Agouti Hair Pattern in Dogs

Agouti

• Your dog's coat color is directly influenced by his genes. Canine color genetics are complicated and not fully understood. What the eye sees on the dog isn't necessarily what the genes reveal. If you intend to breed your dog, you can have genetic testing done to determine agouti variants in your dog. That way, you have a good basis beforehand for predicting coat colors in resulting litters.

Alleles

• Alleles refer to agouti variants from the classic black/yellow/black coloration. In fawn or sable, the hair pattern is red or yellow, with some black tipping along the top. Wild sable, the coloration seen in nondomestic canines such as coyotes and wolves, is yellow and black. The black-and-tan allele consists of black hairs on the body with tan hairs on the eyebrows, cheeks and nether regions, while the recessive black allele is completely black. This last allele is very rare.

Sable

• The fawn/sable allele is dominant -- if a dog has one sable gene, it can appear. This gene causes three different patterns. A clear sable dog is a red canine with very few black hairs. You can't tell a sable from a dog with a recessive red gene simply by looking at it, unless the dog happens to sport a dark mask on the face. Dogs with a recessive red gene can't produce black hairs. A tipped sable dog is red with black hairs on the head, tail and back, usually including a mask. While the shaded sable is similar in appearance to the tipped sable, the shaded sable dog can be distinguished by brown or black hairs covering the back, ears and top of the head, crowned with a widow's peak, a converging point of brown and black hairs.

Wild Sable

• Besides wild canines, several dog breeds boast wild sable coloring. These dogs have the classic banded hair shafts, although the colors vary according to breed. If you're familiar with breeds like the keeshond, Siberian husky, Norwegian elkhound and German shepherd -- all of which bear some resemblance to wild dogs -- you'll recognize the wild sable pattern.

Black and Tan

• Dogs must have two tan point genes to express this coloration. Depending on other genes, the dog is black or another solid color. The tan, or red, coloration appears strictly on certain parts of the body. Breeds with the classic black-and-tan pattern include the Doberman pinscher and the Rottweiler. However, some breeds have modified versions of the black-and-tan gene. Dogs with saddle patterns, such as the Airedale terrier, fall into this category. At birth, these dogs are truly black-and-tan; as they grow, the black hair recedes until it consists primarily of the saddle.