coat color

3597 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Betsy Iole, May 25, 2004

duchessdad

Discussion Starter · Apr 24, 2004

My wife brought home a bassett pup a week ago. She bought it from a fellow that I once trained with in martial arts. She's seen the mother but not the father of the pups. All of the pups except the one she brought home had the "traditional" markings of the bassett, tri-color or markedly bi-color. The pup she brought home is 95% tan with a little white on the chest and what looks to be the beginning of black all the way down the back from shoulder to the tip of the tail. Is it rare to have a bassett pup with this coloration or is the pup not of pure blood line? I can't get my camera up and running for some reason or I'd post pics. The answer isn't going to change the pups status at the house as all of us fell in love with her the minute she came in the house but I'd like to know whether I'm going to be dealing with a bassett mentality as she gets older or a mix breed mentality. Thanks in advance for your help.

Jeff

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Barbara Winters

· #2 · Apr 25, 2004

Jeff,

I've seen all sorts of combinations and patterns of black, brown, white, tan and red so I'd say you can't tell if it's purebred by the color. Wait until she grows up a bit and if she walks like a basset, talks like a basset, acts like a basset and looks like a basset then you proably have a purebred basset. But the bottom line is you'll never know with 100 % certainty, even with papers, unless you do DNA testing.

Sounds like she's already got you under her "spell"!

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duchessdad

Discussion Starter · #3 · Apr 26, 2004

Mrs. Winters, thanks for your response. She definetly looks and walks (waddles) like a bassett. We haven't heard her speak yet. I've always taken a stand-offish approach to the dogs I've had until I'm sure that they understand that I'm the alpha of the pack. It just seems to make training easier. The second my wife sat Duchess in my lap that went out the window. I strongly believe that the reason for that, other than her inate "cuteness", is her uncanny resemblance to a hound dog that grew up with me as a child. He was with us for 15 years and was very much a part of the family. Sadly, I was overseas in the military when he passed away so there was no closure to speak of with him. Duchess looks so much like him in the face that it's almost like a reincarnation of him. Again, thanks for the response. I love the site and hope to become a member with something to contribute.

Respecfully,
Jeff

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Mikey T

· #4 · May 22, 2004

But the bottom line is you'll never know with 100 % certainty, even with papers, unless you do DNA testing.

To clarify, as Barbara knows, DNA testing can not identify breed but can be used to establish paternity. So it verifies who the parents are not the breed of dog. Of course, if the parents are purebred, then so are the offspring.

Click to expand...

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Betsy Iole

· #5 · May 25, 2004

The era of assignment of individual dogs to breeds is here.

In Genetic Structure of the Purebred Domestic Dog by Heidi Parker et al., Science journal, Vol. 304, 5/21/04, investigators claim that microsatellite genotypes were used to correctly assign 99% of individual dogs studied to breeds.

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