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How soon can you tell their final coat colour?

Discussion in 'Sheltie Colors' started by Gracesmum, Oct 21, 2012.

  1. Calliesmom

    Calliesmom Moderator

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    she asked...............

    Cranberry (sable merle) as a puppy:
    http://cranberrycallie.shutterfly.com/31
    http://cranberrycallie.shutterfly.com/61
    http://cranberrycallie.shutterfly.com/61#62

    all grown up:
    http://cranberrycallie.shutterfly.com/936
    http://cranberrycallie.shutterfly.com/991
    http://cranberrycallie.shutterfly.com/1231

    Cran and Dixie (mahogany sable):
    http://cranberrycallie.shutterfly.com/961

    just for fun:
    http://cranberrycallie.shutterfly.com/1067#1066
    that's Bobby, Justus, Cran, Dix and Justice
     
  2. Gracesmum

    Gracesmum Forums Enthusiast

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    Lovely, thanks Calliesmom.

    What's the difference between Sable Merle and Mahogany Sable. To my untrained eye, their coats are very similar.
     
  3. Calliesmom

    Calliesmom Moderator

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    blue merles are tricolors with the merle gene- makes the blotches and blue colors. sable merles are sables with the merle gene- Cranberry has more lighter patches than a regular sable. Sable merles can be hard to tell- lighter brown and grey-brown blotches aren't always as obvious as in the blue merles.

    in this pic (http://cranberrycallie.shutterfly.com/1293) you can see his light side on his face and the greyish patch near his shoulder. the other sheltie (mahogany sable) is very uniform in color.

    http://cranberrycallie.shutterfly.com/960#962 - you can see Cran's light side/dark side here where Dixie's face is more uniform.

    here's one from last summer:
    http://cranberrycallie.shutterfly.com/693
    the other sables are more uniform in color- Cran has large dark side and lighter on hip and shoulder

    from summer 2010- Cran was still in puppy coat- hadn't really started with adult/darker fur : http://cranberrycallie.shutterfly.com/367#384 and
    http://cranberrycallie.shutterfly.com/367#367
     
  4. dblock

    dblock Forums Enthusiast

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    I can't see any of the pictures.

    :(
     
  5. Calliesmom

    Calliesmom Moderator

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    near Mobile, AL
    you can't see the Shutterfly pix? that's odd since you do not need to log in or anything special to see them:confused2:
    somtimes FB is finicky and you cannot see those pix unless you are logged in to FB.
    sometimes Forum pix also require you to log in again to see the pix- even though you are already logged in....
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2012
  6. BarbV

    BarbV Forums Celebrity

    That's interesting.....I alway's called my forever pup a mahogany. He started out light, just your pictures, but by middle age had got very dark - though top guard hair only. He still had some sable underneath. I'm not sure of the difference.

    Can you explain?
     
  7. Calliesmom

    Calliesmom Moderator

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    bifactor/trifactor means that a dog can produce bi or tri dogs.
    sables that are very dark are referred to as mahogany sable.
    without looking at the pedigree/litter, it is hard to know if a dog is bi or tri factored.....
     
  8. Gracesmum

    Gracesmum Forums Enthusiast

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    thanks Callliesmom. :)
     
  9. Calliesmom

    Calliesmom Moderator

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  10. k9kreationz

    k9kreationz Forums Celebrity

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    From your photos of Grace, I'm going to think that she'll have some nice darkness coming in over the years, but will overall but won't be as dark as Justice, or Miko (my dog, see below). I say that because you can see when she's wet, all the dark hairs. Take photos, Grace will be changing colors for a very long time.

    And here's my boys.

    Miko
    First night home - you can see his fur is black tipped a bit.
    As a pup - you can see how light he is
    1 year old
    2 years old
    By this point, my Dad was noticing he was darker, but I hadn't.
    5 years old - btwn 2 and 5 he got REALLY dark
    13 yo - he's on the left.
    I think he got a bit darker btwn 5 and 13, but it slowed down a lot. I'm still shocked when I see his puppy pictures. lol


    Koji
    First day home - 8wks - I knew by looking at him, he'd get darker, but he only had that strip down his back, not everywhere like Miko
    1 yo - his coloring has changed drastically already (oh, he's on the left)
    2yo (in the top of the photo) - wow, I haven't done a transition for him yet, so I'm amazed at how dark he got in the one year. He's almost as dark as Miko. Granted, i think Miko is still getting darker.

    Here's a good last photo of the two of them.
    Miko at the top, Koji near the bottom
    As you can see, Miko is still very dark. Koji still has the lighter sable underneath. I have a feeling he'll darken up a bit more, but not much.

    Hope you enjoyed! I never knew they changed colors either. I loved Miko's light coloring when I got him, but as the years have gone by, I have learned to love his mahogany sable coloring. In fact, I prefer that now.
     

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