Colour change - Meeka crossbreed

A friend that I haven't seen for years came to visit today and asked where the little black puppy had gone. I told her that she was on the sofa next to her but she was shocked as she said Meeka had changed colour so much.

This made me troll through my old photos - what do you think?

9 weeks old and all black



Going through her Yoda phase but still black



With her brother at 4 months, the face is getting lighter



At 5 months her front legs are starting to change colour



And her colouring more recently



She now has a completely white underside from her muzzle all the way to her tail and is also white down the back of her front legs

lots of pups change colour - my Estrelas change everytime they moult, it always grows back a bit different!

Rio at 8 weeks



at 6 months



at three years

What a fascinating dog, from a genetics point of view! I know you say GSD cross, but I would lay money on there being Siberian Husky in there too.

A lot of work is being done on dog colour genetics at the moment, but there is still a lot more to be done.... especially in the field of how some genes interact with others. It is one thing DNA typing certain breeds to find out what colour genes they have, but when you get to crossbreeds there are all sorts of mysteries.

I can say she has a(t) the black-and-tan gene, as evidenced by the areas that are not solid black. But the silvering of those areas is something else entirely. genes that pale, or erase, yellow pigment are present in a lot of breeds including Siberian huskies but Sibes don't usually have the a(t) gene - in fact they are usually a(w) (Wolf grey) with the Intensity gene eliminating ['bleaching' if you like] yellow pigment, to give the silvery colour (or red and silver in the case of those who have the chocolate/liver gene).

Some breeds do have a(t) and Intensity which normally gives a black dog with white or cream in the areas where Tan would usually be present (try to imagine a Dobermann with cream or white instead of rust red).

There are some genes which progressively lighten black (or any other colour) as the dog gets older - classic examples being the Kerry Blue, Bedlington Terriers and some Poodles. But I have not yet come across a gene which progressively lightens yellow pigment as the dog matures.

There already seems to be some unusual interaction between a(t) in Afghans and Salukis to give the "grizzle" colouring only found in those breeds, so this could be yet another unusual effect when genes that don't normally get together in pure-bred dogs, suddenly find themselves present in a cross-breed.

I've often wondered about my Kiara she's predominantly black with a white bit on her chest, one paw and the tip of her tail. Her brother a sable rough collie type colouring/markings They are bc x gsd

Kiz has got an area on her back thigh of about a dozen brown hairs - it looks singed!!! often wondered where that came from too!! No other brown anywhere on her at all!!!

Small isolated patches of colour change can occur for many different reasons. In an otherwise all-black dog, I would look to see if the colour is just on the ends of the hair or whether they are brown to the roots. Small isolated patches like that can be transient, indicating a patch that could really have been singed,or bleached by the sun, or a piece of old coat that hasn't - for whatever reason - been properly shed.

Or, on the weird side, it's not unheard of for yellow labradors to have a patch of a few black hairs - or blacks to have yellow. This is due to a tiny genetic glitch which allows a carried colour to just get an illegal peep through! Sometimes these are called mosaics.

If you delve into these, you find all sorts of peculiar combinations - such as the Seal Point Siamese cat I once saw and handled, which had mottled blue patches on its points - a bit like a Tortoiseshell but seal & blue instead of seal & cream. He was most certainly a rare genetic fluke.

On the other hand, I have noticed Merlin now has a tiny patch of about a dozen pure white hairs at the back of his head. I can't help playing with them! Those are probably due to injury, perhaps a dent from a rough & tumble or spat, where the pigment cells have been damaged.

Hi MM,

Thanks for the info - it's fascinating if a bit over my head. I know that pups change colour as they grow up (had GSDs all my life and they are experts at it) but never seen one quite like this one.

Interestingly, she has got some white hairs emerging on the back of her neck now which she never had before.

This is her full sister who was also completely black when she was a pup. It looks like Meekas belly and back are possibly going to go the same way. Strange dogs eh?

Lovely photos. Bella my min pin is a different colour now than what she was as a puppy. She was a light brown all over then with no shadings. She is now the typical min pin glossy, reddy, gingery brown colour with fabulous symmetrical shadings and her little white blaze.

Here as a pup, when she just started to change and as she is now (lying on my legs - she will only sit on me if I am in the recliner and I have it reclined!)

Aw, she is gorgeous! Jake changed colour too...



To show the difference in his back end


And all grown up...



The comparison back end shot


MM - that is really interesting about the genetics... I often wonder about that... unfortunately for me, too many breeds are tri-colour Who knows what Jake could be!

Yes Jake is a Tri-colour and there are a whole host of breeds with that black and tan gene a(t). When combined with white spotting like his, then that's a Tri.

Recent genetic work has discovered that a huge many breeds have the black-and-tan gene in one form or another - as a result it is now considered to be one of the earliest coat colour mutations in dogs, possibly appearing not long after domestication. [Just as a reference, black-and-tan in rabbits was one of the earliest recorded mutations as well].

It was previously thought that hound breeds, terriers and GSDs etc. that have a lot of tan with just a black "saddle" were a different gene.... but work has shown they are still B&T, with probably an unknown modifier that extends the tan.

Very interesting! Thanks

I love learning about genetics, but it can get so confusing Genetics was my favourite at school, but they were somewhat simpler