GALLERY 9 - Uncommon Colours,Variations and Patterns

Along with the myriad of colours and patterns already mentioned, you will also find an intriguing assortment of beautiful and unique colourations that are not so easily categorised or defined.

What is it? Tricolour? Sable? Brindle? Black and Tan? Maybe YES! And maybe NO ! While they do have a coat of three colours, they do not quite fit in to the Tricolour definition. Sable? Or Brindle? Again, not really. Black and Tan... tan yes, but black? So what are they?
These beautiful dogs don't quite fit into a single colour listing and so will be registered many different ways depending on the registry and the breeder, as TriSable, Sable, Brindle or Black and Tan.	Aslan from Toy Fozzie's kennels in Norway displays very unusual coat colouring. Three colours; Brown ,Gold and Silver. Genetically he may be a Sable/Tan.	Maggie from Sineade Kennels in Canada shows off a beautiful and intriguing combination of Chocolate, Gold and Silver. She may be a Chocolate & Tan with extensive Tan markings.

HAVANA BROWN - Some registries call this BLACK BRINDLE. Respectfully I must disagree. I have seen in person, several dogs that are Havana Brown and others that are Silver or Black Brindle and they are not at all alike either as puppies or adults.
Black Brindle is a stripey black on silver/cream giving a very streaky peppery black look to an adult coat. Havana Brown is a tobacco brown appearance throughout with no stripes or streaks of black.	colour - HAVANA BROWN Xcusador from A Maiden Effort in Holland is a deep Havana Brown NOT chocolate. Havana brown puppies are born black or so dark as to appear black. As they mature, the colour develops into varying shades of Tobacco brown.	colour - HAVANA BROWN Coal, owned by Penny Will of Kennel Havana Canada is also Havana brown. Pigment on eyerims, nose and lips is black.

CHALLENGE - Below is a simple exercise to illustrate how colour designations can be so confusing. If you only look at a puppy picture, some colours are relatively easy to know what they will be as adults while others are a lot more challenging. Sometimes accurate, and sometimes not, it's an educated guess and not necessarily genetic fact. If you only look at an adult, you will only see the result of all the changes wrought by colour and modifying genes. In many cases, its an even less accurate guess of what a dog is genetically carrying for colour. Look below and see what "your" guess is.

These four dogs are very similar in appearance colour wise as adults. Looking at them, what colour would you guess they are?

TIERRA	MORGAN	ACE	OREO
Tierra was bred by Jabireus Havanese and is owned by Doris Furtado	Morgan was bred by Jan Pipic & Nancy Mattern, and is owned by Bonnie and Gary Davis	Ace was bred by Kennel Havana Canada	Oreo was bred by the late Betty Couture of Couture Havanese

Now take a peek at their puppy to adult composites and see if you were right.