BC Museum: Yellow or Tan Border Collies

THE BORDER COLLIE MUSEUM Permanent Collection

RECESSIVE YELLOW or TAN BORDER COLLIES
(AUSTRALIAN RED)

Note on the Color Pages: --PLEASE READ--

Up till now, I have accepted photos of people's dogs and have put them up on the appropriate pages when I have had the time. However, these pages are getting enormously large, for which there is a cost associated in both time and money (space costs). Furthermore, I have accumulated an enormous backlog of photos that I have not had time to put up, and given the size of the website in general, and the fact that I would like to expand it in other areas, I have not had the time to update the color pages.

So, sadly, I have come to the conclusion that I must cut back the existing pages by removing some photos and leaving only those that best represent particular colors or patterns; and I will no longer be accepting photos of other people's dogs for publication on this website except from time to time if a perfect example and a great photo comes along. . To those of you who have sent photos that have not yet gone up, I apologize for never having gotten to them.

Still, I have to say that I enjoy getting photos of your dogs and seeing for myself the huge variety there is in the breed. So, if you would like to continue sending me photos, and continue to correspond with me, I would like that very much, and am still available to answer any color questions you may have to the best of my ability.

Thank you for your support on the subject of color genetics in the Border Collie.

-- Carole Presberg, editor and curator, Border Collie Museum

In order for a dog to be sable, there must be some black tipped hairs in the dog's coat. The dogs on this page are not sable, but RECESSIVE yellow, the Golden Retriever color. The gene that causes sable and the gene that causes recessive yellow are different and located on a different locus. This color is often called red (a.k.a.,"Oz Red" or "Australian Red") in Australia. But in the USA and UK, it is called tan (and sometimes "blond" or "yellow"). The tan we are speaking of can come in every shade from deep, deep, mahogony or reddish-tan, through Golden Retriever yellow to the very pale, almost pinky-tan like Nick, below, and everything in between. Dogs with this color coat have black leather (nose, lips, eyerims).

This very handsome Border Collie is Nick who belongs to Sherry Detrich of Pownal, Maine. Here's what some of the "experts" have to say about his color:

"[Nick] looks like he is what the English Shepherd people call a 'clear sable.' Genetically this is the Golden Retriever color. The full range of shades can be from very pale wheaten to rich gold/red, and occurs in black-nosed Golden Retrievers and yellow labs. The variation in shade is due to modifiers. This color isn't uncommon in English Shepherds and we've seen photos of Border Collies that might have been this color. Some 'true sable' dogs can be a color similar to this, but will have a few black hairs usually close to the base of the tail or over the shoulders, whereas the Golden Retriever color will have black pigment restricted solely to the skin. Unless the nose, lips and eyerims are diluated to liver or blue, dilution wouldn't be involved." (Linda Rorem, California.)

"Possibly [Nick] is [genetically] 'ee' at the E-locus. I call it ee-yellow following certain geneticists but that is not a popular name and is not any less confusing than the popular names. Breeds have different names for this effect, of course, and far more confusing than that, perhaps, is the fact that the actual shade varies widely depending on [certain] 'modifiers'. The English Shepherd breed is the only breed I'm aware of that calls the effect of 'ee', 'clear sable' or 'milk sable'--usually the name for the effect of this 'ee' in dog breeds in which it occurs does NOT include the term 'sable'. For most breeds, the word 'sable' means almost by definition that there are black hairs in among the tan. But in the ee-yellow, there is no black hair anywhere on the body." (Gina Bisco, New York State.)

"[Nick is] definitely not a sable, but a recessive yellow. Genetically that means that he has gene pair 'ee'. It takes all the black-based pigment (black, brown/'red', blue) away from his coat and leaves just tan/yellow. In Nick's case the tan pigment is very pale, and so he looks cream/wheaten/choose-your-own-favourite-color-name. Theoretically ee leaves normal amount of pigment on skin, lips, eyes and nose, and it is very common that although the pups have true black nose when a few weeks old, the nose turns 'dudley' or close to solid pink later. Recessive yellow is responsible for dogs like yellow Labs, Goldens, all red, buff and lemon spaniels, apricot Poodles and many, many more. Clear sables have always at least some dark hairs or hair tips at birth and their nose is black when adult - like red Basenjis or Finnish Spitz. Recessive yellow is rather common in Finnish show type Border Collies, and so I have seen numerous of them." (Liisa Sarakontu, Finnland.)

This is Bud, who belongs to Tim Ballard of Aldergrove, British Columbia. Tim works Bud on sheep, and, although he was a rescue dog that had no obvious previous exposure to sheep before Tim adopted him, Tim says "he had good instincts". Bud was rescued by Mary Ann Lindsay of Hayden Lake, Idaho, who is actually an Australian Shepherd rescue person who "sometimes just can't leave" a BC in a shelter. We're grateful to her for not leaving behind this beautiful and talented dog.

Two more examples of "yellow" dogs are Ben (left) and Sissy, who come from Queensland, Australia. (Thanks to Sharon Webley, UK, for these photos.) Sharon quotes Tim as saying that they are "technically Australian reds although some people have called them Champagne." Sissy looks almost white, but a closer look at her ears shows the tan color. Tim says "She is marked fairly 'normally', tho it's hard to see. It was easier when she was very little. She has a big white collar, and a lot of white on her face, but her body is mostly coloured." Tim says the following about the color he calls "Australian red":

As for the colour, in Australia we have the two main red types. We have the 'Chocolate' which is the same as the American red. With the Chocolate you can have a chocolate Tri and the chocolate tends to have a liver coloured nose. We also have the Australian [Oz] red which is quite common and it's controlled by a masking gene (ee) that masks any other colour the dog has. Generally the Oz red (gold) has black nose and lips, unless it's also a chocolate, and then it has liver [leather]. Also you can't get a Oz red Tri colour (or so it seems). The coulours are masked by the Oz red. The Oz red is also very variable and ranges in colour and depth of colour.

These beautiful dogs are Honey and Teddy, who belongs to Kimberly and Marjorie Crocker. They were both rescue dogs adopted from the Chattanooga Humane Society in Tennessee. Honey is what Marjorie calls "golden", definitely a recessive yellow. Teddy is the more interesting because he does have some black shading, though he is predominantly tan. He is, in fact, genetically sable. We are very happy to be able to show such a wide range of tans, but don't forget, while tan can come in everything from the very pale, almost white, fawn color to deep mahogany tan, film quality also varies and may not give an accurate picture of a dog's real color.

This beauty is "Servo" who belongs to Andrea Martin of California (?) Andrea got Servo from a shelter three years ago and was told she was an "Aussie-Chow mix"! Not even close! This girl is all-Border Collie. Since then, Andrea has done obedience, agility, flyball and herding with Servo, and says she is very smart. In color she is very like Nick, at the top of this page, including the "Dudley nose" that one sees so often with this color.

These dogs are Kruger (far left) and Wrangler, who both belong to Jan Krehbiel of San Diego, California. They are both male, and she calls them her "blond bombshells". Kruger is a purebred Border Collie, registered with the Canadian Border Collie Registry. He came from a flyball home in Canada. His mother is a traditional black-and-white and his father, Copper, is red-and-white. Wrangler comes from Border Collie rescue. They both do flyball and agility.

This is Frodo, who belongs to Steve Bailey of the UK. Frodo lives with a tricolored Border Collie named, wait for it, Sam. Steve says: "They both live in an old timber framed cottage which was renovated (yes renovated) in 1606. The cottage backs on to the River Rother, where they spend much of the summer."