# Silvering



## boomana (Jul 9, 2015)

Here's my Lola at 13 months. Even in the last month, the changes seem to appear almost daily. I thought I'd be sad when she started losing her gorgeous mahogany brown, but I'm loving the changes. At her roots, it's really a color I can't describe, but it's kind of like leaving a chocolate popsicle in the freezer too long, though more beautiful than that. I'm going to try and document things when the changes are significant. Maybe my baby will end up as beautiful as Heather Glen's Truffles. On a side note, I've been lucky with the blowing coat stage, and haven't really had any matting at all. I'll take it.


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## Dee Dee (Jul 24, 2015)

Wow yes that is a gorgeous color! She is going to be stunning through every stage you can tell. It would be very cool if she ended up like beautiful Truffles. And YES lucky lucky you that the coat blowing isn't a major one!


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## jef (Apr 17, 2016)

lola is a very pretty young lady! :smile2:


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## Heather's (Jun 18, 2012)

Lola is such a pretty girl! 😊 It will be interesting to see how much her coat changes. Were her parents chocolate? Truffles is two years old so I don't expect anymore changes.


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## boomana (Jul 9, 2015)

Mom is a chocolate parti, dad is a gorgeous red. I know dad had silvering in his line.


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## Lisa T. (Feb 5, 2015)

Lola is gorgeous. I am interested to see her coat changes in the next year. Did her parents lighten as they got older? Rudy lightened up a lot. It's more of a tan color than silver. The tips if his ears are still dark brown. 


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## DebW (Jun 11, 2013)

My Sheldon is also silvering a bit on his body - face is still dark brown. When you look at his coat straight on, it's dark brown. When you look at it from an oblique angle, it's silvery. Love him either way!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Lola is absolutely gorgeous!

I think people are talking about two different things here. The silver gene causes white hair to grow sprinkled throughout the coat. Chocolates, in general, tend to fade, like sables. (not all of them, but most) So if all the hairs are the same color, but that color is lighter than it used to be, that's not silvering, it's "normal" (for the color) fading.

HOWEVER, whether they are silver or just chocolate that has faded, don't be so sure that what you have at 2 years is what they will remain. Havanese coats (silver, chocolate, sable and brindle) go through stages of lightening and darkening through their entire lives!


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## Ditto's Mom (Apr 29, 2007)

Pretty girl!


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## patsan (May 22, 2016)

What a beautiful girl! :smile2:


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## Heather's (Jun 18, 2012)

krandall said:


> Lola is absolutely gorgeous!
> 
> I think people are talking about two different things here. The silver gene causes white hair to grow sprinkled throughout the coat. Chocolates, in general, tend to fade, like sables. (not all of them, but most) So if all the hairs are the same color, but that color is lighter than it used to be, that's not silvering, it's "normal" (for the color) fading.
> 
> HOWEVER, whether they are silver or just chocolate that has faded, don't be so sure that what you have at 2 years is what they will remain. Havanese coats (silver, chocolate, sable and brindle) go through stages of lightening and darkening through their entire lives!


Thank you for the explanation of silvering Karen. I never really understood what it meant. I thought Truffles coat had changed to equal amounts of white and chocolate except her ears. She definitely looks like a brown dog if you saw her in person. Lola is such a gorgeous reddish brown. Maybe in the end she will be a silvered red! :biggrin1:


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Heather Glen said:


> Thank you for the explanation of silvering Karen. I never really understood what it meant. I thought Truffles coat had changed to equal amounts of white and chocolate except her ears. She definitely looks like a brown dog if you saw her in person. Lola is such a gorgeous reddish brown. Maybe in the end she will be a silvered red! :biggrin1:


A dog can be silver with equal amounts of white and colored hair. The expression (amount) of silver is in response to the number of copies of the silver gene. A dog with a single copy will have just a sprinkling of white hair, while a dog with two copies will have more white, so will look "lighter" over all.

And, of course, you can have the silver gene and a fading color in the same dog (like a chocolate silver) in which case, they will look lighter still.


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## Lisa T. (Feb 5, 2015)

Did Truffles get more white. Rudy is a chocolate irish pied. He has a white chin, chest, and all his paws are white. His chocolate color is turning to light tan with some cream color mixed in. When the wind blows through his coat, you see all the colors, white, cream, tan, and milk chocolate.

