The Dachshund in the painting at the left is described as a “piebald,” which, as you can see, is a pattern with clearly defined areas of white. Without seeing all sides of the dog, we don’t know if it’s a “plated” piebald in which the dog is 50% white, an “extreme” piebald in which the dog is more than 50% white, or a “tuxedo” piebald where the dogs has the least allowance of white on them to be a piebald (four white “socks’ or feet, a white chest, white on the head, and a white tipped tail). Our understanding is that this pattern has been around in the breed for a very long time.

The Piebald pattern is a true recessive gene and both parents must be piebalds themselves, or carry the piebald gene, to produce a piebald pup. Such parents will alway produces an entire litter of piebald puppies. Sometimes, a puppy born from parents who have no piebald at all, but who has, say, white on its chest, feet, belly, tail tip or face is not a piebald, it’s a mismarked youngster showing what some call “minus” factors that impact the amount of pigment in a coat. Minus factors can show up with any color.

Sometimes, piebalds are confused with double dapples. Here’s the thing: Piebalds only have brown eyes. They’ll never have blue eyes, or one blue eye, or a blue tick in an eye. They only have brown eyes.  They’ll have a solid colored head that might (or might not) have a white blaze. And they’ll always have a solid color without shading (though Piebalds can have a solid white base or have ticking in the white).

All this said, the AKC breed standard is very clear that anything beyond the following is a disqualification:

There are no patches of lighter shadings within the colored areas as in the dapple pattern. Ticking in the white areas is acceptable. Eye color, eye rims, nose and lips are well pigmented and in accordance with the base color; eyes are never partially or wholly blue as distinguished from the dapple pattern. Eyes partially or wholly blue is a disqualification. Head must not be more than 50 percent white and color(s) other than white must cover both ears, back and front, and extend without interruption from the ears over both eyes. A head of more than 50 percent white or white on any portion of either ear, back or front, or around the eyes is a disqualification. Pure white dogs with no body spots except on the head are to be disqualified. Nails may be partially or wholly white.

As always we defer to breed experts, especially on matters involving genetics.

Image: “Piebald Sleeping” by Clair Hartmann
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