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Dachshunds come in three different coats; longhair, smooth, and wirehair, and come in a wide variety of colors and patterns.  The official AKC standard of the dachshund is vague about some colors and patterns, and only tries to describe the most "predominant" ones.  This does not mean that other colors and patterns are not allowed, there's just no room to describe all of them and there is no disqualification for color.  This is an attempt to merely describe the colors, patterns, and color terminology which can be so confusing to those just starting out in our wonderful breed.

Let's start with what the AKC dachshund standard calls ‘base' colors.  This term is rather misleading and should be more appropriately called ‘self' color.  The self colors in dachshunds are red, cream, black and tan, black and cream, chocolate and tan, blue and tan, Isabella (fawn) and tan, and wild boar.

RED - can appear in all coats): The most familiar and common of dachshund colors. A red dachshund can be any shade of red from blonde to a deep dark mahogany -- all of which is just red. It should have a black eyes, black nose, and black nails. For a red to produce black/tans it must carry the tan point gene. A red that does not carry the tan point gene cannot ever produce anything but red puppies.

CHOCOLATE/TAN- (can appear in all coats): A chocolate and tan will be from milk chocolate brown to a dark chocolate brown with tan points (tan on feet, over eyes, on face around muzzle, on chest, under tail). It will have a brown to light brown nose and nails. A true chocolate/tan will NEVER have a black nose. It will have brown to light brown eyes and on occasion green to hazel eyes. This is a recessive color it must be showing or carried in both parents to appear.

CHOCOLATE- (can appear in all coats): A chocolate will be a dark chocolate brown all over without any tan points. It will have a brown to light brown eyes, nose, and nails. This is a recessive color it must be showing or carried in both parents to appear but breeds dominant to chocolate/tan.

ISABELLA/TAN- (fawn/TAN) (can appear in all coats): AN ISABELLA AND TAN CAN NOT HAVE ANY CHOCOLATE ON IT. An Isabella and tan is a diluted chocolate and tan. It will appear to be a washed out chocolate and tan. It's color should resemble a Weimaraner but with tan points. It will have gray eyes, gray nose, and gray nails. This is a recessive color. It must be showing or carried in both parents to appear. They have a tendency to have color mutant alopecia.

BLUE/TAN- (can appear in all coats): A BLUE AND TAN CAN NOT HAVE ANY BLACK ON IT. A blue and tan is close to gray in color. It will be a gunmetal blue color with tan points. It's color should resemble a blue Doberman. It will have  gray eyes, gray nose, and gray nails. This is a recessive color. It must be showing or carried in both parents to appear. They have a tendency to have color mutant alopecia.

WILDBOAR- (Can appear only in wire and smooth hair) technically a color but in essence a pattern, These terms (especially sable) are often mistakenly used to refer to an interspersion of black hairs on back and neck over red color. A true red sable/wildboar will appear to be black and tan from a distance. The undercoat beneath black being red. Sable/wildboar is a very heavy layer of black over the base coat color. This is an uncommon pattern. This is a pattern that cannot be truly labeled until pup reaches 6 months of age. Many pups labeled sable/wildboar lose black overlay and become simply red with no pattern.

american creams- (can appear only in smooth and long hair) At birth appear to be white to pale blond, When they get older, they often apprear to be a clear red color (See Clear Red at top of page for description) and should have the darkest eyes, nose and nails. If you have a Wire hair appearing to be cream, it is called Wheaten.

english creams- (can appear only in smooth and long hair) At birth some english creams can appear sooty almost black in color and others will be born lemon color. The color as they get older will look oily yellowish part of non-homogenized milk. The lighter the better and should have the darkest eyes, nose, and nails. Colors range from a dingy looking white to a butter color. They can have black overlay (known as sable.) True English Cream lineage can be traced to England.

True cream  dogs do not have any reddish tint to their coats whatsoever.  They are a pure, pale, creamy buff color with dark brown eyes, and black noses and eye rims (nails may be black or brown).  They, too, may have varying amounts of black hairs interspersed in their coats.  True creams are usually born grayish black and gradually lighten to cream as they mature. A puppy who is born cream-colored is normally nothing more than either a very dilute red (with greenish eyes and brown nails), or an e-red which will darken to clear orange red with dark eyes, brown nails and a putty gray nose. So far, true creams only exist in the miniature longhair variety in the U.S., and they all have extensive English/British lines in their pedigrees. If a dog advertised as a cream does not have a lot of British (UK) dogs in the first 3 or 4 generations of its pedigree, it can't be a true cream, as all of the true cream dogs in this country have come from England in the last decade. However, even a dog with a lot of British dogs in its background may not be a true cream if it's nose and eye rims are not black or if it has any red shading in its coat.  Be aware that a lot of commercial puppy producers/backyard breeders in the U.S. have been importing poor quality creams from British puppy producers/backyard breeders for several years now and are advertising them as "English creams" and are asking astronomical prices for them. Just because a dog has British/English creams in its background does not guarantee that it is a quality dog or that it is worth a lot of money. There are no such things as "English" creams or "American" creams. Cream is cream, period. 