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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Lisa T. said:


> Did Truffles get more white. Rudy is a chocolate irish pied. He has a white chin, chest, and all his paws are white. His chocolate color is turning to light tan with some cream color mixed in. When the wind blows through his coat, you see all the colors, white, cream, tan, and milk chocolate.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


But the colors are on each hair, right? Like each hair has bands of color? If so, that is normal fading of chocolate, not silvering. He will probably get lighter and darker in waves for his whole life, though probably never as dark as he was as a baby.


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## MarinaGirl (Mar 25, 2012)

Black or dark brown fur can turn reddish due to sun or exposure to bleaching agents. If you have a swimming pool that your dog is allowed in, this can bleach coats, as well as living in Florida with year-round sun.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

MarinaGirl said:


> Black or dark brown fur can turn reddish due to sun or exposure to bleaching agents. If you have a swimming pool that your dog is allowed in, this can bleach coats, as well as living in Florida with year-round sun.


And some are just reddish naturally. Pixel is one of those, and has been since she was a small puppy. Kodi and Panda are blue-black in their black areas. Pixel is a reddish, brownish black. Sometimes that is a precursor to silvering, but she's 14 months old now, and except for the streak in her tail, which she developed very young, I haven't seen ANY more white hairs mixing in. I'm still thinking she MIGHT silver... we know it's in her lines, but she may just stay this dark, almost black, brown. But she's clearly NOT chocolate. Not only is there no chocolate in her genetic background, but she also has very deep, dark black pigment.


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## Heather's (Jun 18, 2012)

Lisa T. said:


> Did Truffles get more white. Rudy is a chocolate irish pied. He has a white chin, chest, and all his paws are white. His chocolate color is turning to light tan with some cream color mixed in. When the wind blows through his coat, you see all the colors, white, cream, tan, and milk chocolate.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Truffles started out dark chocolate with a white paws and little white feathers on her chest. She started getting white hairs on her back which spread. The chocolate color has not lightened, but she has equal amounts of white throughout her coat. That does make her look lighter.
I wasn't looking for any specific color so it really doesn't matter. I just noticed her breeder has a dark chocolate Caramello Cafe. Definitely a very dark chocolate! :biggrin1:


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## Eveningpiper (Sep 23, 2015)

I thought that if individual hairs were a different solid colour than the base colour that is was classified as brindle whereas different colours on the same hair was called sable. I would be interested to know how silvering fits into those classifications, if it does?


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## PaulineMi (Feb 5, 2016)

Your Lola is such a cutie. She wears that top knot so well and her color is very pretty.


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## boomana (Jul 9, 2015)

Lisa T. said:


> Lola is gorgeous. I am interested to see her coat changes in the next year. Did her parents lighten as they got older? Rudy lightened up a lot. It's more of a tan color than silver. The tips if his ears are still dark brown.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


No fading that I know of once they were adult.



krandall said:


> And, of course, you can have the silver gene and a fading color in the same dog (like a chocolate silver) in which case, they will look lighter still.


This seems to be Lola. Her tail is mostly white, and there are a lot of white hairs growing on her back and starting on her face. She also seems lighter at the roots with more white hairs mixed in with the tannish color. It's really quite beautiful.

I've read that if they have two copies of the silvering gene, they'll start showing white when really young, but if they have one copy, it will start in adolescence. Lola was very dark until 9 months-ish.



MarinaGirl said:


> Black or dark brown fur can turn reddish due to sun or exposure to bleaching agents. If you have a swimming pool that your dog is allowed in, this can bleach coats, as well as living in Florida with year-round sun.


Lola always had a reddish brown, but i definitely think the Florida sun might be having an effect, even if we don't go out much during the day.


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## PaulineMi (Feb 5, 2016)

MarinaGirl said:


> Black or dark brown fur can turn reddish due to sun or exposure to bleaching agents. If you have a swimming pool that your dog is allowed in, this can bleach coats, as well as living in Florida with year-round sun.


Here's some additional info on black coats turning red that I found interesting. It's at the bottom of the page...

Newsletter - January 2005


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Eveningpiper said:


> I thought that if individual hairs were a different solid colour than the base colour that is was classified as brindle whereas different colours on the same hair was called sable. I would be interested to know how silvering fits into those classifications, if it does?


