Up to at least the 17th century, Bloodhounds were of all colors, but in modern times the color range has become more restricted.
In this article, we’ll explore the Bloodhound’s standard colors and patterns and the genetics that determine how your Bloodhound looks.
Kennel Club Breed Standard Colours
According to the Breed Standard, Bloodhounds come in 3 colors: Black & Tan, Liver & Tan (Red and Tan), and Red (Tawny). However, a small amount of white is allowed on the chest, feet, and tip of the tail.
Within these colours, there are variations in patterns and shade, however, they are still classified as one of these color patterns. Darker colours are sometimes interspersed with lighter or badger-coloured hair and sometimes flecked with white.
This can go the other way also, where the saddle on the Black & Tan or Liver & Tan can be badgered or even just a few dark hairs.
Bloodhounds outside the breed standard usually have more white than is allowed for show dogs, but it makes no difference to their suitability as a pet or working dog.
Patterns
Two patterns feature on Bloodhounds, each caused by different genes – saddles and a melanistic mask.
Saddles
For saddle patterns, breeders use the terms B1, B2, B3, and B4 to grade the amount of saddle. A similar grading system is used on Liver & Tan dogs, but L1-L4 rather than B1-B4, as you might expect.
All of these saddle patterns are equally acceptable for show dogs although a B4 or full coat is a recessive gene and is usually rare to see. This means that for a bloodhound to have a full-coat Liver or full-coat Black, both of their parents must have the gene.
So if you see a breeder with many full-coat dogs, be alert as this may imply that they are breeding purely for the colour, not for the overall health of the dog
So although some colors can be rare there should not be a difference in price for Liver & Tan vs Black & Tan. The colour is one of the least important things in a show dog and even less so for pets or working dogs, so be wary of breeders trying to charge more for one or the other, especially if they charge more for a full coat.
Melanistic Mask
A melanistic mask (sometimes just mask or masking) is a pattern on the dog’s face that gives the appearance of a mask. The hairs on the muzzle, and sometimes the entire face and ears, are colored by the darker pigment, so for Bloodhounds, this will be either Black or Liver.
Black & Tan
A Black & Tan bloodhound typically has lighter-coloured tan legs, with a darker body, called a Saddle.
Where the black “saddle” covers most of the body except for some red on the legs and face and is often referred to as “black” but is still considered black & tan.
These are graded B1 to B4 depending on the darkness and coverage of the saddle.
Types Of Black & Tan Coats
A B1 coat usually has a tan undercoat, which covers most of the Bloodhound’s body. The black shade is rather mild and appears only in certain places on the Bloodhound’s back.
On the other hand, B2 black and tan types of coat hair have a stronger black hue on the top that is reminiscent of a saddle.
That is precisely why this coat category is also known as the black and tan saddle type. This type of black and tan color is quite similar to the German Shepherd coat shade combination.
B3 and B4 are pretty similar, the tan on the legs usually comes up a little higher for B3, but the body will usually be black.
B4 bloodhounds are rare as this pattern comes from a recessive gene, so both parents must have it along with no dominant gene.
Liver & Tan
This type of coat color can be divided up in the same way as the black and tan shades.
Liver and tan is a broad category of several shades and patterns that appear in the Bloodhound breed and can be ranked as L1 to L4, depending on the richness of the shade that covers the base tan color.
Types Of Liver & Tan Coats
The L1 shade follows almost the same pattern as the B1 hue. The liver shade appears as a mild color on the back of the Bloodhound, which is why it’s sometimes confused with brown.
The L2 color type is also known as the saddle coat color because the liver pattern resembles the shape of the horse saddle on the Bloodhound’s back.
The L3 and L4 are similar, which is why they belong to the blanket type of liver and tan coat color, but the latter type often seems richer in color.
Because of that, the L4 is often considered to be a full liver coat color, as it appears to have a tan shade only in certain parts of the body, including the legs and the muzzle.
Red
Last but not least is the red Bloodhound, one of the AKC recognized Bloodhound colors that might not be anything other than a tan-colored Bloodhound pup without black or liver hues on its back.
The variations in the red shade are minor and can be anywhere from light red (a tan-like color) to a darker red hue (a brown-like color).
However, even though they’re covered in solid tan color, without any other color covering their backs, a specific characteristic divides red Bloodhounds into three different categories.
Types Of Red Coats
Essentially, there are three types of red coats (and muzzles) when it comes to Bloodhounds. The variation in the “red” color can be anywhere from a light tan to a deep red.
The first type would be the black and red muzzle type. Just like the name suggests, the coat is covered with a red shade on all body parts except the muzzle, which is black.
The same goes for the liver and red muzzle; the liver shade is mainly focused on the area around the nose.
The solid red muzzle isn’t hard to guess either because the coat is covered in red shade only, without any spots or markings of other colors.
How To Tell The Difference Between Liver and Black?
The nose colour is usually the most reliable way to tell a Liver from a Black – the nose will be either black or liver or pale, although eye colour can also give clues.
Puppies
The first few years of a bloodhound puppy’s life will see them noticeably change colour. Most will start out dark and lighten to their full-grown colour.
Black & Tan or Liver & Tan pups particularly can lose a huge amount of colour throughout the first 2 years. In fact, it can be hard to tell whether they are full-coat or saddle until they reach as much as 12 weeks of age, although you will normally get an inkling after 6 weeks or so.
Black & Tan Puppies
It is hard to tell at birth how dark the puppy will be once grown as most Black & Tan puppies are born with the same amount of black. Some puppies will appear darker but may not end up much darker than their lighter litter-mates.
All Black & Tan puppies have a full saddle at birth, you do not see split saddles or grizzled saddles on newborns. Even if a Black & Tan puppy grows and has barely a trace of their saddle left they are still considered a Black & Tan, not a Red.
