Brindle:  A shade of brown ranging from reddish to almost black, with irregular striping of a contrasting color.  Most brindles will be brown or reddish brown with black striping, but the elegant black brindle will be so dark as to appear black, with lighter striping.  A "tortoise-shell" effect is a good description of brindle.  See Vixen, Dragon, Zorra, Serafina, Rhys and Doņa Ana  for examples of brindle.

Red:  From pale fawn to clear and bright reddish brown, often with dark detailing around the eyes as if wearing mascara,  sometimes a black mask on the face.  Follow links to Buster, Percy, Angie for bright and beautiful red Cardigans.

Sable:  Often indistinguishable from red, a classic sable will have a dark overlay as if stroked by a sooty glove.  More often a sable will have a small black area on the tail as though it had crawled under a greasy truck.  A sable might appear to be a light red with even lighter "lemon" colored points on the face.  A rare sable might have such a dark overlay as to appear tri-colored.  Jasper, and his sons Cali and Cobol were striking sables.

Black & white with brindle points:  This is a black & white dog with brindling in any of the "points" areas of cheeks, eyebrows, elbows and rear legs below the hock.  Terri (Am/Mex. Ch. Finnshavn Trailwyn Tarif) with her puppies on our home page is a black & white.  Follow these links to Donner, Mim, & Becky for more examples of black & white.

Tri-color (black & white with tan points):   This is a black & white dog with tan in the "points" areas and often also on the insides of the ears.  Follow the links to tri-colors Moonshine & Selkirk.

Blue merle:  The merle modifier is a dominant gene that affects black pigment.  In a correctly colored blue merle the black pigment is mottled or "marbled" to a beautiful blue-gray in random patches.  It is customary to breed blue merles only to black & white dogs with tan or brindle points.  The merle offspring will also have either tan or brindle points.  Visit handsome Blue Dragon Flame and his son Dragonslayer  to see some beautiful blues.