Beagle dog: colors. Standard and varieties

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

The Beagle is a British hunting dog breed with a rich history. These four-legged animals are distinguished by their speed, courage and vigor. They are not always easy to train due to their restlessness, but thanks to their keen sense of smell, they are used as servants around the world.

The name of the breed comes from Old English, where Begle means "small".

Breed Varieties

Beagles are divided into two subspecies:

• European;
• American.

"Europeans" are smaller than "Americans". They are small in stature, active and cheerful.

Other subspecies of the breed in question are the French Harrier Beagle, English Beagle and Irish Kerry. Next, consider what colors the beagle breed has. Photos will help to form an opinion about these beauties if you are unfamiliar with representatives of this family.

French Harrier Beagle

This is a hound dog from France. It appeared in the 19th century and was created specifically for hunting.

Such beagles have strong bones, weight up to 20 kg, height - up to 48 cm at the withers.

Color may vary, but always registered for hounds. The reference tricolor is considered to be a composition of black, white and red. The standards also allow less bright representatives, with gray and dull tones. Experts do not disqualify such dogs at shows.

Fur is close to the body for easy grooming.

These dogs are friendly, welcoming. They don't show up often, but they are great for living at home.

English beagle

This type of breed was bred in Britain. Mentions of such dogs are found as early as the 4th century BC. e. They hunted hares in the courts of Edward II and Henry VIII.

Today, this breed is kept as companion and friendly pets.

Among the colors of English hounds there are "bicolors" and "tricolors". Their main color is white, combined with red and black. Dogs reach a weight of 14 kg, their height at the withers is up to 40 cm.

Irish Kerry

The breed was bred in the 16th century in Ireland to hunt hares. The dog reaches a height of 55 cm and a weight of 27 kg.

Black-backed is considered a typical coloration, but spotted and tricolor are also found.

Kerrys are great at exercising, they are fast and agile. They have excellent hunting skills, but easily fulfill the rolepets.

American Beagle

In 1870 Beagles were brought to America. Local breeders tried to change the appearance of the dogs, but not too successfully.

Later, General Richard Rowett gathered his beagle pack, which consisted mainly of "British". Gradually, the hounds spread throughout America. They are larger than the Europeans.

Let's dwell on the possible colors of the beagle.

Accepted color standards

According to the FCI standard, any beagle color is acceptable for beagles, with the exception of "liver", that is, chocolate. The British Kennel Club was of the same opinion, allowing any color of hounds for the beagle, but without removing “liver” (brown) from this list. Beagle breeders all over the world often wonder what exactly is the acceptable color of the hounds.

Some dog breeders understand this expression as the color found in pack hounds, for example, in English and American foxhounds, bassets, harriers. However, such pack hounds as coonhounds have completely different colors - brindle. And rough-haired hounds, such as the Otterhound, the Basset Griffon Vendée, often have gray hair, and this variant is not at all like the beagle coat.

To clarify, the British Kennel Club adopted a new edition of the standard in 2010, which listed all possible colors for the beagle with the proviso that all other options are not allowed.

Let's imagine the colors that beagles have. Some of them meetrare, but allowed by the breed standard.

Most dog lovers, when imagining a beagle, imagine a tricolor black, red and white dog. This variant is indeed the most common in the breed and is a classic. Such a dog has a black back, a red head, and a white body, muzzle, chest, legs and tail tip.

But this classic beagle color is not the only one that dogs have. There are many other options. It is not possible to single out a more or less correct beagle color among them, since all breeders are of the opinion that all color options for beagles are good in their own way.

Specialists identify several basic colors:

• bicolor, otherwise called bicolor;
• tricolor - tricolor;
• weakened - muted;
• spotted - motley.

Bicolor

The color can also be called red-white. The two-tone color is expressed by red shades of pigment and white. In turn, red tones, depending on saturation, can be called red, red or lemon. At birth, beagle puppies have cream or fawn markings in color, as they grow darker. "Schisandra" are almost white, their nose is dark.

Light reddish white - lighter than true reddish white. Often these puppies darken with age. Bicolors can grow red-white or lemon-white.

Nose pigment is usually darker in light colored dogs. Light initially light lobe can darken withage, also its color in females changes depending on the hormonal period.

Tricolor

More often than other colors there are black-red-white beagles. Their puppies are black and white at birth (there may be brown markings around the ears and eyes), ginger develops as the puppies grow. Black can be bright throughout life, or it can shed and become paler. Red varies from red to fawn. White is always pure white, although in speckled dogs it is closer to cream. Nose tip and eyelid rims are black.

