Basically, all canine clubs and the International Cynological Association defined the standard of beagle color as “any shade of hounds, except brown.” Only here, the Kennel Club of the United States admits this color, causing controversy among dog breeders around the world about what kind of color is still acceptable.
Today we will get acquainted with the colors that are recognized as acceptable by most biglevodov, as well as rare, but no less recognized shades of these magnificent dogs.
Base colors
It is worth noting that in order to bring maximum clarity, the Kennel Club has already issued the official accepted list of beagle colors in 2010, and the editorial board clearly indicated which colors are accepted as standard and which are absolutely unacceptable.
The most memorable for most people who know or hold a bigley is a three-color coloration: the back is black, the muzzle is white, the whole body is red. Many people call this coloring classic.
And yet, variations do not stop at this, and the range is a whole variety, where it is difficult to call any one color true, and the other unacceptable. Everything is very subjective, and every book owner is proud of his beagle.
There are several basic combinations:
- bicolor;
- tricolor;
- gray tricolor;
- brown tricolor.
There are beautiful variations:
- spotted;
- spotty;
- motley.
It is worth considering them in more detail.
Bicolor
"Bee" means 2, that is, such a beagle - a two-color, usually white-red. The red color can be represented as muffled, closer to yellow, and bright, reminding, rather, red. A puppy will be born with pale spots that will darken over time. The nose will be dark. If the dog is light, the tip is more intense in color.
Tricolor
Colors are combined and interspersed in the most bizarre way, but here the tip of the tail will always have a white color. The spots have different sizes, and the dominant shade adds a beagle to an increasingly unique combination.
If there is more white, the animal will look very harmonious and innocent, while blends with black will add to the appearance of mischief. By the way, black is also not always exactly in its intensity - sometimes the color may be more pale, closer to gray, sometimes just coal, and sometimes even with a blue tint, which is also called “the color of the raven wing”. The nose is the same as in the previous case, black.
Gray Tricolor
Another tricolor version is red-white-gray. The gray shade itself is often called blue, because the ebb when illuminated or in the sun creates just such an impression. The puppy will be born white and gray, and the adult beagle has already changed its color - a redhead will be added.
The nose of the nose is a shade of a graphite pencil, the eyes are very bright, sometimes lemon shades.
Brown tricolor
In these beautiful bigley breeders have changed the gene responsible for the black color, and brightened it to chocolate. The eyes of these beauties are green, as if they have a bright brown pencil liner. Nose is also brown. Shades of this color can be so different that it is not possible to list everything - up to 190 tones! This is ocher, and all the "types" of chocolate, and sandy, and gold, and nutty, and wine, and many, many others.
It's a shame only that such a variety of brown beagles did not hit the Cynological Community, and this gorgeous color is not recognized as a standard.
Spotted
This color is jokingly called "torn tricolor" - because of how sharply the colors on the animal contrast with each other.White is like a base, and black literally “tears it up” everywhere. Sometimes you can see only black dots or spots, mixed with red.
Spotted
Representatives of this color look very impressive - both two-color and three-color beagle can wear various shapes and sizes on themselves. At first, as a rule, when the puppy was just born, no inclusions can be seen, but they appear already at 5 weeks of life. But there are really maroon puppies, which are already born with such a wonderful highlight. An interesting detail also lies in the fact that the color of the paw pads of such krapovyh dogs is solid dark, and pink happens in all other beagles.
Motley
Very unusual flavor. Different color intensities in these dogs create a rabbit-variegated color or lemon variegation. The rarest shade is badger-motley, when all the base wool is black.
Most of these hounds are found in the United Kingdom, where they are favorites of breeders because of their unusualness, and the color itself, unlike world decrees, is included in the standard.
The color of the lobe is dark, and the muzzle is necessarily red. But biglevody not very clearly define where all the boundaries of this variegation. For some, when some hairs are of one color, and blotches - of another. Others consider motley staining, when black and red hairs are evenly spread.
This color is also characterized by some peculiarity of white color, which can never be called pure. In the colorful beagle he is always either "dirty" or with all sorts of pastel impurities. The border of white and other colors is very blurred.
As we see There are a great many variations of even the several types and subtypes described, and most often, in order to avoid mistakes, only two basic colors are written into the pedigree documents of the beagle: bicolor or tricolor. Very rarely one can see additional explanations, but the owner certainly knows how unique the color of his faithful friend is, and he will always proudly explain in detail to anyone who wishes.
About the features of the beagle breed, see the following video.