Full Coat Black & Tan is usually hard to identify until puppies are 6-12 weeks old. Full-coat bloodhounds tend to grow with their color rather than grow out of it.
Red Puppies
All red puppies are born with a stripe of darker guard hairs down their back some darker than others this black stripe tends to fade before 6 months of age.
The Genetics of Bloodhound Colouring
Genetically, the colours and patterns of a bloodhound’s coat are determined by the action of three gene series. These series are found in many other breeds, which is why Bloodhound’s colouring is similar to breeds like The German Shepherd.
One of these genes has alleles that produce either Liver or Black pigment, another the amount of black and a third determines whether they will have masking..
Glossary
A quick primer on the terminology in genetics before we get into the specifics of bloodhounds
- The genes that determine the colours and patterns have different variants called alleles.
- A gene and its possible alleles are called a series.
- The position of a gene in the DNA chain is called the locus” (singular) or loci (plural)
- The way these work together is down to a combination of dominance rules between genes (alleles)
Pigments
Pheomelanin is the pigment that gives the Tan colouring.
Eumelanin is the pigment that gives the Black colouring
As we will see below, there is no “Red” or “Liver” pigment
Now we have covered that, we will look at the 2two series that determine how your bloodhound looks – the K-Series and the Agouti Series – and the third, less understood M264V allele (known as Em)
K-Series Genes For Colour
In Bloodhounds Liver is recessive, and Black is dominant. These are denoted by B for Black and b for Liver – lower case denoting that it is recessive.
Each bloodhound will inherit a pair of these genes from their parents. If any of these are B, then they will be black. So Bb, bB, or BB will all be black. It is only when they inherit bb that they will be Liver.
Liver Allele
The liver gene affects eumelanin (the black pigment) and produces an alternation between black and brown to give the Liver colour. This produces liver noses, eye rims, paw pads, and saddles.
This is why the nose is about the most reliable way of determining whether a dog is Liver or Black
Black Allele
The other allele gives the black colour, denoted by an uppercase B unsurprisingly! If a hound inherits the black allele from either parent, it has a black nose, eye rims, and paw pads, and if it has a saddle, it is black.
The Agouti Series for Coat Pattern
The second gene determines the coat pattern. These are all denoted by an A for dominant and a for recessive versions, with a second letter to distinguish them from each other.
This series can produce animals with no saddle (Red), saddle-marking, or those largely covered with darker pigment (either Black or Liver) except for tan lips, eyebrows, forechest, and lower legs. These last are sometimes referred to as ‘blanket’ or ‘full-coat’ types.
However, it is still not fully understood how, why or even what causes it!
History of the Agouti Series
In a pioneering study in 1969, Dennis Piper suggested five alleles in the pattern-marking gene, producing variants from the red or saddleless hound through three different types of progressively greater saddle marking to the ‘blanket’ type.
However, a later study attributed the variation to three different alleles of the agouti gene Ay, As, and At.
The conjecture was that Ay produces the non-saddle-marked “Red” hound, As produces saddle-marking, and At produces the blanket or full-coated hound.
However, the genes have now been fully sequenced and it seems that there are no As, so modifier genes in saddle tan puppies must cause a gradual reduction of the black area until the saddle tan pattern is achieved.
Since then a gene called RALY was found, which is related to the amount of tan on a dog in a fixed zone pattern that does not change as the dog matures, as seen in breeds like the Doberman.
This differs from the tan extension from the tan points at birth (usually around eyes and feet) seen as breeds like Bloodhounds grow. However, the modifier genes that cause the pattern to change as the dog grows have not yet been uncovered.
Melanistic Mask
The melanistic mask is caused by the M264V allele (known as Em) Em is dominant over E, the allele for no mask, so it is rare to see a dog with this gene without a mask.
If a dog has a melanistic mask, it will be either Black or Liver, depending on whether they are Black & Tan or Liver & Tan.
So What Colour Will My Bloodhound Puppy Be?
So after all the technical stuff, we can see that depending on the parents’ genes, these are the possible colours their offspring can be. As detailed above, this is only the colours, the amount of saddle is dependent on parents and lineage
In the table below we will use Black & Tan as BT, Liver & Tan = LT, Red = R
BT + BT= BT (all offspring will be BT puppies)
BT (but carrying LT gene) + BT (carrying LT gene)= 50% BT and 50% LT
LT + BT (non LT carrier) = all BT puppies (although some may be an LT carrier)
LT + LT = LT (there will be no BT even if both LT have BT parents!)
R + BT = 50% R and 50% BT (providing the Red had a BT parent)
R (LT carrier) + BT (LT carrier) = R, BT, LT, and liver nosed reds (this pairing can potentially produce all colors of puppies)
Notes
If it says that the offspring are 50% BT and 50% LT, this does not mean that if you have 4 puppies they will be 2 of each, it is the chance of each puppy being either LT or BT
Red is only produced if one of the parents is a Red. Reds who are born of 2 Red parents and are Homozygous Reds will go on to only produce Reds regardless of what they are bred to.
Summary
As you can see, the genetics of Bloodhound colours can be a fascinating topic to explore, with the potential to uncover new information about the breed.
While genetics may seem complex, once you understand the basic patterns, you will also understand why you see so many more Black & Tans than others and why those blankets are so rare
Featured image Photograph by Mike Peel under creative commons license
Sam is an award-winning canine photographer and runs Farlap Bloodhound breeders and Kennels in Devon and is the secretary of the Bloodhound Club.
Sam Clark has a passion for bloodhounds and their amazing ability to track a scent, and was one of the first in the UK to train her dogs to either track humans or other dogs for canine rescue.