Shaded sable with raccoon eyes

R

RileyPuppy

Forums Regular
Hi all,
I'm a proud Sheltie mommy to an almost 4-month old boy named Riley. He's a shaded sable with tri-colored markings on his face. Maybe he's tri-factored?

Anyway, I've scoured the internet trying to find a picture of another sheltie with a face like his (raccoon eyes, black markings) and I can only find it in tri-colors.

Is his coloring that unusual or have you seen another sable with a black markings on the face?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68983325@N08/6267062563/in/photostream/lightbox/
First day home. Awww.....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68983325@N08/6267099301/in/photostream/lightbox/
Picture before his ears went up.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68983325@N08/6267042677/in/photostream/lightbox/
After his ears went up.

Thanks for your input!
 
Welcome to the forum! I see you are in Ohio--we recently moved to Columbus this year.

I have seen some shelties with raccoon eyes, but never so much black as your puppy.

Did you see both of his parents? Curious as to what they looked like.
 
Riley's parents

I did see his parents. His mom was a typical sable/white girl - very friendly! His dad was like Riley except had even more black on his head. I didn't interact much with him because he wasn't allowed near the puppies. He's a young guy himself (2 yrs old) and would play too rough with the pups. I have a couple cell phone pics, but they aren't great.

Riley's Mom
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68983325@N08/6267987530/in/photostream/lightbox/

Riley's Dad
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68983325@N08/6267462465/in/photostream/lightbox/
 
Some of the pictures lead me to think he carries the masking gene, which currently is set to "no mask" in Shelties. Think German Shepherds with the black over the nose. I'd like to see that pedigree.
 
Thanks for the input!

corbinam said:
Welcome to the forum! I see you are in Ohio--we recently moved to Columbus this year.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I lived in Columbus for 4 years while I was at Ohio State and I still have family there. It's a nice area.


I appreciate the input from everyone. It's possible that Riley's dad isn't 100% sheltie, but he looks completely sheltie except for his coloring that Riley got as well.

I don't think it's a masking gene because ask Riley is getting older, the black on his muzzle is going away. When he was 8 weeks, his muzzle was all black (top pic), but now the sable on his cheeks has been creeping up and only the black around his eyes is getting more prominent. Interesting thought though!

I have seen the same coloring on many tri-color shelties, and I suspect as he gets a full coat, it'll be very shaded, and he'll look more like a tri-color with the face markings.

Since I've seen the coloring on many tri-colors, I thought that maybe somehow it transferred to sable. Since you experts haven't ever heard of this coloring, I would guess another breed somewhere on the line on the dad's side.

Thanks!
 
Dad has definitely had something "walk by" in his recent ancestry. Aussie maybe, GSD, Icelandic sheepdog, Corgi... A lot of breeds have masks, just not Shelties.

Im interested to see how it changes as he gets older.
 
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