Possible colors in our litters

The illustrations below belong to the Deutsch Kurzhaar book, written by Mrs. Georgina Byrne from Australia. This is the most complete book on the breed.

You can order the book directly from this website.

The information below is based on the Chapter 12 of the above mentioned book, and tries to explain in a simplified way what colors can we expect for the puppies born in our kennel, depending on the parents' colors.

There are some general rules of colors in genetics of the Deutsch Kurzhaars:

- ticked dogs carry only the gene for ticked patterns (ticked dogs are all non-solid colored dogs, no matter how light or dark the background is)

- liver dogs carry only the gene for liver color

- from 2 liver parents there cannot be black puppies

- from 2 ticked parents there cannot be solid colored puppies

- Solid is dominant over ticked

- Black is dominant over liver 

The table below shows what colors our dogs are carrying

The dog color is the apparent color, while the color in the circle is the one carried by the dog

	Liver ticked   Our dogs KS Conan Seehof Vinnie vom Riverwoods Sophie vom Geestmoor - 8 years old now, retired from breeding in 2016 CH Elke von den Donau-Wirbeln CH Irbis von den Donau-Wirbeln Karpaten Irbis Karin They carry only the gene for liver color and ticked (non-solid). This means that they can only produce liver ticked puppies, even if they come from solid colored parents (as Irbis).
	Solid liver that carry the liver ticked gene   Emil vom Hege-Hof Lorelei de Valcreole - 9 years old now, retired from breeding in 2014 Emil and Lorelei carry the gene for solid liver color and liver ticked (non-solid). This means that they can produce solid liver or liver ticked puppies.
	Black ticked that carries the gene for liver ticked   CH Paris von den Donau-Wirbeln Sonja II Pöttmes CH Christel von den Donau-Wirbeln Tina von den Donau-Wirbeln   Zonja von den Donau-Wirbeln Hora von den Donau-Wirbeln Paris, Sonja, Christel, Tina, Zonja and Hora can produce both black ticked and liver ticked puppies as they carry the gene for both colors.
	Black ticked, dominant for Black   Katja von den Donau-Wirbeln Katja is dominant for black color, meaning that she will only produce black colored (no liver) puppies, no matter the color of the other parent. She resulted from the mating of 2 Black-ticked parents and the dominance for Black was confirmed after she had the first litter (litter T, consisting of 6 black-ticked pups).

Below some color examples using photos of puppies born in our kennel, in various litters.

Litter of pups with all 4 basic colors

 Liver-ticked - combination of white and liver hairs, in various proportions:

• white background with light liver ticking, with our without patches
• white background moderately liver ticked, with our without patches
  
• white background heavily liver ticked, with our without patches 
• liver/white roan, with our without patches

---

Black-ticked - combination of black and white hairs, in various proportions

• white background with light black ticking, with our without patches
• white background moderately black ticked, with our without patches 
• white background heavily black ticked, with our without patches 
• black/white roan, with our without patches

---

Solid Liver - solid liver background, with or without ticked markings on feet & chest 

---

Solid Black - solid black background, with or without ticked markings on feet & chest 

---

The table below shows the possible colors of the puppies. We only did this for dogs owned by us.   Sometimes we may use dogs that are owned by others.

The table shows only the legitimately possible outcomes of the matings, meaning that no other colors are possible. It doesn't necessarily mean that all possible will occur, only that no other colors than listed are/were possible.

The table contains past litters and also possible future litters of our dogs.