# Tri Color Question



## JFlowersLA (Oct 14, 2009)

So I've been seeing a lot of these tri color bullies popping up. Now, to me, they look like they could have some Rottie or Dobie blood somewhere in there due to the markings. But does anyone know where the color came from?

Example:


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## ABK (Dec 30, 2006)

Here ya go. This article should answer all your questions: "Hey! That Dawg Don't Look Purebred..."


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## JFlowersLA (Oct 14, 2009)

Thank you!! That's going to answer alot of questions on this site right there! I know Lisa could use this on her Genetics question.

I couldn't find this when I google'd it...Need someone else to do it I guess! HAHA!


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## Patch-O-Pits (Jan 12, 2008)

On another not...

In ADBA, the color is not called tri. For example they would use the color term black and tan instead.

Tri colored is used as the UKC term for it.

I've seen many Sorrell dogs that are tri-colored

I've only personal seen 2 tri's shown locally in UKC but know of others.
I've seen plenty in ADBA.


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## bahamutt99 (May 14, 2008)

I really like the red tris. Unfortunately, you don't see that color popping up too often in quality programs. The Sorrells/Tatonka dogs throw a lot of the black tris, and you see the blue tris a lot in bully lines. I was told that from a genetic standpoint, tan points can transfer onto any color, but you see them better against some than others.


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## PBN (Aug 1, 2009)

I think some tri's look great.


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## aimee235 (Apr 29, 2007)

Patch-O-Pits said:


> On another not...
> 
> In ADBA, the color is not called tri. For example they would use the color term black and tan instead.
> 
> ...


When I called the UKC to find out what color to register Zenith as they said I couldn't register her as a tri color because it wasn't a recognized color for the breed. She's registered as black/seal/white I believe. Her points are really hard to see, but there there.


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## pitbullgirl22 (Jul 27, 2008)

Alot of the Sorrels/Tatonka stuff go way back to some of the same stuff as Irish Jerry's. No I don't know his name for sure this is just what I've heard him called. His dogs are mainly tri-colored. They are heavily line bred from old school dogs that were brought over from Ireland. Who knows where the tri color comes from originally.


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## IndianCreek (Dec 10, 2005)

They are not similar to I.J's in any way other than the fact that if you go back 20+ generations they will trace back to some Colby dogs, but those were not predominantly B&T. The majority of lines out there today will trace back to similar backgrounds such as Colby, Heinzl, Tudor, Lightner, etc...... They are all related in some way as they were all developed from dogs imported to the United States.


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## mikey077 (Mar 20, 2009)

its from recessive genes


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## hell no they wont go (Oct 4, 2007)

awh i love tri collored bullys and apbts!


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## dixieland (Aug 14, 2009)

I have a question about the bully girl I just got.I'm not sure if she's considered just blue fawn or tri colored.She's mostly all fawn with white on the back of her neck,going down her face between her eyes all the way down her neck into her chest.And then has blue patches around her eyes and on the sides of her neck.
I hope that's kinda easy to understand.I need to take pics to post,but the camera's broken.
So is that considered tri colored since she has the fawn,white,and blue?


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## hell no they wont go (Oct 4, 2007)

dixieland said:


> I have a question about the bully girl I just got.I'm not sure if she's considered just blue fawn or tri colored.She's mostly all fawn with white on the back of her neck,going down her face between her eyes all the way down her neck into her chest.And then has blue patches around her eyes and on the sides of her neck.
> I hope that's kinda easy to understand.I need to take pics to post,but the camera's broken.
> So is that considered tri colored since she has the fawn,white,and blue?


i dont think that would be tri colored. i might be wrong. but tri colored dogs have rottie like markings and tend to be browns,whites,and blacks. like the bully in the original post.


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## IndianCreek (Dec 10, 2005)

GaPit's & CynthiaAtl's "Zydeco"


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## IndianCreek (Dec 10, 2005)

Left to Right GaPit's "Green Envy", "Grits", and "Stoney"


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## IndianCreek (Dec 10, 2005)

Tatonka's (GaPit's) ADBA Ch. "Macho"


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## IndianCreek (Dec 10, 2005)

GaPit's "Hush Puppy"


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## IndianCreek (Dec 10, 2005)

GaPit's "Nakoma"


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## IndianCreek (Dec 10, 2005)

GaPit's "Stitches" taking a bow for all you nice folks at GoPitbull!!!


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## jeep lex (Jan 29, 2009)

GAPITS said:


> Tatonka's (GaPit's) ADBA Ch. "Macho"


thats a beautiful dog id love a tri apbt but i honestly id take a any apbt


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## hell no they wont go (Oct 4, 2007)

GAPITS said:


> GaPit's "Hush Puppy"


beutiful dog. my friends dogt would look like that if she wasnt such a blubber butt! the markings and color are alomst exactly like hers though.


