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This is an excerpt from an article by Ed Faron:
The tan point pattern is caused by a recessive gene on the Agouti series gene locus, the following are the alleles (variations) that are definitely known to occur in the American Pit Bull Terrier. There are also a couple of other genes on this same locus, but they are most likely not present in this breed, so we will ignore them in this article to try and keep things simple.
A dog needs to inherit two copies of the tan-point gene to be a black & tan. If a pup inherits one copy of the gene and one copy of the dominant yellow gene, which causes a red or buckskin coloration, then the dog will be red or buckskin, not black and tan. If the dog inherits one copy of the tan-point gene and one of the dominant black gene, the result will be a solid black dog. because of the recessive nature of the tan-point gene, it can actually remain hidden in the gene pool for many generations without expressing itself. In the case of our breed (where this is not a common color) this is what often happens, but it is important to realize that when the tan-point pattern does pop up it is not some new color mutation that appeared out of nowhere, but rather the manifestation of a gene that has been present in this breed all throughout the known history of the American Pit Bull Terrier. Though it is impossible to say for sure where the coloration originated, our best guess would be that it came from some sort of terrier blood that was introduced many, many years ago, probably during the early formation of the breed in the British Isles.
The tan point gene does not actually create a black & tan animal, the gene itself does not produce any color but rather a pattern of a solid color with light-colored 'points'. These 'points' always appear in specific places but the actual size and distribution of them is somewhat variable. The exact coloration that is produced by the tan-point gene is dependent on the color genes present at other loci, for instance if the pigmentation is black, the result will be a black & tan, but if the dog's pigmentation is chocolate or blue then the pattern would produce a chocolate & tan or a blue & tan, respectively.
EXAMPLES OF TRUE TRI COLOR DOGS (Notice the very distinct tan points appear on the face, legs, chest, and under the tail).
The word tri means three, hence the noticeable pattern of three clear and separate colors. Two of them are always tan and white and the third one can either be black, blue, champagne, chocolate, seal or red.
TRI=
Razor's Nation Neekah
BLUE TRI COLOR (CH ESCOBAR OF AMERICAN IRON KENNELS)
CHAMPAGNE/PURPLE TRI COLOR (PURLE HAZE OF AIK)
BLACK & TAN POINT (also called tri-color)
The color pattern is the same on any dog regardless of breed
The tan point colored dogs have a set pattern that is the same as one would see on a Rottweiler, Doberman or Manchester Terrier(BELOW from LEFT to RIGHT).
SABLE/SMUT
Dilute Sable, also called Smut, has a fawn base coat with a heavy black overlay, which often creates the illusion of a tri, but it is NOT the same as a tan point tri color. The overlay darkness will very from heavy to light.
Sable or Smut dogs:
Oh, and be careful if you Google "Smut Dogs".
LOTS of porn comes up lol
Thanks to Idalis Lewis and American Iron Kennels for this info
