tri color poking through at 6 m/o?

[Maralynn]

A few weeks after I brought Kolt home, I noticed a few tri color hairs in his ears. Those have long since disappeared. Today we were out playing and I noticed that he had some really reddish patches on the backs of his legs - like the black had been sun bleached. Which seemed odd as he doesn't spend an excessive amount of time out in the sun. On closer inspection, I noticed some tan feathering developing on the backs of his legs. He'll be 6 m/o next week. Is it unusual for tri color to be showing up at this point?

[GentleLake]

Sometimes the older coat can get kinda reddish, especially older undercoat and on the legs. Usually, the tri color is a more tan rather than reddish, and it will appear at the margins where black (or the primary color) and white meet. And most tris have a tan spot on the eyebrow.

 

AFAIK, true tris have some tan under their tails, and from a very early age.

 

Without seeing pictures, it's hard to say. Can you post a picture?

[Maralynn]

Hmm, not sure how well it would show up in a pic but I can try when it quits raining. The hair appears to be black tipped tan (reddish patches are seperate of that - I took a closer look because his hocks looked to have the bleached/reddish look to them)

[Maralynn]

Here are a couple pictures. It's a bit tricky having a teenage puppy hold still so one can get pictures of his rear end

 

It kinda looks white because of the lighting, but it isn't. Also further down on his leg there appears to be rich dark copper/brown interspersed with the black but I could get a good pic of it

 

 

[Liz P]

If his rear end isn't tan, he isn't a tri. There are often hairs of other colors that show up behind ears, in the feathering, at the location of glands and other areas as well. Also, there are types of black that have a deep brown shading to some areas (seal black vs dominant black, recessive black, etc). Doesn't make them tri color.

[Maralynn]

What exactly qualifies as "rear end"? Because he seems to have the same color showing up on the underside of the base of his tail. I'll look at it in the daylight tomorrow and see for sure. There are sable/tri dogs on both sides of the family as well (if I understand this correctly - they appear to be tri but looking close they have bi colored hair mixed in)

[Liz P]

Tan around their rectum, at the ventral tail base. Lift up his tail and take a photo of his rectum. Weird, I know, but it will tell us immediately if he is a true tri color.

 

 

[Liz P]

The white hairs in the photos you have shared so far are quite common on black and white dogs.

[Alchemist]

Spain's pedigree claims she's black and white. She's prematurely gray in spots (a few gray hairs here and there, gray eyebrows). I'd wondered whether she was a tri, because she's gray under her tail. But I believed in what her pedigree claims, and thought perhaps the gray under her tail/in her vaginal area was just one other example of a location in which she'd gone prematurely gray... Until one day I had her outdoors in full daylight, and realized she has brown areas on her rear legs.

 

She's a tri. Just not a particularly obvious one. I've talked to people who have dogs who have "gone tri" past the early puppy stage. It does happen.

[Maralynn]

 

The white hairs in the photos you have shared so far are quite common on black and white dogs.

Umm, they're not white (as I noted in my post) He has some white hairs trailing up on the inside of his legs. These hairs actually have some color to them but (like I also noted) the lighting wasn't great and it's not showing up that way in the pictures.

[Gloria Atwater]

The rule of thumb I've always heard is that if the dog has tan around its rectum, it's a tri. Even the faintest tan qualifies. But no tan poop hole = no tri.

So far, every tri I know, however faint the markings, have matched this.

I have seen and known dogs who have bits of red in their coats, whether from sun or just hair getting old, but they were not tri.

~ Gloria

[Maralynn]

That's interesting, Lynn. I had never heard of color appearing as they got older. I had just heard that if they had tan wisps under the tail at birth then they were tri. Kipp was tri but he had brindle points. Very little tan around the rectum but had a tan strip up the underside of his tail and and a touch running down his back legs.

[Oko]

http://talesofmyboys.livejournal.com/260733.html

 

You all might find this blog post interesting!

 

Feist is not tri colored but does indeed have a lot of reddish fur in her pants.

[Maralynn]

http://talesofmyboys.livejournal.com/260733.html

 

You all might find this blog post interesting!

 

Feist is not tri colored but does indeed have a lot of reddish fur in her pants.

that's a cool read - thanks! He's gonna get tired of me looking at his rear... There are 3 shades of brown hairs along his rear legs interspersed with black hair - dark copper,to med brown to buff .No classic tri circle of tan around his rectum. Just a few white wisps and then the buff on the underside of the tail from the base up. Weather is awful today but if it clears up later I'll try to get some better pictures.

[Maralynn]

Here are a couple more pictures from today

 

 

 

The front of his leg is a white strip, but on the back if the buff to brown stripe.

 

ETA - from the way it is showing up on my computer screen it looks kind of like sun reflection, but the browns showing up are pretty close to the true color.

[aschlemm]

My dogs are (now) sure I'm nuts. I just got done shining a flashlight at their buttholes to see if there is tan. Only a teeny bit. My male who is a brindle pointed tricolor has a white patch around his rectum and white frosting on his tail feathers and butt feathers. My female is very distinctly tri-colored and also has more white but also a teeny bit of tan, around her rectum. Interesting.

[emilyfalk]

Lynn, you can yell at Kate about registering Spain as B/W! She should know better

 

Mara, my 11mo had more areas of tan as a younger pup, and not only are they becoming swallowed up by his black hairs, but they are becoming lighter in some areas, such as his rear legs. Same color as in your pictures.

 

Do you have any baby photos to reference? (I'm sure you do!)

[emilyfalk]

Here's one of Rob at 6 months. His tan cheek and ear hairs are really hard to find, but you can see the color on his back leg. He is white factored, but not based on white coming up the rear legs. That's tan, and is the same shade that my 13yo tri now has. Her shade changed with old age.

[CMP]

I always say Molly is a "tri" - just not a traditional one. She has a LOT of red - mostly at the points (hocks, thighs, ears, eyebrows, butt) that renders her NOT a black and white but ... yep, she's technically still a black and white.

 

I've seen this before in B/W with some red in their lines (her mother was a red, her father a B/W) - red on the undercoat - usually disappears by the time they are a year but you always see it in the sun.

[Maja]

. But no tan poop hole = no tri.

 

 

~ Gloria

 

 

You sure have a way with words .

[Maralynn]

I don't think I have any baby pics of his butt... I'll look through to double check. He's still got the tan and brown streaks running down the backs of his hind legs but nothing elsewhere unless there are some light tan hairs mixed in with the white stragglers on the underside of his tail near his anus.

And it's definite color, not just poking through when the sun hits it right.

[Gloria Atwater]

You sure have a way with words .

 

 

My work here is done.

 

~ Gloria