Dapple Doxies look both adorable and weird. Let’s explore what does a dapple dachshund look like and what’s unique about it? We’ll go over what makes a dapple dachshund what it is, how can you tell them apart from other dachshunds with white spots, and what else do you need to know about them? Let’s go over each point below.
What Does A Dapple Dachshund Look Like?
Dachshunds of every coat type, size, and color can be “Dapple”. When they are, they’ll have some tiny white spots sprinkled over parts of their body, such as the head, shoulders, paws, the torso, and others. Said sprinkles can be either fully white or mostly pinkish white. They can also cover anywhere between 10% and over 80% of the dachshund’s body.
Why Do Dapple Dachshunds Look Like This?
The dapple dachshund owes its look to the so-called “merle” gene – the Mm genotype that’s shared with merle coated dogs of other breeds such as Australian Shepherds, Catahoula Leopard dogs, Koolies, and others.
What’s The Difference Between Dapple and Merle?
In terms of genes – there isn’t one. In terms of appearance – there also almost isn’t one, dapple is more or less another word for merle, it’s just used for dachshunds. Merle/dapple dachshunds do look a bit different from other merle breeds because dachshunds typically don’t have any white on them. So, in other breeds, the merle coat is characterized by patches of color on a white dog’s coat whereas, with dachshunds, the dapple coat is characterized by the very presence of white hair.
What’s The Difference Between A Dapple and A Piebald Dachshund?
Dapple dachshunds aren’t the only Doxies with white in their fur, of course. The other popular example is the piebald dachshund. The white color of these dogs is due to the mutation of an entirely different gene group, however, and it isn’t related to the merle/dapple gene at all.
The difference in appearance is that piebald dachshunds tend to have larger and much more “solid” sections of white color on their bodies, usually covered in small colored speckles. These white parts look much more “normal” as they have straighter and more easily defined borders to their white sections.
Plus, because the piebald and merle genes are entirely different, there is the rare piebald dapple dachshund combination.
Learn more about: What Is Piebald Dachshund?
What’s The Difference Between A Dapple and a Double Dapple Dachshund?
This is where dapples become controversial. For while the dapple dachshund is a perfectly fine and cute dog with no extra inherent health issues compared to “normal” dachshunds, that’s not the case with double dapples.
Double dapples, as the name suggests, are dachshunds who are the offspring of two dapple dachshunds and have the MM genotype instead of Mm (dapple) and mm (non-dapple). As a result, double dapples have even wider white areas, covering up to and beyond 80% of the dog’s body.
The problem with that, while still undeniably cute, is that dogs with that much white in their fur have drastically increased risks of being born with blindness and/or deafness. That’s why breeding two dapple dachshunds with each other is very ill-advised and frowned upon in the dog breeding community. In fact, that’s also why breeding even single dapple dachshunds is often discouraged, because of the risk of them accidentally getting bred with another dapple by an unknowing pet owner.
Is It Easy To Tell A Dapple and A Double Dapple Apart?
Usually, yes, but not always. The exact amount of white on the dog’s fur can vary, after all. Many double dapple dachshunds don’t have as much as 80% white color while some single dapple dachshunds can get close to that. In other words, the ven diagrams of dapple and double dapple dachshunds in terms of the white in their fur do overlap a little bit.
So, What Does A Dapple Dachshund Look Like and Should I Get One As A Pet?
Dapple dachshunds look adorable with their speckled white spots. However, those – normally harmless – white spots should also serve as a warning for you not to breed your dog with another dachshund with white in its fur. Doing that can, unfortunately, lead to the breeding of both blind and deaf animals. As long as you spay/neuter your dapple dachshund, however, owning such a dog is not a bad thing in and of itself.
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