Coat Color in Mastiffs
The Mastiff or “English” Mastiff comes in 3 normal coat colors. Apricot, Brindle, and Fawn.
The AKC standard for the mastiffs coat is:
Outer coat straight, coarse, and of moderately short length. Undercoat dense, short, and close lying. Coat should not be so long as to produce “fringe” on the belly, tail, or hind legs. Fault Long or wavy coat.
In the beginning… all mastiff puppies are very dark in color, so dark in fact that it is difficult to tell the brindles from the lighter fawns & apricots. It is nearly impossible to tell the fawns from the apricots at this early stage. This dark “Puppy fuzz” coloring is natures way of camouflaging the young and much like the spots on a baby deer this dark coloring fades rather quickly. It will be gone by 6 months of age.
4 weeks 10 weeks
1. The Apricot – is a reddish color ranging from dark red to light strawberry blond.
2. The Fawn – is the blond color and is the most popular color. Some dark hairs disbursed throughout is common. White patches are less likely to be noticed on the fawn coat.
3 The Brindle – is the dark tiger striped color with an under coat of Fawn or Apricot as listed above. The Brindling should be complete without too much of the undercoat showing through. What some folks call a “reverse” brindle or incomplete brindle is simply a show fault and should be avoided when choosing a breeding candidate.
The Mask and ears should be black and the blacker the better and well defined.
A white patch is acceptable on the chest but any other white any where else is a show fault.
Other items of note about Mastiffs…
