Chow chow coat colours


&


colour genetics

The chow chow comes in two coat types. Rough ad smooth.
The rough coat is straight and off-standing. The smooth coat is hard and smooth. Both coat types have a profuse double coat. For more on grooming click here

What colours do Chow Chow’s come in?
In the UK we have FIVE recognised coat colours:
RED
BLACK
BLUE
FAWN
CREAM

There are also NONE BREED STANDARD colours in the breed. There are also cross breeds cropping up for colours such a merle or certain breeders renaming colours to appear “rare” for profitability- I will explain more later

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Red

Pictured above Story - Notorious Star Once Upon a Time

Red comes in many shades but the two versions of red are shaded red and self red.
Story above is pictured above in a transitional period between puppy coat and adult coat but as you can see below he finished out a rich dark red - he is a self red

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Everly pictured below is shaded red, she is a particularly light colour.

Shaded red Chow Chow Everly- Beaconpride Fairytale above

As a side note- Some breeders find it hard to distinguish self red from shaded red puppies. For illustration purposes I have included a picture of a self red and shaded red newborn puppies below. (Self red babies have a darker stripe on their chest and down their back when born)

Above - Two shaded red puppies (left) & Two self red puppies (right)
And below one of the shaded red girls (left) and one of the self red girls (right)

pictured above (left) Newfangled Wish Upon A Star aka Cricket and (right) Newfangled Dreams Come True aka Pistachio

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BLACK

Tumbleweed- aka Ch-Dalen Nota Bene

The black Chow Chow coat is solid black, However you may have grey/silver shading on the trousers (rear of the dog) & on the tail, it can also show a naturally occurring reddish tinge from exposure to the sun and coat cycles.