Color rule of thumbs

 

A simple Rule of Thumbs​

Before going deeper into a discussion of colors in the borzoi we like to show this “rule of thumbs” supplied by Leonore Abordo;

BLACK. If a borzoi is SELF black, then it is Dominant Black. From a dominant self black borzoi you can get Black, Red, Black and tan and Sables. Note the difference in Black and Black and Tan!

RED. From a Red borzoi you can get Red, Black and tan and Sables BUT not Black

BLACK AND TAN. From a Black and tan you can get Black and tan and Sables BUT not Red or Black

​Example of face markings on Black and Tan.

SABLES. From a Sable (color) you can only get Sables.

Based on the above, the rules of color is, Black dominates over Red, Red over Black and tan and Black and tan over the various Sables (red sable, grey sable and so on). Brindles can be seen as a variation of Sable and must, as the Sables, be accompanied by a color else it’s just a pattern.

WHITE is considered the absence of color.

 

The rule of markings are similar but the following information is useful:

SELF – white toes, sometimes a little higher, but not above pastern. tip of tail. sometimes a bit on front of chest or tip of nose, even a skinny blaze. See the pictures of the two Perchino borzois, Raketa  and Rogdai. (in the article). A real Self marked borzoi cannot be mistaken for an Irish marked!

IRISH – white above pastern and below elbow; almost always below hock; at least one spot on the back of the neck, sometimes a full neck ring of white. more white on face, throat, chest, belly. maybe 1/2 the tail sometimes. Irish is often seen with very typical markings on the cheeks! A problem can be that in common language Irish marked are often called Selfs.

BLANKET – white above the elbow and stifle but less than 50% of the dog’s entire body. there are some dogs that are a “false irish” that had white hairs on their hips visible as puppies but not in adult coat. In TBE we call this SADLE marking-

​EXTREME – color is restricted to the head and usually just big spots one or two places on the body – often the rump.

Example of the Extreme pattern.

 

Self dominates over Irish. Irish dominatas over Blanket. Blanket dominatas over Extreme.

 

Would like a picture of a borzoi with the typical markings on the head seen on Sables. We used to call that Tortoise as in turtle. I think the sable also was called wildcolored. Don’t know much of this but hope someone else does!

 

We also can hope someone can give us an explanation on the genetics of color.

 

 

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Author:

Arvid Andersen

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