What age does the overlay come in?

[Liza0714]

My younger sheltie is a sable merle and has some nice grey markings on her face and back, but as she is getting older, she is also getting some black on her back that is obscuring the grey on her back.

My question is will all of her grey areas turn black eventually as the overlay comes in? She is a about a year and a half.

She is on the left in both pictures.

 

[Calliesmom]

it will depend on your sheltie- for my sable merle, the gray patches visible as a puppy are still there, it's the length of the fur that can hide the lighter patches.
left side
right side

 

[Cleo2014]

Oh my gosh! She looks so much like my Cleo. I can't answer your question though because Cleo isn't even a year old yet, but 14 more days and she will be. So I am actually interested in this myself.

 

[Calliesmom]

well, say 2-3 yrs for the coat to get length and then it seems that the mahogany sables keep getting darker as they get older - but that darkness will just be on the brown areas and not the greyer areas....

 

[Liza0714]

Wow Callie is gorgeous, besides the coloring her face is so cool, half white and blonde. Thanks for the info about the coat, I was thinking the grey might be temporary since she didn't have it when wwe got her in March.

 

[Calliesmom]

Wow Callie is gorgeous, besides the coloring her face is so cool, half white and blonde. Thanks for the info about the coat, I was thinking the grey might be temporary since she didn't have it when wwe got her in March.

actually that is my male Cranberry who I got because I wanted a sable merle. here's a puppy pic of him
Callie was a beautiful mahogany sable girl that I got from a sheltie rescue- she converted me