True bindles have stripes in their coat like a brindle Great Dane or brindle Greyhound. YOu can really only see the pattern when they are very young, because as their hair gets longer, it mixes together, so you can't see the "tiger stripes" anymore.

There is also an "agouti" gene, which is permanent banding of each hair. That's different from the banding you see in sables, chocolates and reds. The banding in those colors is much broader, and you can see it in the whole coat at the same time. As the bands grow down through the coat, the dog gets lighter or darker. That's why, when you see pale color under the tips on a sable, it's a good guess that the dog's mature color will be close to that. But, as I said, they can darken again, somewhat, and then lighten again all through their lives.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

boomana said:


> I've read that if they have two copies of the silvering gene, they'll start showing white when really young, but if they have one copy, it will start in adolescence.


I think that's probably true, though, of course you'd have to actually test for it to be sure... especially in the dogs who are borderline. Pixel has a silver sister who's face was CLEARLY silver at 6 weeks... probably even earlier, but that's when I first saw her in person. THAT puppy is now a BEAUTIFUL all-over silver dog. I'd guess that she got two copies.

Pixel is just interesting because of that ONE splash of silver in her tail. She had a TINY white tip on her tail when she was born, but I don't think this color comes from that (though now I'll have to go check to be sure  ) But she' 14 months old and still not showing any further silvering. I don't think Birdy, the sister that Pam kept is silvering (yet) either.

Havanese colors are always so interesting!!!


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## articshark (Apr 4, 2016)

Question... can brindle dogs also silver? Because in addition to Java starting to stripe out at her roots, she is getting short white hairs all through her tail and a couple of other places.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

articshark said:


> Question... can brindle dogs also silver? Because in addition to Java starting to stripe out at her roots, she is getting short white hairs all through her tail and a couple of other places.


Yes, brindles can also carry the silver gene, and in Java's case, that s very likely, because we know Nike is silver. But Java may also has "color things" going on that are not fully understood based on the currently known color genetics. She was a very unusual color as a tiny puppy.


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## articshark (Apr 4, 2016)

Thanks, Karen. I've been reading stuff on coloring, but it's all making my head spin. I don't really care what color she eventually ends up. But I think it is so cool Havis are so prone to color change. No other dog I've ever owned has changed coat color. So this is a first and so interesting.


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## Lisa T. (Feb 5, 2015)

Here is a picture of Rudy at 8 1/2 weeks old and also a picture as of today at 1 years old. He definitely lightened up.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

articshark said:


> Thanks, Karen. I've been reading stuff on coloring, but it's all making my head spin. I don't really care what color she eventually ends up. But I think it is so cool Havis are so prone to color change. No other dog I've ever owned has changed coat color. So this is a first and so interesting.


Yes, it's very interesting, and Java is a truly unusual one!


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## boomana (Jul 9, 2015)

I was looking around the havanese gallery, and came upon pictures of Lola's grandmas (granddams?). She's looking like she's going to have the coloring of the first, but I swear she looks so much like other one, I'd think it was Lola wearing the wrong coat.


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## JulieB (Jun 16, 2016)

Is your Rudy from Colonial Havanese in Glouster Virginia by any chance?


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## Hanna (Feb 25, 2016)

Hello Lola You look so gorgeous. Your Mum&Dad is so proud of you.


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## Laurmann2000 (Sep 12, 2015)

Lola is so pretty as are her grandmas. Love seeing the changes in the coats.


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## boomana (Jul 9, 2015)

Finally got a couple pics of how Lola is changing quickly. She looks like she got into a flour bag.


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## jef (Apr 17, 2016)

i think lola looks great with the silvering or _bluing_! 0
her face looks like it may be a darker shade from the side!?


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## Dee Dee (Jul 24, 2015)

Oh my she is stunning!!!! She will just keep getting prettier and prettier I'll bet. If that's even possible!!


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## Heather's (Jun 18, 2012)

Lola is such a pretty girl! She looks so soft and fluffy!!! Looks like Lola and Truffles are going to be about the same color. :biggrin1: I was amazed how fast Truffles color changed. It will be interesting to see if Lola's coat gets any lighter. 😊


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## Sheri (Oct 11, 2008)

Lola's coat is simply gorgeous!!


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