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## jbh38 (Apr 26, 2008)

Here's one of our latest tri's, and a few of his sisters...lol

These were taken a couple of weeks ago











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Oh, and Tommy, my new patterdale


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## FloorCandy (Feb 19, 2009)

I searched and couldn't find it, but someone posted a great link on the history of tri color, and why it became uncommon for a bit, perhaps Keith posted it? I remember it being a great article, and I hope whoever posted it originally will repost it.


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## IndianCreek (Dec 10, 2005)

"Hey! That Dawg Don't Look Purebred..."

An explanation of the tan-point pattern sometimes seen in the American Pit Bull Terrier

by Ed & Chris Faron

where does the black and tan "Rottweiler looking" pattern come from, and is it a sign that an APBT is not purebred? Since this color pattern pops up more frequently in our bloodline than in some others, we have been asked about this on quite a few occasions. We thought we would take the time to write up a short article explaining this color pattern, how it is inherited, and where it comes from. The tan point pattern is caused by a recessive gene on the Agouti series gene locus, the following are the alleles (variations) that are definitely known to occur in the American Pit Bull Terrier. There are also a couple of other genes on this same locus, but they are most likely not present in this breed, so we will ignore them in this article to try and keep things simple.

A 14 week old black & tan APBT puppy. Though unusual-looking, this pattern is a perfectly natural coloration for a Pit Bull.
Agouti locus alleles present in the APBTADominant Black: produces a solid color (ie.black, chocolate or blue) *see note belowayDominant Yellow - Produces reds and buckskinsatTan-Point (recessive)- produces solid color with tan 'points'
*Note: There is strong evidence to suggest that there are either two separate genes causing a solid black coat, or possibly even just one gene that is NOT on the agouti locus, but that is a whole different matter we'll save for another article. If black is in fact not an agouti locus gene then Dominant Yellow should be expressed as Ay instead of ay.

A dog needs to inherit two copies of the tan-point gene to be a black & tan. If a pup inherits one copy of the tan-point gene and one copy of the dominant yellow gene, which causes a red or buckskin coloration, then the dog will be red or buckskin, not black and tan. If the dog inherits one copy of the tan-point gene and one of the dominant black gene, the result will be a solid black dog. Because of the recessive nature of the tan-point gene, it can actually remain hidden in the gene pool for many generations without expressing itself. In the case of our breed (where this is not a common color) this is what often happens, but it is important to realize that when the tan-point pattern does pop up it is not some new color mutation that appeared out of nowhere, but rather the manifestation of a gene that has been present in this breed all throughout the known history of the American Pit Bull Terrier. Though it is impossible to say for sure where the coloration originated, our best guess would be that it came from some sort of terrier blood that was introduced many, many years ago, probably during the early formation of the breed in the British Isles.

Actually, part of the reason the color is uncommon is that there has been a distinct prejudice against it by many people, either because they feel it is not a typical Pit Bull color, or even actually thought it was the result of a mixed breeding. The latter reason shows an ignorance of basic genetic principles, because the gene is recessive, there is no way you could breed a Rottweiler or a Doberman or Manchester Terrier to a Pit Bull and get puppies with the tan-point markings unless the Pit Bull was carrying the tan-point gene too. If in fact the black and tan color was not present in the APBT gene pool, you would have to breed to a dog of another tan-point breed, and then breed two offspring from such a breeding back together to get black & tan dogs, in the first generation you would get no tan-pointed offspring.

The tan point gene does not actually create a black & tan animal, the gene itself does not produce any color but rather a pattern of a solid color with light-colored 'points'. These 'points' always appear in specific places but the actual size and distribution of them is somewhat variable. The exact coloration that is produced by the tan-point gene is dependant on the color genes present at other loci, for instance if the pigmentation is black, the result will be a black & tan, but if the dog's pigmentation is chocolate or blue then the pattern would produce a chocolate & tan or a blue & tan, respectively. A few of the possible tan-point variations seen include the following:

http://www.wildsidekennels.com/articles/wskboots_small.jpg (http://localhost/wildside1114/articles/wskboots.jpg)Black & Tan A classic black & tan. This particular dog also has white markings -- the black, tan & white combination is also known as 'tricolor'.

http://www.wildsidekennels.com/articles/twotone_small.jpg (http://www.wildsidekennels.com/articles/twotone.jpg)Chocolate & Tan When the tan-point pattern is coupled with red/red nose (chocolate) the result is chocolate & tan.

http://www.wildsidekennels.com/articles/amy_small.jpg (http://www.wildsidekennels.com/articles/amy.jpg)Black & Buckskin When combined with buckskin instead of red, the pattern creates a pattern of much lighter points; with extremely pale buckskins the coloration might even be mistaken for black & white at first glance.

White markings are caused by an entirely different set of genes, and appear the same way on a tan-point dog as they would on any other color, if present -- a tan-point dog may even be spotted, in which case the spots would be two different colors depending on whether the spots were over areas where the tan-point pattern was present. Brindling, if the dog is a brindle, will only be seen in the tan points, in fact if the tan-point dog is very heavily brindled then the brindled areas may make the dog appear to be a solid color instead of a tan-point.

