CHESAPEAKE BAY RETRIEVERS

Colour questions

For people without Chesapeake experience, there are a lot of colour terms unique to the breed. Deadgrass, sedge, dark deadgrass. What are these colours? Masking, brindle, tan-point. What are these patterns? If you have experience with other retriever breeds you know that their standards allow little or no white markings. Chesapeakes are allowed more white, though it isn't encouraged. Below is a chart with pictures of the standard colours. For a look at the non-standard patterns and colours, click here.

DESCRIPTION OF COLOURS

Red-brown: This is a very common shade in Chesapeakes. Often Chessies get more red in their coats when they have been out in the sun or are getting ready to shed.
Dark Brown: The picture shows one of the darkest Chesapeake colours.
Medium Brown: Lighter and less red than # 1. This colour can fade out to almost deadgrass before shedding. Some dogs bleach out more than others.
Deadgrass: This illustrates a medium deadgrass shade.
Light brown: The colour is almost as light as deadgrass but less yellow.
Sedge: This is a red-gold colour. It can be darker than this picture.

Making things complicated.

Just to add complications to colour descriptions, many Chesapeake pups have very heavy shading at birth. This usually clears by the time the pups are 7-8 weeks, except for a darker area on the back and the tail. The contrast can be slight or very evident. Brown pups always have less red in their "puppy fuzz" than in the adult coat. Also, some Chesapeakes have darker head markings which are very noticable when the new coat comes in and fade out to nothing by the time it is shed.

Above-Some of our lighter coloured dogs illustrate the great camouflage of a proper Chesapeake coat.