BLACK/TAN - (can appear in all coats): The second most familiar dachshund color. A black and tan dachshund will be black all over with tan points (tan on feet, over eyes, on face around muzzle, on chest, under tail). It will have black eyes, black nose, and black nails. Black/tan is recessive which means a black/tan bred to a black/tan will produce all black/tan unless they both carry the chinchilla factor, which will create a recessive red puppy.

WHEATEN - (can appear only in wire hair) The color of the oily yellowish part of non-homogenized milk. The lighter the better and should have the darkest eyes, nose, and nails. Colors range from a dingy looking white to a butter color.
BLACK/CREAM- (can appear only in smooth and long hair): A black and cream dachshund will be black all over with cream points (cream on feet, over eyes, on face around muzzle, on chest, under tail). It will have black eyes, black nose, and black nails.
CHOCOLATE/CREAM- (can appear only in smooth and long hair): A chocolate and cream dachshund will be chocolate all over with cream points (cream on feet, over eyes, on face around muzzle, on chest, under tail). It will have light brown eyes and on occasion green to hazel eyes, brown to light brown nose and nails.
DILUTE RED- (can appear in all coats): Also known as E red. A red dachshund with a liver color noise and nails -- all of which is just red. 'liver-nose' which means its nose and nails would be the same color as the chocolate and tan.
DILUTE CREAM- (can appear only in smooth and long hair): Also known as E cream. A cream dachshund with a liver color noise and nails. 'liver-nose' which means its nose and nails would be the same color as the chocolate and tan.

CLEAR RED- (can appear in all coats): Some people call it Strawberry Cream, Strawberry Blond and/or Creamy Red, it is still just a red that may or may not carry for the cream color. A Clear Red is a lite red dachshund with a black color noise and nails.

Black -  (can appear in all coats): A black dachshund will be black all over without any tan points. It will have black eyes, black nose, and black nails. This is not the result of continuous breeding of black/tan to black/tan.  Black breeds true and appear to breed dominant over the black/tan. The black is simply the 'B' gene lacking the tan point gene.

Dapple - Spots where some of the color is lighter, can occur in all colors. The color is usually lighter than the base color. If the dappling occurs in the eyes, the eyes are blue (may not be solid blue.) Dapple is not a carried gene, one parent must be dapple for any of the puppies to be dapple.

Double Dapple - We do not breed for the Double Dapple Pattern. This is because of the possible deaf/blind problems with the offspring of double dapple breedings. The double dapple pattern appears with various color patches including white.

Dapple Piebald - The American Kennel Club (AKC) will not register more than one pattern.  It must be remembered that conformation and temperament are much more important than how many patterns a dog has.  It is highly irresponsible for any person calling himself/herself a ‘breeder' to just breed for ‘exotic' colors or pattern combinations.

Piebald - Piebald only occur when both parents are piebald or carry it. Areas of full color on a white background, example; fox terrier. They may also have ticking (small spots of color in the white field, example; English Setter.) which may just be a few little spots on the toes and muzzle, or the ticking may be heavy. You can have different patterns on a piebald in the spots. Piebalds do not have any blue in their eyes. Both parents must be piebald or carry the piebald gene.

Brindle - Stripes all over, looks a lot like a tiger, commonly seen with red.

Sable - (can only appear in long hair) These terms (especially sable) are often mistakenly used to refer to an interspersion of black hairs on back and neck over red color. A true sable/wildboar will appear to be black/tan from a distance. The undercoat beneath being red, Sable/Wildboar is a very heavy layer of black over the base coat color. This is an uncommon pattern. This is a pattern that can not be truly labeled until pup reaches 6 months of age. Many pups labeled sable/wildboar lose the black overlay and become simply red with no pattern.

Brindle Piebald - Brindle and Piebald are both a separate pattern however AKC does accept both patterns on one dog; they are registered as a brindle piebald. This pattern is commonly seen on red piebald. The base color (red) will have stripes of black in the color with the piebald pattern also showing.

This is a very interesting article about Double Dapples.

 

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