(We have a couple of photos of brindled black & tans and brindled chocolate & tans but are still looking for them at this time, we will scan them and add them to this page when we find them.)

Another interesting thing to keep in mind is that the dominant yellow gene does not always mask the tan-point gene entirely; this is known as 'incomplete dominance'. With incomplete dominance, a buckskin or red dog that is carrying the tan-point gene will have the tan-point pattern visible in the form of a pattern of black (or chocolate, or blue) hairs mixed into the coat in the places a tan-point dog would have been solid colored. This is referred to as 'sabling' in most breeds. Here are a couple of examples of sabled APBTs:


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## IndianCreek (Dec 10, 2005)

http://www.wildsidekennels.com/articles/dirty_small.jpg (http://www.wildsidekennels.com/dogs/bitches/wildsides_dirty_buckskin.jpg) A reddish-buckskin bitch with black sabling. The amount of sabling seen varies from dog to dog, in this case it is quite pronounced, resulting in a mask pattern on the face, etc.

http://www.wildsidekennels.com/articles/babyblue_small.jpg (http://www.wildsidekennels.com/articles/babyblue.jpg)
A red bitch with blue sabling. This is an interesting combination because by carrying both the tan-point and blue genes (both rare) this bitch if bred to a male with the same make-up could possibly produce blue & tan offspring, a color (to the best of our knowledge) previously unheard of in the breed. (The puppy in partial view on the right is a black-sabled red)

http://www.wildsidekennels.com/articles/wildsides_dementia_small.jpg (http://www.wildsidekennels.com/dogs/foundation/wildsides_dementia.jpg)
A brindle bitch with black sabling -- the sabling is less noticeable because of the stripes (and also the black mask this bitch has) but the pattern can still be seen, especially in the face area -- note the 'points' over each eye.

Our own first encounter (besides seeing pictures in various books) with a tan-pointed APBT was a litter we had off a half brother-sister breeding off a son and daughter of our old Bandit dog. Bandit himself never threw a black & tan, because the bitches we were breeding him to (mostly Nigerino, Honeybunch, and Snooty bitches) did not carry the gene. He did throw a fair number of sabled pups, but at that time we were not that familiar with coat color genetics and it never occurred to us that these "dirty buckskins" as we called the color, were caused by the tan-point gene, as we had never seen a tan-pointed APBT firsthand. Then out of Renegade and Maggie came a litter of blacks and brindles -- and one big male marked just like a Rottweiler, except with brindling in the points. We picked him as our keeper because we thought his coloration was a novelty, in fact we named him "Wilside's Devil Dog" (call name Pitweiler) as a joke because of his markings; this attempt at humor would later cause us a bit of aggravation when someone who saw Pitweiler spread a rumor that we had a pet Rottweiler and were crossing it into our APBTS...
Anyway, Pitweiller was the first of numerous black & tans we have had since, plus a few chocolate & tans. Most of them came from doubling up on Bandit in some way or another, except for one breeding to an inbred Ch. Booker T bitch we made with Rapid Roy that resulted in a litter of mostly black & tans. We have also seen tan-pointed pups from several other bloodlines, so while the gene is fairly rare it is probably a lot more common than most people would think. Whether you find the tan-point pattern interesting and appealing, or think it makes a dog look like a "mutt", the fact is it has been a part of our breed for probably well over a century, and will continue to exist.


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## IndianCreek (Dec 10, 2005)

That is a great article explaining the black and tan!! Hope it is the one you were looking for


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## OldFortKennels (Mar 10, 2006)

When I think tricolor or black and tan I think of Tatonkas stud dog

TATONKA KENNELS STUD DOGS


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## IndianCreek (Dec 10, 2005)

OldFortKennels said:


> When I think tricolor or black and tan I think of Tatonkas stud dog
> 
> TATONKA KENNELS STUD DOGS


We own his mother Ann, we purchased her from Tatonka after XXX's litter and also have two full siblings from an earlier litter. He is a beautiful dog and a great example of a black and tan.


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## santy (May 13, 2011)

Can someone tell me if this is considered to be a tri colored pitbull


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## bahamutt99 (May 14, 2008)

It looks like a tricolor to me, just with a lot of white.


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## santy (May 13, 2011)

thank u she is cow pattern besides the brown u see in her face so i am not sure if she is a tri if any one could help i would be very grateful


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## bahamutt99 (May 14, 2008)

White is a masking color. The colors you see on her head are what color she would be if she didn't have all that flash (white). She is still a tricolor. The cow pattern you refer to is called either pied or piebald. It is simply a pattern where white covers the majority of the body except for large patches of color. You can have red pied, black pied, tricolor pied, blue pied, brindle pied, etc. Doesn't change the dog's base color.


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