A Study of the Tan Rat Terrier

This pup is TAN color.

Some people call this RED. Red is just a variation of the Tan color. She has a black nose; therefore, she is not Chocolate. She has no black hairs; therefore, she is not Sable.

She has been referred to as Apricot but she was born with color.

Tan is dominate to tan/sable and tri. A Tan dog in its simplest form can only produce Tan and Tan Sable. If your dog carries Chocolate then you can also produce High Red Factored Chocolate.

A Study of the Tan Rat Terrier

By Julia Kleutsch

One of the big questions that a breeder gets is "What color is the puppy?". This is sometimes a very difficult question to answer. A tri-color is a tri - pretty straight forward, right? But what is Tan? What is Tan Sable? How does Tan relate to Chocolate and Apricot? Say your perspective buyer wants a dog just like the one they see in a picture. It is possible that the dog they "see" is genetically different from the "color" they want. Sometimes there is no answer - we just don't know.

Our current UKC registration will be the backbone of our future dogs color history. It is imperative that we correctly identify our pups on their UKC registration papers. For consistency our reference is the UKC ARTA Standard
Accceptable Color. The ARTA, working with its many members, created this document to clarify the definitions of color. This document, used by UKC in the registration process, has brought a consistancy to the color terms on registration papers.

"TAN - A common color in Rat Terriers and can vary from dark tan to very light tan. Also includes the many shades of red from intense dark mahogany red to light red. Tan is not a dilute color. A tan dog has a black nose and eye rims."

For simplicity sake we have excluded all the AyAt and Bb of the genetic code of color. This page is FULL of pictures. Although we have made every attempt to keep the files small, on some computers this page will load slowly.

This pup is TAN-Sable & White color.

He has a black nose; therefore, he is not Chocolate. He has a minimal amount of black hairs; therefore, he is a Sable. Sable is a "pattern" of colors and not actually a color itself. Some pups are born with sabling and then lose the hairs as they mature.

SABLE as defined by the ARTA: "Also called "sabling." A coat color pattern, not a color. Evidenced by black-tipped hairs or black hairs overlaid upon a background of another, lighter color. Sable pattern of varying density is commonly seen in German Shepherds, Collies and Shelties. In Rat Terriers, the most common example of sabling is seen in puppies born with a collection of black hairs in the area of the muzzle, eyes, ears, spine and tail. The black hairs are most plentiful at birth but usually decrease in number as the dog matures. In the Chocolate Rat Terrier, the sabling pattern may be seen as a darker shade of chocolate in the areas mentioned.

For Comparison: These 2 pups are also TAN-Sable.

As stated in the standard Tan can range from an "intense dark mahogany red to light red". You will find many variations of tan in the Rat Terrier gene pool.

Please note the pup on the left has visable black hairs on her tail.

The dog on the right, when viewed from the top down, has a modest amount of dark hairs that run along the dorsal line and congregate at the base of her tail.

If you answered all three of the above ... you are RIGHT!!

The pup on the left appears Tan. She has no black hairs. However, when you look at her baby picture you can clearly see the sabling effect.

She is correctly identified and registered as a TAN-Sable.

It is important that the breeder call this pup a Tan-Sable and White on its UKC paperworks. If this dog was bred to a Tri-color dog then the results of the litter will be 50% Tri and 50% Tan-Sable. A Tan dog bred to a Tri-color dog can ONLY produce Tan-Sable pups. If the pup was listed incorrectly then a breeder could be misled about the colors the dog could throw.

The pup on the right also appears Tan. He has no black hairs, but when you take a look at his baby picture you can see he was born completely white.

This pup is an APRICOT.

Again quoting the ARTA Standard, "Apricot dogs are born white and develop color patches within the first few weeks that deepen in color. Occasionally, the faint color patches are visible at birth. Color patches range from orange to faded looking yellow. Nose pigment is black."

Thank You to Cathy Knott and Cherie Rhoad for of these two wonderful examples.

Interesting fact here . . . all of these pups are out of the same dam, our example of TAN at the top of the page. When you take into account the color (and the hidden color) of the sire and dam, variation from pup to pup in a litter can be tremendous .

The pups on the left are indeed Tan-Sables.

With the pup on the right we have introduced another factor, the High Red Chocolate. "High Red" is a term that breeders sometimes use to differenciate the red color Chocolate from the liver color Chocolate. Technically, the pup is a Tan-Sable with the recessive Chocolate gene added to the pudding. What a yummy color!

The pup on the right is correctly registered as Chocolate-Sable and White.

Again, from the ARTA Standard, "CHOCOLATE - This brown color ranges from dark to light chocolate and is the color called "liver" in many other breeds. Chocolates may also have reddish tones and be very light in color. The definitive feature of a Chocolate Rat Terrier is the self-colored nose pigment. The presence of any black hairs or black pigment (nose and eye rims) means the dog is Tan and not Chocolate."

When grown up this pup will be the color of his dam, with one striking difference. His nose leather is self-colored, not black.

This dog is another example of Chocolate-Sable and White.

When you move your curser over the picture you will see this dog as an adult. You will also notice that this is NOT a Rat Terrier. She is our kiss'n cousin, the Teddy Roosevelt Terrier. To my best knowledge the Teddy does not have a definiton of color statement AND it lists RED as a separate color in its UKC standard. If one looks at this list one might be tempted to call this dog simply RED.

Big thanks to Michelle Hamblet for these pictures of a Chocolate-Sable & White Teddy Roosevelt Terrier.