Fawn Boxer

A fawn Boxer has a clear sable pattern in shades from light tan to mahogany red. Fawn Boxers always have a black mask on top of their muzzle and some have flashy white markings.

Learn more about Boxer colors.

Gallery

Here are some examples of fawn Boxers:

What Is a Fawn Boxer?

Fawn is a breed term in Boxers used for a clear sable pattern.

Adult fawn-colored Boxers have yellow to red coats with little to no dark hair tips.

Depending on their red intensity, some dogs are labeled as light fawn Boxers, red fawn Boxers, or sometimes dark fawn or mahogany Boxers in case of unusually rich pigment intensity.

Boxers tend to lighten a little as they age.

Young puppies might still have some darker shading along their top line or some black hairs on top of the violet gland located on their tails. But these dark hair tips will fade in their adult coats.

The melanistic mask is one of the signature features of Boxer coat colors. Their black masks were selected to cover the muzzle and eye area and to have the most crisp edges possible.

Fawn Boxer with a black mask often have some black shading on their ears.

Flashy Fawn Boxer

Patterns without white markings are called “plain” in the Boxer breed.

But some Boxers express Irish-type white markings which is called “flashy“.

In Boxers, this amount of white is caused by having one copy of piebald spotting (S/s^P).

• Em/Em
  • Ay/Ay
    • ky/ky
      • S/S
        • fawn
      • S/sP
        • flashy fawn
      • sP/sP
        • white

Fawn and white Boxers typically have white markings on their paws or legs and a white chest.

In many flashy fawn Boxers, the white pattern also covers the throat and muzzle and produces a white blaze. Even larger white markings sometimes give a white collar around the neck.

But piebald markings will never be fully predictable. Flashy fawn Boxers rarely look the same.

And some Boxers show hints of a whitehead pattern with lots of face and chest white but not too much white on the rest of their body.

Fawn Boxers with two copies of piebald (s^P/s^P) usually express an extended white pattern with a solid white coat or piebald markings. The fawn pattern might still be visible in solid-colored patches.

However, according to the AKC breed standard, white should not go overboard like this.

Also, white Boxers are prone to have blue eyes. And they are at a greater risk of being born partially or fully deaf, which they share with other dog breeds that come with extended white patterns.

Breed Standard

Sable is the standard color pattern of German Boxer dogs.

Some fawn Boxers have white markings. And some Boxers are fawn brindle.

Still, underneath their markings, all Boxers are fawn!

The ideal fawn color in Boxers has a medium phaeomelanin intensity.

Typically, shades range from yellow (light fawn) to orange (red fawn) to red (mahogany, dark deer red).

Genetics

Fawn Boxers express a clear sable pattern (A^y/A^y).

Their K locus has two copies of the wild type variant (k^y/k^y).

This is a necessary requirement for dogs to express any pattern with both types of pigment. In the case of fawn Boxers, a phaeomelanic sable base coat with an eumelanic mask and ear shading on top.

Boxers are fixed for a melanistic mask (E^m/E^m) and always have black eumelanin pigment (B/B).

Flashy fawn Boxers express a dose of piebald (S/s^P) while plain fawn Boxers do not (S/S).

• Em/Em
  • Ay/Ay
    • ky/ky
      • S/S
        • fawn
      • S/sP
        • flashy fawn
    • kbr/-
      • S/S
        • brindle
      • S/sP
        • flashy brindle

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