FAQ - Colors of the Malamute
Gray & White, Seal &
White, Sable & White, White,
Red & White, Agouti,
Whats the difference between the genetic colors & official
colors?
What color is my dog?
The color of the Malamute as determined by the AKC & AMCA
depends on the color of the nose pigment, the guard coat tips and bands, and
then the undercoat. The official available colors in 2007 don't make much sense because of what they leave out.
Here are
some examples of dogs, their registered color, and their ACTUAL color. For
the genetics behind colors, see Malamute Genetics (soon).
Gray & White
Black nose/lips/eye rims & black-tipped guard coat;
gray,
white or buff banding on the guard coat;
white, buff or beige undercoat.
Summer is a Wolf Gray & White dog because
she is a gray dog with a beige undercoat, registered as a Gray &
White. The beige is actually sable but the modifiers turn it very
pale. Other Wolf Gray & Whites @ Wayeh - Hope, Storm,
Sunny, Seranade, Brady,
Shiver, Tori, Amak,
Winter, Cali, & Nikko.
Mariah is a Dark Gray & White.
Standing next to a gray she looks almost seal. Standing next to a Seal,
she looks dark gray. Her hair is dark steal gray, with a buff or beige
undercoat.
Seal & Whites
Black nose/lips/eye rims & black-tipped guard coat w/gray or white bands;
appears black from a distance but
has white guard hairs mixed in black;
white or beige undercoat.
Justice is a Seal & White, you can see the white hairs through the
black coat. There are no brown hairs on her anywhere, even hocks.
Other Seals @ Wayeh - Singer, Tom T.
Akela is also a Seal & White, less white, but
it's there, and she has sabling on her ears & hocks. Other Seals w/
Sabling @ Wayeh - Honey, Music
Sable & Whites
Black nose/lips/eye rims & black-tipped guard coat;
ORANGE or RED undercoat.
Maestro is a Black Sable & White, a seal
with a sable undercoat, he is registered as a Sable & White. Maestro
inherited the Seal guard coat from his dam, and the sable undercoat from his
Gray Sable father. Other Black Sables @ Wayeh - Parka
Kayobi is a Gray Sable & White because she
is a gray dog with a sable undercoat, registered as a Sable & White.
She inherited the gray guard coat from her sire, and the red undercoat from her
Red Sable & White dam. Other Gray Sables @ Wayeh - Karma,
Rtic
Whites
Black nose/lips/eye rims,
all white guard and undercoat,
from tip to skin.
IceBear is an all white dog, white from tip to skin, with black nose pigment.
Red & Whites
Liver nose/lips/eye rims & red (called brown or liver)
guard coat.
Guard hair shaft varies from dark red to bright red to cream
to white;
undercoat also varies from darkest to lightest red.
Also reds
can have sabling on the face, hocks, etc. They are all still bunched
awkwardly under the label red & white.
Sadie is a medium red & white, you can clearly see the white in her coat and
the sabling under her eyes. A sunburned red can look ORANGE
throughout. Protected from the sun, the coat can appear brown.
The genetics of reds and the registered colors are completely
illogical.
 |
Red dog with white undercoat = Red & White |
|
Red dog with white undercoat & sabling = Red & White |
|
Red dog with orange undercoat = Red & White |
|
Red dog with orange undercoat & sabling = Red &
White |
|
Light red, medium red, and dark red dogs are all Red &
White. |
These are NOT the same colors, except when registering the dog.
Agouti & White
Clay is registered Gray & White, but he's not.
His hair is much darker gray than a gray dog, and more steal colored than a
Seal. He was born nearly solid black and his "whites" were sooty
dark gray for weeks until they lightened to light gray then to white. He
has a lot of brown mixed in with the dark gray as well as sabling -- which is
distinctly orange, not brown. He was a muddy-faced puppy, dark sooty gray,
not seal and not gray. Unless you saw him as a puppy, you might
think he was a dark gray & white, he is an Agouti & White.
Why the genetics & official colors
make no sense
The AKC/AMCA also has the above approved colors (gray &
white, seal & white, sable & white, white, red & white) plus:
|
Black & White - black nose pigment, black tipped guard
coat w/ black bands, black undercoat - black down to skin; not a common
Malamute color and often is soft-coated. |
|
Silver & White - black nose pigment, black tipped guard
coat with white bands and white undercoat. |
|
Blue & White - nose pigment slate gray, a dilute of gray
or black, coat is slate gray as well, without the distinctive banding of
non-dilute colors. |
|
Brown & White - who knows. This was one of the
earliest colors used, but was it a wolf gray, a sable, or a red? |
The eliminated Wolf colors (wolf gray & wolf sable), the
other Sables & the Reds are the main reasons these colors make no
sense. But the diehard traditionalists think Malamutes are only gray, so
these colors aren't addressed properly yet. There is sabling, which is
orange color on the face, ears, head, and hocks. There is also sable,
which is an orange undercoat particularly over the ribs. A dog can have
sabling without sable, and sable without sabling. Sabling does NOT have
anything to do with the registered color of the dog.
|
Gray dog with white undercoat = Gray & White |
|
Gray dog with white undercoat & sabling = Gray &
White |
|
Gray dog with orange undercoat = Sable & White |
|
Gray dog with orange undercoat & sabling = Sable &
White |
Thus Sabling does NOT affect the registered color, it's a
separate gene and isn't tied to the guard coat or the undercoat genes.
Same holds true for the Seal colors. In reds, they are all red/whites,
with no allowances for sable reds which would be red & whites with sable
undercoats.
How to determine my dog's color for
registration?
Note: Puppies darken, lighten, and change color. Puppy coat is often a
different color than adult coat. I had a distinctly brown puppy with black
nose who ended up as a seal sable. His puppy color was close to his adult
UNDERCOAT color. If you check a puppy's dorsal stripe, down the spine, you
will see hints of adult guard coat color. White is white, there is no need
to check further.
- What color is the nose pigment, the lip pigment, and the eye rim
pigment? Ignore the pink washed out color in the middle of the nose
that is snow nose. Ignore incomplete pigment. You're looking for
the answer BLACK or RED (liver, brown). Rarely you'll see Blue, but
that's another story. If you decided black nose pigment, the guard
hairs MUST BE tipped in black. If you decided red nose pigment, the
guard hairs MUST BE tipped in red (liver, brown).
 | If you have red pigment and red-tipped guard hairs, you have a RED
& WHITE |
| If you have black pigment and black-tipped guard hairs, keep going. |
The black pigment and black-tipped guard hairs are common to the rest of
the colors. Run your hand backwards along the shoulder blades of the
dog, this will reveal the BANDING of the coat like a starburst of color with
rings, or bands, of color. In a black pigmented dog, if you see rings
of:
| Red, or bright orange, you have a SABLE & WHITE |
| Black or dark gray all the way to skin, you have a BLACK & WHITE |
| Black with distinctive white bands, you have a SEAL & WHITE |
| Beige, buff, &/or white, you have a GRAY & WHITE |
| White, you have a SILVER & WHITE |
Agouti & White is determined at birth, as evidenced by a sooty face that
fades into the more traditional color patterns and if you only meet the dog
after this happens, you will think dark gray & white or possibly seal &
white. |
Wayeh
Alaskan Malamutes
