Unusual coloring/markings

[Ashley Howell]

My Frenchie, Giselle aka Gigi, is 5 months old and I love her! I wondered if anyone has seen markings/coloring like this on a Frenchie before? I get more comments about it on the street!!! I haven't been able to find any Frenchie photos with this black outlining around the fawn. Her mom was a black brindle, and the dad a black-masked fawn.

[Tatiana]

I've seen the combination before... It's more commonplace in Europe and especially amongst the Eastern European imports... A couple of friends of mine have females with similar markings - both of Ukrainian descent and purchased from the same importer. The black-masked fawns are more prevalent throughout Europe though they are starting to be exhibited more commonly around the United States... A kennel in Texas has been breeding pieds with fawn + brindle markings, red fawn, and "lemon" pied (a yellower fawn coloring) for several years so am sure that their descendents are probably quite prevalent around the country (people I know purchased a male many years ago)... Cheers!

[Ashley Howell]

Interesting... I got her from a breeder in northern Ohio - farm country. Both parents were on site.

[Gargouilles]

Gigi is a black masked fawn pied but I've never seen the black edging around fawn patches even on the rest of the body! Very cool! :)

[Ashley Howell]

Thanks, Gargouilles! She was a blue-grey pied when she was a few weeks old and I saw her. Then as she got a few weeks older it separated out or something into the fawn with black edging. (I would never buy from those import breeders! Accckkk!!) Cant wait for her to be full-grown and her head to be bigger!!

[Trish]

Gigi sure is cute! And I've actually seen her coloring on quite a few dogs. A breeder I had been talking with sent me an e-mail about a pied male she had available. I had e-mailed her a few months ago when my husband and I were thinking about getting another Frenchie.. unfortunately we already purchased a puppy before she contacted me, otherwise we would have gotten this little boy with markings very similar to Gigi's!

Here is a link to a picture of the little boy she e-mailed me about. Hopefully it's alright if I link to a breeder's page. I would have just saved the picture and attached it to my response, but the right click option to save the picture is disabled on her web-site.

http://www.hallmarkfrenchbulldogs.com/Nursery/PuppiesAvailable.htm

[Ashley Howell]

Wow!!! Thanks for sending that link. Looks like her twin! Glad to know she's not some weird freak of nature. Lol

[Carol]

Hello,
Gigi is a cutie. My frenchie is a pied baby too . I got her from a breeder in Arizona. I was told her bloodlines are from Europe. I think they are the cutest .

[Jlamp]

She's beautiful. I haven't ever seen one like her before.

[FrogDogz]

My Tessa was, in her youth, colored similarly - she was a deep, red fawn, with a black mask, and with black edging around the fawn patches in her coat.


Now, in her old age (she's fifteen next month), she's faded to a pale biscuit color, and her black has been replaced with white.

Ironically enough, she is behind the pedigree of the puppy Trish linked to below - she is that puppy's Great Great Grandmother.

Tessa is out of primarily UK lines - her grandfather was exported to the USA from England, because fawn pied is a DQ color there. The European coloring that Tatiana mentioned has been established mainly due to a pair of British bred dogs that were exported to Russia, and have been extensively used there and in Eastern Europe. So, while the color may be common in EE dogs, it was first seen in UK bred dogs brought to North America.

Tessa in her youth, next to her brother Hammer --

Tessa in her senior years --

[Ashley Howell]

Wow, 15 yrs old! That is a great life for a Frenchie! I hope the black edging stays on mine- Her facial mask is really dark and prevalent so I'd think so.

[FrogDogz]

Ashley, the black edgings will fade from grey to white with age - it's common on black masked brindles, as well.

What will NOT fade are any areas that are black pigmented SKIN - you can see that on Tessa, around her nose and on her lips. The hair there is completely white - what black you see is on her skin.

Don't worry, when it happens you'll find it just as adorable, as it's a 'badge of honor' for our Frenchies to live long enough to grey :)

[jill]

OMG! Is there anything more endearing than that lovely face?? Senior dogs are my weakness...She's just beautiful, Carol. :)