Colors and Coat Patterns
Aussies come in a variety of colors and patterns. This page is a reference and much of the information and graphics come from other souces.
Toy and Miniature Australian Shepherds are all either black or red.- wow that seems simple! What adds for great combinations is the coat patterns and trim color.
- Red Tri, Bi or Merle
- Black Tri, Bi or Merle
Coat Patterns-
Aussies come in solid and merle coat patterns. There are other variations such a tweed and harlequin in the merle pattern. Aussies also come in non typical colors such as dilutes and yellows. For ease of understanding we are only going to talk about the basic patterns.
Trim Color
The copper and white is the trim color. A dog with just white and no copper is a bi, and one with copper and white is a tri color.
Red Factored? Huh? What does that Mean?
Black is the domainate gene, red is always the ressive gene. Each parent contributes one copy of the 2 markers that determine the color of the puppy. Since red is the ressive gene the red puppies have 2 copies of the ressive color code. However, as you can see from the chart below if you have one copy of black and one copy of red you could have a red factorded black dog. The red dots indicate that the resulting puppy could carry the red factor or one copy of the red gene. So, where do merles come from?
In the illustrations below. If the parent is red factored you see a red dot over top. The second column indicates the possible outcome based on the colors of the parents.
Red Merle
Red Tri
Blue Merle
Black Tri
