Seal, Ghost Tri & Fading Gray in English Shepherds

My very first English Shepherd litter was between Bec and Ed Lynn Jarratt's Russ, who I assumed was a black and white boy.  It wasn't until I began my quest on what color Dillon was, that it was determined that Russ was also seal, as was Jan Hilborn's Cally, who's sire is also Russ. Jan had always referred to Cally as being Cally-colored, which I thought was delightful. Cally had Cally-colored pups in her litters.

Bec gave birth on June 4, 2003.  Dillon was the third one born.  At birth, I thought he was black & white, but as he dried, it was obvious that he was more of a "chocolate" color instead.  Brian stated that we could keep Dillon since he was chocolate.  I informed him that there was no such thing within the ES breed, but I would find out what color he was.  It only took about 6 months to determine that Dillon was seal. This was accomplished with the help of Mary Peaslee, who discussed this with some leading dog genetic experts.  Dillon's color was a mystery no longer!  Once this fell into place, then determining that Russ & Cally were also seal was a piece of cake.

So what made it so hard to determine Dillon's color?  It is my understanding that Seal is caused by having an Incomplete Dominant Black gene.  Under normal circumstances, Dillon should have been a black and white boy.  Black tends to "mask" whatever else the ES could have been color-wise, if the Dominant Black gene was not present.  This could have been a tanpoint (black tan or tri-color) or a sable coat color.  In Dillon's case, he would have been Sable, which is what shines through his Incomplete Dominant Black coat and gave a brownish cast to his coat.   Russ, Cally & littermate Ace all tended to have more of a gray undercoat, instead of a sable one, but still carried the sable gene.

The other thing that all four of these dogs had going on was the fading gray gene.  In the case of Russ, Cally & Ace, they all faded out to a gray coloring on their body, before changing back to more of a black look around 4 -6 months in age.  Lynn always said that Russ was "Possum Gray" at that time.  I have seen pictures of Russ & truly he was gray except for his head, which stayed black.  Since Dillon was showing a sable undercoat, he faded out to a funky shade of sable instead.

Several of Dillon's offspring have seal coats, but didn't have the fading gray to go along with it.  However, Holly, Dillon's shaded sable girl, did the fading gray thing.

So, what do you look for in your pups to see if they might be seal in color?  Between 4-6 weeks in age, you should start to see a crescent moon shape of lighter coloring around the outside of the eyes.  With Dillon & Ace, this is very obvious, but remember that they have the fading gray going on as well.  With Enka, Dubie & EC, I had to watch and wait until they were at least 6 weeks in age before I could capture it on film.  With them, their coat was not as dramatic, but definitely had a "reddish/brown" tint to it before they left at 8 weeks in age.  I did have one other pup that appeared to be black and white at 8 weeks.  She later became seal as well.

Seal colored dogs are also black pointed.  Wherever the color goes to a point on the dog, then it should be going black - the tips of the ears, the end of the tail, the feet and the nose.  This was very obvious on Dillon as he got a little older and the ticking began to show up in his white stockings.  The higher up the leg the ticking was, then it was browner in color.  As you got down to his feet, then the ticking became black spots instead.  Interestingly enough, I have been told that seal dogs are supposed to have black nose leather.  Dillon was an exception with a dark brown nose that matches his coat coloring.

I really never had to think about the possibility of a ghost tri here at my house, but ran into it recently when I was looking at a litter in VA in 2019. These were Dillon's grandpups and I was hoping to bring one of them home with me. I originally thought the litter was split between tri-colors or black and tan and seal colored pups. I could see the "reddish" tint to the puppies' fur. However, once I returned home I realized that the tell-tale crescent sign located on the outside of the eyes was not present on these pups. This was the second litter between the parents. Neither litter produced any sable pups. I also knew that the dam's sisters were tanpoint under their black coats. These pups did not appear to have seal coats after all. In fact, one of the males distinctly showed tan markings on the cheeks of his face.

In general, the ghost tri ES will have tan markings shining through either on their faces or on their legs. Sometimes it will show up on a young pup, but most of the time it develops with age. I have come to believe that there are probably a good number of ES who have been labeled as seal, who are in fact a ghost tri instead. See Dillon's daughter Marigold's page to see a ghost tri English Shepherd.