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Irish Pattern
Piebald Pattern
Black or Chocolate (BB, Bb, bb)
Black is the main color in genetics. Chocolate is the hypopigmentation of black; think of it sort of like you added water and the black wasn’t so potent. Because black is dominant over chocolate, the dog must carry two copies of the lowercase b gene to be chocolate, therefore a dog that is BB or Bb will be black, while a dog who is chocolate is bb.
Black Tri
Chocolate Tri
Diluted Colors: Blue & Fawn or Isabella (DD, Dd, dd)
The dilute gene takes the color and dilutes it. When the dog is black, the dilute will turn the black parts of the dog gray, which we call blue. When the dog is chocolate and diluted, the dog will be Isabella or fawn colored (depending on the registry), and appear a creamy brown, similar to a coffee color–like our dog Mochachino.
Again, like chocolate, this is a recessive gene, but a gene completely separate from the chocolate gene, meaning a puppy can be chocolate or dilute, or both.
Blue Tri
Fawn/Isabella Tri
The Chocolate, Dilute, and the Genetics Behind Them
In summary, there are four colors that can come from the chocolate and dilute color genes: black, chocolate, blue, and fawn. Here are the genetics that they go with:
Black: BB or Bb and DD or Dd
Chocolate: bb and DD or Dd
Blue: BB or Bb and dd
Fawn/Isabella: bb and dd
Again, like chocolate, this is a recessive gene, but a gene completely separate from the chocolate gene, meaning a puppy can be chocolate or dilute, or both.
What about Tan Points?
People LOVE tan points! And so do I! Tan points from the A locus, or Agouti Locus. There are four different A alleles, meaning four different types of A genes a dog can get. The most dominant gene in the A locus is Ay, which is a fawn color, but not the diluted chocolate we talked about above, rather it’s the light tan, similar to a standard pug color, and often seen on Great Danes.
The second most dominate is Aw, which is wild type. This particular gene you’d see on wolves and coyotes, it gives them the fur that has tips of gray or dark brown. This is also called “wild sable.” Sable means that a dog has hair that changes color from the root to the tip, usually darker on the tip. This sometimes occurs in Rat Terriers, but we don’t have any of these dogs at Bear Paw Ranch.
Next in line of dominance is At, which is tan points. You might be most familiar with tan points on Dobermans and Rottweilers, and, of course, we have them in the Rat Terriers. So long as a dog doesn’t have the Ay or Aw alleles, and they have one copy of the At, then the dog will have tan points. All of our dogs at Bear Paw Ranch have tan points, it’s the only allele we carry for the A locus here.
Lastly, there is a recessive black, which is a/a, if a dog had a double copy of this A allele, then the dog would be the recessive black.
Any manifestation of the A allele is dependent on the K locus, which determines if the dog is dominant black or recessive black. Our Rat Terriers are all the recessive K locus, which is why we can see the tan points.
What about the different shades of Tan Points?
Tan points are often different shades of tan, have you noticed? They can range from a deep red-orange to a light cream that’s nearly white! This color change is dependent on a series of genes that are summarize the “red intensity” of a dog. The more red they have, the darker it is, while the more they’re coded for cream, then the creamer they are!
You can see a few variations below. Notice how the creamy tan points are very close to white and nearly blend in with the white, while there is a stark contrast with the red-orange tan points, when compared with white.
Tan points are unrelated to the chocolate or dilute genes, this means that the red intensity of the tan points is completely separate from the dilute or chocolate, for example, a diluted dog can have very light or very intense tan points.
Cream Tan Points
Orange Tan Points
How Does Color Play into Personality?
At the end of the day, color doesn’t have any effect on personality or temperament. It’s common for people to be blinded by a beautiful dog with a color or pattern they love, but that doesn’t isn’t the right temperament or personality for the lifestyle.
While we want you to have the color and pattern you love, our goal here at the ranch is to find you a dog that’ll fit nicely into your lifestyle. When you have a dog whose personality fits your lifestyle, everything is easier, training, management, and general enjoyment of the dog.
If you’re stuck on a certain color or pattern, we can accommodate, but you may have to wait a few litters. I promise we’ll never send you home with a dog you don’t want.
