Development of a Sable vs a Red
Photos courtesy and copywrite Carrie Hale (Haley).

NOTE: GRAPHIC INTENSIVE PAGE, HAVE PATIENCE FOR SLOW LOADING TIME

These are a series of comparative photos from birth of littermates, one sable, the other red. The sable gene is a bit mysterious, the color usually appears when a dog is carrying the BHT gene. But, not always! There is said to be sable dogs that are "pure for red" (ie not carrying a tri gene). Unfortunately, this picture series shows that there's not much to tell a young sable from a red. Some sables can start very dark overall as pups, but others, like this one, are just about the same as their red littermates. Intensity of darkness early on does not necessarily correlate with a darker sable either.

Go to the Color Genetics page for discussion on inheritance of colors in the Pembroke.

Sable at 2 weeks old, no difference in color from 1 week old.	Littermates at 3 weeks, Sable (l), red (r). Not much difference!

Littermates at 3 weeks, Sable (l), red (r). Note muzzle of sable is darker. A dog that will have a smutty muzzle at an older age may also look similar to this but would probably not have darker areas on the bridge of the muzzle.	Sable at 11 weeks, no very obvious indications of sabling.

Sable at 5 months of age, neck sabling obvious.	Mature sable at 2 yrs of age (photo reversed left to right).