Dog Coat Pattern: Sable, Brindle, and Stocks
Sable-Colored Pattern Dogs: The term “sable” in the English language originally meant “black.” Quite separately, it is also the name of a ferret-like wild animal traditionally hunted and killed for its fur—and those furs were also referred to as “sable.”
But in the domestic animal world, sable has quite a different meaning. A sable coat in a domestic or show dogs is one where the hairs over some areas of the body are black-tipped where the background colour can be gold to yellow, silver, gray, or tan, but otherwise lighter in color. This gives a visually attractive “shading” effect of darker hairs lying over a lighter background.
That said, this slightly different from a ticked coat pattern, common in many cats, where the dark-tipped hairs occur over the whole body, resulting in a “barred” or lightly striped look.
Dogs that are commonly seen with sable-colored pattern coats are Shetland Sheepdog, Keeshond, Pomeranian, German Shepherd Dog, Collies, Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Cardigan Welsh Corgi, and Dachshund.
Brindle-Colored Pattern Dogs: A brindle coat consists of black or other dark-colored hairs against lighter colored hairs, resulting in an irregular, lightly striped look. Many brindle-colored dogs are commonly black and brown, or dark and beige.
Although this kind of coat is frequently associated with mixed breed dogs, it is in fact an accepted coat pattern for certain purebred dogs such as Greyhounds, which can be all brindle; and Boston Terriers, which can be brindle and white.
Some dog fanciers find brindle coats beautiful and charmingly complex, while other prefer individuals with clearer, more regular markings!
Stocking Pattern Dogs: The term “stockings,” when applied to markings on dogs, refers to a contrasting area of color over the legs. Most commonly, the term is used when the contrasting colors is white, against the rest of a black or other dark-colored coat.
If the white or contrasting color is concentrated only around the foot area, going no higher than the first joint above the paw, such markings are then normally referred to as “socks.”
Stockings and socks may appear on all four legs or feet (as seen on the third image), or on only one or two limbs—an example would be Obama’s Portuguese Water Dog, Bo.
Stockings can give a dog a very smart and charming look, almost as if it is dressed up and ready to go out! Socks may not impart quite the same dressed-up look, but they look equally if not even more appealing to many of us.
