Doxies of a different color!
As you probably already know, dachshunds come in a variety of coat lengths, colors and patterns. These colors and patterns are determined by the distribution of two types of pigment, simply black and red. Other genes determine the amount of pigment deposited and/or diluted. There are a multitude of alleles and loci that determine markings, patterns, and points. The order of dominance in the genes passed down from the parents to their puppies determines what will be expressed in the puppies (what they'll look like). There are 3 coat types in doxies. They are, in order of dominance, wire coat, smooth coat and long coat. There are 4 base coat colors: red, black, chocolate and wild boar. Red is dominant to all other base colors. Other colors are dilutions of one of the base colors. Isabella (fawn) is a dilution of chocolate. Blue is a dilution of black. Cream is a dilution of red, but in a different way than the other two. Any color that is not red is considered recessive. The only way to produce a recessive trait in a puppy is if BOTH parents carry that recessive gene and pass it on. NO EXCEPTIONS! If a breeder is trying to sell you a cream puppy and there aren't creams in both sides of his pedigree, it is genetically impossible for that puppy to be cream. The opposite of that is two parents expressing a recessive trait cannot produce puppies with a dominant trait. For example, 2 long haired doxies cannot produce a smooth coat. Dominant genes are either expressed, shown in the dog, or they're lost. They are never carried! The patterns of brindle and dapple are both dominant. You only need one parent to be brindle or dapple to produce puppies with that pattern. Puppies without the pattern do not carry it! Sometimes it's difficult to see a pattern on a dog. Puppies change dramatically as they grow. But a good breeder will inform you if the puppy is brindled or dappled. There are instances of "hidden" patterns on diluted dogs. For example, an ee cream cannot have any black hairs so could potentially be a "hidden" brindle if one of his parents were brindle. Remember, what you see isn't always what you get. Also, recessive genes can carry for generations without being expressed. We have personally experienced this "It came outta nowhere" color and/or pattern. Many years ago, we bred our choc & tan male to our Isabella & tan female. She delivered, much to my surprise, 6 little choc & tan piebalds. While piebald was shown in her 5 generation pedigree, it was not in his. But, after researching online, we did find that it was in his 6th generation. It was obviously passed on through all those other dogs down to our male. The same thing happened with our blue & creams. The blues are right there on the dam's side. But it took a lot of email and phone calls before we found the blue on the sire's side. But we found it! So before you spend your hard earned money on a puppy, make sure he is what he's suppose to be. Take the time to do research, look at pedigrees and ask questions, if you have them BEFORE you send a non-refundable deposit!
We wanted to add a few photos to this page to show the difference in colors of a few of our dogs. These photos show them side by side which makes it easier to determine one color from another.
a blue & cream next to a chocolate & cream
a black & tan in front of a blue & cream
a soggy chocolate & tan pie next to a blue & cream in front of a red sable