Countershading

If your dog has a lighter cream underside compared to the red on its upper body, it likely has some form of countershading. This is a trait found in many animal species including dogs.

What is Countershading?

Animals with countershading have very light phaeomelanin (red pigment) on their lower body.

The phaeomelanin on the upper body appears much richer in color.

This type of coloring is very common in canids and many other animals.

We don’t know the exact function of countershading^[2]. A common theory explains countershading as an adaptation that counterbalances the sunlight from above and provides camouflage^[1].

But countershading might have other functions. Maybe having more pigment on the upper body simply gives more protection from sunlight where it is needed the most. But we really don’t know for sure.

Countershading in Dogs

Countershading only affects the red pigment type (phaeomelanin). In dogs with countershading, the red pigment on the underside turns lighter compared to the red pigment on the upper body.

Some hue variation is considered normal in about every red dog. But countershading causes an extremely low intensity on the ventral body (think face, throat, chest, underbody, extremities).

Countershading looks like the dogs has very light whitish or cream markings on its cheeks, eyebrows, throat, forechest, belly, inside of the legs, and the underside of the tail.

Countershading very likely represents the wild-type.

Many different dog breeds have countershading. In some breeds, it just occurs occasionally or is not sought after. In other breeds, countershading is a required trait and part of the breed standard.

This boils down to subjective preference. Pomeranians try to breed away from it. Most German Shepherds have it. For red Pembroke Corgis its kind of a the trademark pattern.

Japanese breeds like Shiba Inu or Akita call it urajiro and often select for very defined markings.

Countershading can appear pale yellow, cream, or off-white. In some cases, it is very bright and refined with crisp edges. In other cases, the pale coat gradually blends into the red next to it.

And of course, the ventral dilution of red pigment stands out more in dogs that produce dark orangey or red pigment on their upper body. If a dog already has a low phaeomelanin intensity all over its body, we can’t really see the even paler countershading next to its already very pale coat.

Th intensity and spread of countershading varies a lot from dog to dog. But for now, we still know very little about the genetics of countershading (there is an Urajiro Research group on Facebook).

Countershading Examples

Countershading can only be visible in patterns with some amount of red pigment. This includes patterns like sable, shaded sable, agouti, saddle pattern, or tan points with or without brindle.

In some cases, the lighter markings may be hidden by other patterns a dog has.

This can happen due to white markings. Or heavy brindle may cover up all the areas with red pigment. And Northern domino or sighthound domino often go hand in hand with pale phaeomelanin and can obscure the original color gradient between the dorsal red and the ventral cream colors.

Many breeds with countershading have a black mask (like German Shepherds). This can also cover much of the countershading on the face of the dog.

Urajiro

The Shiba Inu and Japanese Akita are known for their very refined countershading the Japanese breed standards call “urajiro“. This term can be translated as “underside white“.

But urajiro is not always super crisp. The term was originally used to describe any form of countershading and is also used in breeds with less pronounced patterns like Kishu. Urajiro can have colors between beige and creamy white, have different spreads and can have crisp edges or blend into the red coat.

Countershaded Sable

In mainly solid orange or red dogs, the light countershading really stands out. But sable dogs can have yellow or cream colors, which can sometimes hide the presence of countershading.

Countershaded Brindle

Brindle can affect any pattern (e.g. agouti brindle, brindle point, etc.).

But most “full-body brindles” are sable brindle.

Brindle adds vertical stripes of dark pigment on top of any red areas. It covers some of the countershading pattern which is then only visible in-between brindle stripes.

Countershading and Agouti

Agouti causes banded dorsal hairs on a dog’s upper body and solid tan wild-type markings on the ventral body, e.g. lower muzzle, above the eyes, and on the legs and belly.

The ventral tan markings and the ventral countershading overlap. So you often have very bright countershaded tan markings and more reddish pigment undernetah the banded coat.

Countershading adds a color gradient inside the red pigment from bottom to top. Agouti with countershading gives a very wolf-like pattern. This combination is common in breeds like Siberian Laika, Saarlooswolfdog, Czechoslovakian Wolfdog, Tamaskan, and German Shepherds.

Countershaded Saddle Pattern

Dogs with creeping tan or a saddle pattern have large areas of extended ventral tan. So countershading usually is easy to spot in these patterns (and looks very pretty, dare I say so).

Countershaded Tan Points

Countershading can only affect the tan markings.

And ventral tan markings and ventral countershading kind of overlap. You can still often see a color transition inside the tan markings. This gives shades of cream and red next to each other.

Countershading and Recessive Red

Dogs with a recessive red coat don’t seem to express countershading very well.

They can have a very mild gradient from more intense red on the upper body to a paler underside. But they basically never have a crisp edge between rich and diluted red colors.

Countershading Look-Alikes

Dogs with a shaded sable or agouti pattern have dark pigment only on their upper body and clear ventral tan markings. It is not countershading, if the red color is the same all over the body.

Some dogs just have low phaeomelanin intensity all over their body. This often happens in dogs with domino patterns, which can also cause very light “open face” markings.

Some white markings on the chest, legs, and muzzle can look like countershading in long-haired dogs. But white is caused by a true lack of any pigment and does not affect red colors.

Learn More

Links

[1] Cuthill IC, Sanghera NS, Penacchio O, Lovell PG, Ruxton GD, Harris JM. Optimizing countershading camouflage. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1611589113

[2] Rowland HM. From Abbott Thayer to the present day: what have we learned about the function of countershading?. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009;364(1516):519-527. https://dx.doi.org/10.1098%2Frstb.2008.0261

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