Colour terms explained

Many breeds can use different terms for the same colour, while a colour name can mean different things in different breeds! Here is a try at explaining some of the dog colour terms out there. The most common patterns, like sable and tanpoint are not explained here but rather on their own pages. The different types of brindles are likewise on their own page.

Agouti - A term for grizzle.
Albino - A dog that completely lacks any pigment - it is solid white all over, with flesh nose and blue or red eyes. Classic albinism has not been proven to exist in dogs. There are some dogs that look similar to albino, such as the 'white' dobermann, but DNA testing has shown these dogs do not have a mutation on the C gene, which is what causes albino in most animals.
Apricot - A term for a bright red dog.
ASCOB - Stands for 'any solid color other than black'. Term used in american cocker spaniels.
Australian red - Used to describe recessive red in border collies (as opposed to 'red' which often describes liver in this breed).
Banded - Term used for grizzle.
Badger - A term for grizzle.
Belge - A term used for (sooty) sable in belgian griffons.
Belton - A term for roan used in english setters.
Bear brown - A term used in swedish lapphunds, probably means sunburnt black.
Beauty spot - See lozenges.
Bicolour - A dog with two colours. Usually means a solid colour with white spotting.
Biscuit - Pale cream markings in an otherwise white coat. Mostly used for samoyeds and related breeds.
Black merle - A term used to describe a blue merle dog with more black than blue in the coat.
Black points - Black paws, head and tail in an otherwise blue kerry blue terrier
Blenheim - Dark red and white piebald, term used in the cavalier king charles spaniel and the king charles spaniel.
Blenheim spot - A small spot of red on the forehead, see lozenges. This spot is considered highly desirable in blenheim breeds.
Blue belton - Blue roan (black with roaning)
Blue fawn - A sable dog with blue eumelanin pigment. Often has an overall lighter look than a regular sable.
Blue mottle - Blue roan (black with roaning)
Boston pattern - Usually black or brindle with white in the irish spotting pattern - white paws (usually entire frontlegs), front of chest, as a neck ring, underside of the body and usually on the muzzle and as a blaze.
Bronzing - Sunburning, usually of a black coat.
Buff - A cream coat.
Café au lait - A cream coat.
Champagne - A cream coat, can also be used to describe a white dog with lighter black pigment (such as a dudley nose and light eyes).
Charbonné - A sooty sable.
Chestnut - A term for dark red, normally reccessive red rather than sable.
Chocolate - A term for liver.
Cinnamon - A term for liver.
Copper - A term for liver.
Cryptic merle - A merle with no visible merling. Also often incorrectly used where 'minimal merle' would be a more correct term.
Dapple - A term for merle in dachshunds.
Deadgrass - Term to describe a light liver or isabella in chesapeake bay retrievers.
Deer - Used to describe a light red shade. Can also be used to describe a clear sable or a sable or red dog with urajiro markings.
Domino - Term for grizzle in afghan hounds and salukis. Named after a swedish afghan hound named Tanjores Domino, who had this pattern.
Fako - Term for sable in the pumi and the puli.
Fawn - Term commonly used to describe a clear sable. Many fawns are masked, though this is a separate gene. Can also have dark shading on the throat, top of body, toes and/or tailtip.
Flashy - A dog with clear, balanced white spotting (usually irish spotting):
Flecks - A term for ticking.
Flowered - A term for piebald in shar peis.
Game colour - A term for grizzle.
Ginger merle - Another term for red merle. Can also be used for other merle combinations, such as brindle merle.
Grey - Can mean a blue dog, but usually means a dog that has the greying gene, meaning the coat has gone from black to a silvery grey. Can also be used to describe a greyish grizzle ('wolf coloured').
Hare - A term for grizzle.
Harlequin - A modified form of merle, usually white base with torn black patches, but can also have other base colours. Term is also used for merle in a few breeds.
