Coat colors in Dachshund

According to FCI-standard, there are three types classified by their coats and sizes with wide variety of colours and patterns.  The short-haired and long-haired dachshunds can be single-coloured, two-coloured or dappled (tiger-brindle, brindle).

The wire-haired dachshunds have predominantly colour of light to dark wild boar, or dry-leaf colour and they can have the same colour as short-haired and long-haired dachshunds.

Suitable coat color tests for Dachshunds are:

• locus E
• locus B
• locus A
• merle

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Single-coloured dachshunds

The coat colour can be red, reddish yellow and yellow. All these colours occur with or without interspersed black hairs. An animal with genotype bb has a brown nose and animals with genotypes BB and Bb have a black nose.

Red dachshunds

The red colour appears in various modifications from mahogany, deep red in various shades, red with different degree of interspersed black hairs, red with brown pigment up to red with black cover hair and mask.  For these dachshunds, it is suitable to perform tests for locus B and locus A to detect possible carriers of sable colour, chocolate colour and/or markings (Brand).

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Sable-coloured dachshunds

The colour terminology as regards the sable colour in dachshunds is somewhat confusing. In dachshunds, the general description sable means a reddish colour with some black hairs, while the above mentioned red colour is without interspersed black hair.  For the sable-coloured dachshunds, tests for loci A, B and E are of importance in order to detect a possible carrier of marking (Brand), chocolate and/or red colour.

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Two-coloured dachshunds

The fur of two-coloured dachshunds can be deep black and deep brown, in both cases with rust-brown or yellow markings (brand) over the eyes, on sides of muzzle and of lower lip, on inner edge of leathers, on forechest, on inside and rear side of legs, also on the feet, round the vent and from there reaching to about one third or one half of the underside of the tail.

Black with markings

For black dachshunds with markings, test for locus B may be important to detect possible carrier of chocolate colour or locus E to detect a possible carrier of red colour.

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Brown with markings

For brown dachshunds with markings, test for locus E may be important to detect a possible carrier of red colour.

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Dappled (brindled) dachshunds

The colour of a brindled dachshund is red or yellow with darker brindle. For brindle the locus K, particularly the Kbr-variant (brindle allele) is responsible.

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Merle (tyger)

Continue to special artical about merle coat color.