Spotty Cockers

[michelle123]

Hoping that I am not going to sound toooooo stoopid 

I have noticed a few "spotty" cockers on various avatars and photos. 

Also noticed on the 2 cockers found in Southend (didnt want to post on that thread as felt it was insensitive).  Colin said that the dog looked "ticked" - is that the correct term for them ?   

Presuming that the breeders for these are few and far between

I would be very interested in your responses - Happy New Year 

[spanielcrazy]

Not really sure what you mean, but the difference between a roan and a ticked dog can be a little confusing sometimes. The dog in the Southland photo looks to me like a blue roan, although the very heavy dark spots are probably what is causing people to say it might be ticked. Hard to say without seein a full body pic.

In general, roaning is  more "blended", the dark hair and light hair are more mixed in, where  ticking is more like spots, with a definate color change. Speaking for myself most of the ticked dogs I have seen are black and whites.

As far as breeders go, color breeding in particolors is inexact, to say the least! Any particolor breeder has the potential to breed a ticked dog so theoretically they aren't all that hard to find.

There are lots of roans on this site, maybe someone will post a pic of a ticked dog!

[Nicola]

OMG this is so strange because I was just thinking earlier today about posting some full body shots of Alfie to get some opinions on his colouring. Basically I keep getting comments from people that they've never seen a dog his colour before and he's very unusual... I call him a light blue roan but having read comments on here recently about 'ticked' dogs I'm wondering if this describes him. He has a black mask but spotty legs, almost zebra stripes at the front, spotty sides kind of blended in and a dark roan stripe down his back. The white on his sides is almost a silvery colour, it's lovely whereas on his legs and head it's a true white...

I'll see if I can get him to stand still for some pics later on 

[spanielcrazy]

OMG this is so strange because I was just thinking earlier today about posting some full body shots of Alfie to get some opinions on his colouring. Basically I keep getting comments from people that they've never seen a dog his colour before and he's very unusual... I call him a light blue roan but having read comments on here recently about 'ticked' dogs I'm wondering if this describes him. He has a black mask but spotty legs, almost zebra stripes at the front, spotty sides kind of blended in and a dark roan stripe down his back. The white on his sides is almost a silvery colour, it's lovely whereas on his legs and head it's a true white...

I'll see if I can get him to stand still for some pics later on 

Now you've got my curiosity up. Do post piccies!

With apologies to Katina, if yoou look at the "Friends will be friends" thread in "New Rogues Gallery" the dog on the right is a black and white with a teeny tiny bit of ticking--very tiny, whereas the others are very definate blue roans.

[Colin]

I think you can get ticking on roans but they would still be referred to as blue roan, rather than blue roan ticked. Misty has a bit of ticking on her legs but it's not very evident now she is older and darker. I think Magic Star's Indie has quite a bit of leg ticking - but she'd still be classed as a blue roan.

Black & Whites and Liver & Whites etc differ from roans as their colours form separate blocks from each other - rather than being intermingled the way roans are. If they also have some spots ( or ticking) then they'd be classed as B&W Ticked etc.

Stevie is Orange & White Ticked - you can see the ticking on her snout. She also has a few bits on her legs and back.



Not sure I've explained that very well. 

[spanielcrazy]

OK, here's a really good link with pics, can show it much better than I can explain it:


http://www.ecsca.org/ecscoat.html

[Nicola]

Right, not the best quality but might give you an idea of Alfie's coat...

Full side view



Closer on legs/side



Back view



I think he's absolutely gorgeous but then I am a tad biased 

[Jan/Billy]

I think he's absolutely gorgeous but then I am a tad biased 

He is gorgeous 

[spanielcrazy]

Pretty!

I would call that a light blue roan, since Alfie does not have any sections that are all white (or "open")  The color is blended throughout his coat, and he doesn't have any "open" places.

With ticking, there is usually a lot more white space between the spotting.

It is a beautiful pattern and catches a lot of peoples eye, but it's quite common in ECs,

[Colin]

OK, here's a really good link with pics, can show it much better than I can explain it:


http://www.ecsca.org/ecscoat.html

Hard to tell exactly but the Orange Roan on ther looks more of an O&W to me - or maybe an O&W Ticked. Also here in the UK there's no such thing as a Red Roan or a Red & White. The Liver & White also appears to have some ticking

I think it can sometimes be difficult for breeders to distinguish the precise colour of some of the roans/and whites/and white ticked as puppies as the colour can take a while to show through - often after they've already been registered. Also, sometime the ticking is very negligible - eg Gilly's Gracie is registered as B&W but has a very small amount of ticking.

I'm sure Jane will be along to give a good explanation. 

I'd say Alfie was a light Blue Roan too.

[Cob-Web]

OK, here's a really good link with pics, can show it much better than I can explain it:


http://www.ecsca.org/ecscoat.html

Hard to tell exactly but the Orange Roan on ther looks more of an O&W to me - or maybe an O&W Ticked. Also here in the UK there's no such thing as a Red Roan.

...and the loci for Roaning is not confirmed yet afaik    (I put that link on a thread a few months ago, and Jane set me straight  ) I had to read a lot more about cocker colour genetics after absorbing the info on that site as it only presents one of several different opinions 

[spanielcrazy]

OK, here's a really good link with pics, can show it much better than I can explain it:


http://www.ecsca.org/ecscoat.html

Hard to tell exactly but the Orange Roan on ther looks more of an O&W to me - or maybe an O&W Ticked. Also here in the UK there's no such thing as a Red Roan.

I'm sure Jane will be along to give a good explanation. 


Agree, it's not the best photo, but I think I can see roaning under the white (thank god for my new monitor!)

Don't really see red roans often, but then again, we all call them orange roans anyway
I'd say Alfie was a light Blue Roan too.

oops, how does that happen that my post ended up in the purple too??

Anyway, even the ECSCA site says "There is disagreement on whether ticking is the same as roaning or not. Both can occur on the same dog, although roaning plus open marks does not."

So now that we have the OP thoroughly confused..   In a nutshell, "spotty" cockers are actually very common and not at all hard to find!

[Nicola]

Pretty!

I would call that a light blue roan, since Alfie does not have any sections that are all white (or "open")  The color is blended throughout his coat, and he doesn't have any "open" places.

With ticking, there is usually a lot more white space between the spotting.

It is a beautiful pattern and catches a lot of peoples eye, but it's quite common in ECs,

That's what I thought but I wanted to see what everyone else thought as well after reading the threads on ticking. Just curiosity really. I always describe him as a light blue roan so at least I'm not miscalling him! His mum is a very similar colour to him, his dad is a dark blue roan, as were both of his littermates.

I'd love to see a show cocker the same colour as him, the only other one I can think of on COL is Gorgeoustasha's beautiful sprocker Ollie who is Alfie's double. It would be nice to see this colour in the long show coat  

Edited to say pleeeeease excuse the complete lack of grooming in those pics of Alfie, he looks like a tinker    We were at the beach today and almost got blown away so when we got home he was towelled to within an inch of his life and had a quick ear comb but that's about it... and you can see from his face how impressed he was at being held in his 'show stance' 

[Nicola]

I think he's absolutely gorgeous but then I am a tad biased 

He is gorgeous 

Aww thanks Jan    and if you look on your thread on Billy in the behaviour board you'll see what I think of him too! 

[Colin]

The genetics side of things is a complete mystery to me - I can never make head or tail of it at all. This article is good for a description of how the various colours would be classed in the UK...

http://www.thecockerspanielclub.co.uk/colours.htm