What tan point is
Tan point, written at, is primarily a solid‑coloured dog wearing tan (phaeomelanin) points: above the eyes, inside the ears, on the muzzle, the chest, the stomach and the lower legs. The tan can range from a pale biscuit through a rich ginger to a golden copper.
Tan point and tri‑colour
In a Border Collie that also has Irish spotting, tan point together with the white markings is what we call tri‑colour — black (or another base), white and tan. Interestingly, the Irish spotting can cancel out the appearance of the tan point in places even though it is still there.
Any colour — and sometimes hidden
A tan‑pointed dog can be any colour. There is one exception you cannot see: when an ee red dog is also tan pointed, the ee red masks the points completely. You will not know the tan point is there unless both parents were tan pointed — in which case every pup in the litter, including any ee reds, is tan pointed.
Otherwise tan point behaves as a recessive: to prove a dog carries it you have to breed it to another tan‑point dog, or to a carrier of the recessive tan‑point gene. A merle can be tan pointed too, giving strikingly marked merle‑and‑tan dogs.
