We can make this conversation as simple or as complicated as you want. We can talk all the fancy genetic mumbo jumbo, or we can keep it really simple. I like the simple, but I will link a great website below where you can learn more.
Ok, There are only really 2 coat colours in Staffords, and that’s because there are only 2 types of color pigment in dogs. You’ve got Red colour pigment and Black colour pigment. That’s it. I’ve never seen a pure black Stafford before. I’m sure they exist, but every Stafford I’ve ever seen that appeared black, when viewed in direct sunlight, turned out to be a brindle with very heavy brindling. You could always see flecks of red shining through from beneath the black stripes. So for the sake of this article, wherever you see black described as a coat colour, I mean a brindle dog with such heavy brindling that it appears almost black.
Red pigment in a Staffords coat can be expressed as a dark rich Irish setter red or as any shade of red, golden, tan, all the way to a pale almost creamy yellow depending on how a dogs genes instruct the cells to express the intensity of the Red colour pigment. Red colour pigment is found only in a dogs coat and not their eyes or nose.
Black pigment in a Staffords coat can also be expressed as a rich dark black or brown, or as any shade of black or brown fading to the lightest grey again based upon how the dogs genes instruct their cells to express the intensity of the black colour pigment. Black colour pigment also affects the darkness or lightness of a dogs nose and eyes.
As far as coat colour pigment in Staffords that’s it, Red pigment, or Black pigment. And the intensity of the pigment is directly related to how the dogs genes instruct the cells to express that pigment. Red is also sometimes referred to as Fawn but it means exactly the same thing.
Staffords can also have white on them. A Stafford can have just a small amount of white in their coat giving them white markings, or the white can cover the whole dog making the dog appear to be all white. The white areas on a dog are areas where the dogs cells don’t produce any colour pigment and can also affect the colour of a dogs nose and eyes if the nose and eyes are surrounded by areas of white.
So, now we’ve talked about Red dogs, Black dogs, or any of the above with any amount of white.
Now, let’s talk Coat “Patterns”. The main coat pattern we see in Staffords is Brindle.
Brindle, basically speaking, is a Black Stripey Overlay that lays on top of the base colour red. The Brindle pattern can express itself as faint thin sparse black stripes laid over a predominantly red (or any shade of red) dog. Brindle can also express itself with big thick heavy black stripes laid on top of the red coat, so much so, that the dog appears predominantly black with just a few faint thin sparse red stripes showing through the heavy brindling. Staffords with any type of brindle pattern are referred to as simply “brindle” regardless of whether the brindling is light or heavy or the intensity of the red colour pigment in the base coat is dark rich red or a light tan.
There are a few exceptions to the above worth noting. The first is caused by the ‘Dilution Gene’. The ‘dilution gene’ affects a Staffords colouring by instructing all of a dogs cells to dilute all of the black pigment on the whole dog to grey, including any black colour pigment in the eyes, nose, skin, etc. Some people refer to these grey dogs as ‘blue’, but they are technically not blue they are grey. The Dilution gene causes all of the cells to dilute their black pigment to grey. Keep in mind that if the dog is a Brindle but is also a dilute, then all the black brindle pattern will be grey instead of black. A Dilute Brindle dog would commonly be referred to as a ‘Blue Brindle’, and a Dilute Red dog would commonly be referred to as a ‘Blue Fawn’. Because a Red dog has little to no black colour pigment in their coat, the dilution gene affects only the black colour pigment in the eyes, nose, and skin.
That’s the gritty basics of coat colouring. There are other patterns that can show up in Staffords from time to time such as black and tan, pied, smut, black masks on the face, and too many other genetic variants to mention. But, 9 times out of 10, your Stafford will either be Red, Black, Brindle, or a dilute of Red, Black, or Brindle, with any amount of white.
That’s pretty much it. Keep it simple.
For more fancy science talk about coat colour genetics follow this link
Firestone Staffords 