Hound colour - Colours typically found in the classic british hound breeds. Usually black/tan/white in other combinations, as well as red/white, cream/white and sometimes including blue or liver pigment as well.
Ivory - A very pale cream dog, looks almost solid white.
Landseer - Term for black and white piebald in newfoundlands.
Lemon belton - Cream roan.
Lilac - A term for isabella.
Lion - A term for a golden colour.
Liver belton - liver roan.
Maltese - When used as a colour rather than breed, it represents blue (diluted black, not grey).
Mantle - A dog that is somewhere inbetween irish spotted and piebald. Has a large blanket of colour on the body, but white front, legs, tailtip and usually muzzle.
Mask - A dark (usually) black muzzle. The mask can be large or small. Can also be used as a term for urajiro (see urajiro).
Mickey Mouse markings - A lighter colour around the face in a grizzle dog.
Mosaic - A skin mutation which gives a colour that is black and red (blue and cream, liver and golden etc), similar to a tortoiseshell cat, to different degrees. As it is a skin mutation rather than genetic colour mutation, it does not pass on to offspring when bred.
Mosaic spots - Spots of off-colour in dalmatians (such as a single liver spot on an otherwise black spotted dog). Can also appear in other breeds, though it is rare.
Mustard - Used to describe clear sable in dandie dinmont terriers. Can also be used to describe the tan colour in a grizzle ('pepper and mustard').
Orange belton - Orange roan.
Parti - A term for piebald.
Pearl - A term for isabella.
Pencilling - Black hairs on the feet of a tanpoint.
Pepper - A term for grizzle in dandie dinmont terriers.
Pepper and salt - A term for grizzle in schnauzers.
Pied - A term for piebald.
Pinky - A term for a cream dog in a breed that's usually sable - such puppies are born much ligther in colour than their littermates.
Plattenhunde - Term of black and white piebald in great danes.
Porcelaine - Term to describe harlequin great danes with other base colour than black.
Prince Charles - A term used in the king charles spaniel for black and tan in the piebald pattern (called tricolor in most breeds).
Red - Often means a red coat, but in some breeds, like the australian shepherd and siberian husky, also used to describe a liver dog.
Red mottle - Red roan.
Red liver - A red dog with liver eumelanin pigment.
Red speckle - Red roan.
Ruby - A dark red colour, mostly used in the cavalier king charles spaniel and the king charles spaniel.
Lozenges - A spot on the forehead or top of head in an otherwise white area.
Seal - A very dark brown dog, but with black eumelanin pigment rather than liver. Genetics unknown, possibly a heavily shaded sable.
Sedge - A term for liver in chesapeake bay retrievers.
Sesame - Used to describe a sable, grizzle or red dog with urajiro markings. See also urajiro.
Shaded sable - A sable with noticable dark shading on the upper body. Often has a widow's peak.
Slate - A term for blue (diluted black).
Slate merle - A term for diluted blue merle.
Spectacles - A term for the light eye markings in keeshonden (which are grizzle with a mask).
Splashed - A term for piebald.
Smokey - A dark sooty sable.
Straw colour - A cream or golden shade of red.
Thumbmarks - Black hairs on the feet of a tanpoint.
Ticking - Small spots of colour on white. They will be the same colour as the underlying pattern.
Tricolour - A dog with three colours; usually means black and tan with white.
Trim - A term for small amounts of white spotting.
Trindle - A term for a dog that is tricoloured (black/tan and white) and where the tan areas are brindled.
Tweed merle - A merle dog with unusually many shades in the coat. Genetic makeup unknown.
Urajiro - Light markings on the muzzle, eyes, front of chest and legs. Typically seen in shiba inus, but can appear in many breeds.
Wheaten - A golden red dog.
Widow's Peak - A lighter colour around the face in a grizzle dog.
Wolf colour, wolf grey - A grizzle in the shade of the wild wolf.
Yellow - A term for a golden red shade.