What Is a Brindle Sibling?

A brindled animal refers to one with a tawny or gray coat with darker streaks. Brindles are found in many species, including dogs, horses, and cats. The brindle coat is a genetic trait, so it may be present in one sibling but not the other. Breeders interested in the brindle color can breed dogs specifically to create the brindle coat. For example, in the Corgi, there are four genetic codes that determine the color of a dog's coat. One of those, the Base Pattern, can be either tan or brindle.

  1. Color Codes

    • In many dogs, the color of the dog's coat is determined by four distinct genetic code groups: the Base Pattern, the Distribution, the Merle and the Pigment. Of those four, the Base Pattern determines whether a dog is brindled or whether it will have a single-tone color.

    Breeding Brindled Animals

    • The brindle gene has a complex genetic functionality. For example, in great danes, breeding between a fully genetic fawn and a half-fawn, half-brindle will produce a fawn 75 percent of the time and a brindle 25 percent of the time. Breeding a fully genetic fawn with a fully genetic brindle will produce a brindle 100 percent of the time. Finally, breeding a fully genetic fawn with a half-brindle, half-black dane will produce both muddy fawns and brown blacks.

    Brindled Horses in History

    • Brindle breeds of horses have played a role in documented history for more than 100 years. Many of the early references to brindled horses come from Argentina. For example, in 1877, M.V. Pereyra referred to "barcino" horses with a dark yellow coat with a dorsal stripe. It is likely that these dorsal stripes were found throughout the body, somewhat like the present-day zebra. The barcino breed of horses were sometimes compared to another kind of striped breed, the chorreado, which was described much like today's brindles.

    Partial Brindling in Dogs and Horses

    • While some breeds of dogs often show partial brindle patterns, partial brindling is less common in horses. In dogs, the partial brindle pattern may be the result of the dog's genetic inheritance, as described in Section 2. In horses, however, it is believed that partial brindle patters are caused by deformities in the development of the coat and not genetic inheritance. This is just one of the differences between brindle patterns in dogs and horses.