Sometimes in puppies of this color variety, upon reaching 6-8 weeks, white hairs appear on the black back - "thick hair". They usually disappear after a while.

Blue tricolor

There is also another version of the tricolor, the so-called weakened tricolor. The color dilution gene is responsible for the appearance of the blue tint - it looks more gray, and also lightens the red to a light brown tone. Puppies are grey-white at birth.

The eyes of the beagle are light blue in color, almost yellow, and the nose is dark gray, slate. At a younger age, this is sometimes the only sign by which they are distinguished from representatives of the classic tricolor.

Chocolate tricolor

Among the "liver" tricolors, the black tone gene will produce brown. Chocolate beagles have gray-green eyes, and the nose, lips and eyelid rims are brown, and their shades can be different: darkchocolate, light brown, liver, lilac.

This color was not recognized by the British Kennel Club and FCI. If such puppies are born, they are referred to a tribal marriage. But, for example, chocolate beagles are officially registered in the USA and show the highest results in the rings.

Chocolate-colored puppies with gray-green eyes may become darker with age, and their eyes - hazel. It also happens that a lilac dog, in addition to weakening brown, also has blue, and then the coat acquires a bluish tint.

Spotted color

In Beagle dogs of this color variety, the main color is white, which "breaks" the classic black on the back. Sometimes only black and red spots remain from other tones.

Mottled color

Both 2-color and 3-color beagles often have small black or red spots on a white background, they can be located far or close to each other. The speck appears at 6-8 weeks of a puppy's life and gradually becomes thicker. True speckled puppies get this color already four days old, this can be determined by the pigmentation on the paw pads - they are not pink, like other beagles.

On the show rings speckled dogs appear infrequently. This coloring is inherent in working beagles, and they do not take it for a lack of breed.

Motley color

This is the most controversial beagle coat color. There are three variants of it:

• hare-motley;
• badger-motley - the darkest;
• lemon motley - the lightest.

The area of \u200b\u200bdistribution of "variegation" can be limited to a dark stripe on the back or spread throughout the colored part of the body.

More often dogs of this color variety are found in the UK. Only in this country, such a beagle color is the breed standard. But motley dogs come across in other countries. Some of the "faded" tricolors, upon close examination, may well turn out to be variegated.

Breeders still have no consensus on what color of the Beagle breed is considered variegated. Some consider it to be partial coloring of black or red hairs, in which the tips become black, and the rest is red. Others are of the opinion that a variegated color is one in which black and red hairs are mixed in the animal's hairline.

The main difference between these beagle colors and others is that the white color in this case is never pure white, but rather creamy, light cream. Color spots are formed by mixing black, red and gray. Moreover, badger-motley dogs have more black hairs, while hare-motley dogs have less black hairs, but more red ones. There are no clear boundaries between white and colored zones, the color smoothly flows into white and mixes with it.

Hare-motley comes across more often than others. It has a creamy background, and the shades gently blend into each other. This is the difference between hare-colored from blue and any "faded"tricolor.

In the lemon-colored version, red and light cream backgrounds are mixed. Beagles of this color may appear solid and almost white.

The Pied Beagle is recognizable by its typical nose color - it has dark edges and a light center, it is called a "butterfly".

Spotted puppies are red-white in appearance, sometimes with a darker colored belt on the spine, dark eyeliner is a must.

Are there black beagles?

This question is often asked by lovers of these beautiful dogs. The beagle's coat can be black, but always in combination with other colors - for example, white or red. There are no pure black representatives of the breed, unlike white ones.

Black and white puppies are born infrequently. At birth, they have brown spots around their ears and eyes. The white shade is closer to cream. Black may remain black throughout life, or may fade over time.

The color range of beagles is really diverse. In newborn puppies, the color cannot always be determined accurately, and in adult dogs it often changes throughout life. Therefore, in order not to be confused, they adopted the official division into two-color and three-color. This is how the color of Beagle dogs is recorded in the pedigree.

All varieties of the considered breed share the same qualities - excellent hunting instincts, friendliness, cheerfulness, conflict-free. When choosing a puppy, you should pay attention and compare it with the breed standards. After all, if you get a dog that does not matchprescribed parameters, such four-legged animals may lack hunting abilities and other qualities inherent in true beagles.