instead of black pigment. This affects all the eumelanin in a dog’s coat as well as the color of skin spots, nose, footpads, lips, eye rims or nails which will be brown (liver, chocolate). What is Brown Coat Color? When we look at … Read more
A recessive black dog has a solid eumelanin-pigmented coat. Since this uniform pattern is caused by a recessive loss-of-function variant at the A-Locus it is called recessive black. What is Recessive Black? A recessive black dog lost the ability to switch from eumelanin to phaeomelanin production. Instead, he will have a solid black, blue, liver, … Read more
A dog with a tan point pattern has a solid base color with white, yellow or red markings on the muzzle, eyebrows, chest, underside, lower legs, and under the tail. Although this pattern is also called black back or black-and-tan the base color can also be liver, blue, or lilac. What is a Black Back … Read more
A dog with a black saddle has solid dark coat on his back and large tan markings covering his face, chest, shoulders, legs and underside. Dogs with saddle pattern are born with regular small tan points that soon grow to form a saddle tan pattern. What is a Saddle Pattern? Some dogs born with a … Read more
Agouti is a pattern with banded hairs and dark hair tips on the dorsal area and lighter marking on the dog’s underside, muzzle, eyebrows and chest. This phenotype is found in many wild animals and is also called wolf grey or wolf sable. What is Agouti? Agouti causes a banded coat along the dorsal region … Read more
A dog is shaded yellow or shaded sable when he has a white, yellow or red base coat with dark-tipped hair ins some areas. Sable shading is concentrated mostly on the dog’s back and often causes a widow’s peak on the forehead. What is Shaded Yellow? Shaded yellow or shaded sable describes a coat with … Read more
Dominant yellow (also known as clear sable or fawn) describes a phenotype with a white, yellow or red base color in all pigmented areas and little to no dark-tipped hairs. What is Dominant Yellow? Dogs with a dominant yellow have a solid white, yellow or red coat in all pigmented areas. In contrast to a … Read more