Black hair in a red and white?

[FlyingCorgi]

Ein is a red and white corgi. Even to me that's pretty obvious. Lately while grooming I've noticed some solid black hairs coming out so I took a closer look and saw that he's actually got some totally black hairs mixed in on his neck/shoulder area. Is that unusual? I'm pretty sure he's not a sable.

[Booski59]

I've always thought black hairs indicate a sable.

[maxigrace]

Dougall has just a sprinkle of black over his shoulders and a few at the base of his stubby little tail. I read somewhere that to be considered sable it needs to be 30% of his body. I call Dougall a sable, perhaps I am wrong, since it is nowhere near 30%...maybe 15%. What do our resident experts define it as?
Lisa

[glencorgi]

Not unusual at all. The vast majority of red & whites will have some black hairs mixed in.

Debbie

[littlestar0316]

Bella has a few black hairs over her back as well. I thought I remembered reading that this was typical for red & whites, thanks Debbie for confirming!

[K9skennel]

Dax had black tips, if you looked really close. but never enough in one place to notice a difference.
he was definitely red.

[Peggy]

Originally Posted by maxigrace

Dougall has just a sprinkle of black over his shoulders and a few at the base of his stubby little tail. I read somewhere that to be considered sable it needs to be 30% of his body. I call Dougall a sable, perhaps I am wrong, since it is nowhere near 30%...maybe 15%. What do our resident experts define it as?

I think your dog is a red and white.

A sable IMO is one of two things, one is the classic sable with Monk's cap and sable over the body too. The second is more like the red headed tri pattern with a sable saddle. Not just on the shoulders but over the back in a saddle pattern. A dog like this probably carries the RHT gene.

Peggy