Are Cairns supposed to get this blonde?

[boats85]

Semms like Skipper is getting more blonde every day and I mean just the fur color

Skippers dad

Jim

[hallswel]

Take the photo with something white behind her and try it with no flash. There are blonde Cairns.

[Cairnmania]

"Blond" Cairns are termed "wheaten" in dog lingo.

In most Cairns the oldest outer coat tends to lighten as it ages too - so the longer the coat gets the lighter it will appear.

[caseysmama]

aww semms is a cutie.

caseys coloring looks so different depending on the lighting

[Jessica H]

Scooter is very light, almost blonde. Depends on the lighting also but some times of the year he is extremely light.

[pkcrossley]

sure, wheatens get very blond --in fact, i recently saw a reference to some movie (we discussed it here) in which many internet people said a "westie" had starred; it looked to me like it was clearly a wheaten cairn and not a westie.

skipper doesn't even look blond enough to me to be a wheaten. he looks like a very fair red brindle (his black muzzle gives him away). to me, a wheaten is blond all over his face. i thinks scotty finlay, for instance, is a wheaten.

[shergry]

Our wheaten is 13 and showing her "blondeness." Age does have a lot to do with the lighter color fur. Makes you think maybe this is their gray hair on a wheaten? Just a wonder. Our red cairn is also lighter in color, I miss her really grand red. Our grey brindle is showing more red as he gets older. I love the idea that these dogs change as they get older, just like us.

[Nikki]

colors of cairn terrier

maybe this will help

[Teri9672]

Tabitha is very blonde too

I guess we have the same hair color

[boats85]

Thank you all for the input, This past week I had been doing a little at a time with the mars king coat. When I had Skipper out for walk this weekend really noticed how much lighter his fur/hair was.

Whoa that first instance I seen the pic of Tabitha I thought that was her real hair , great picture

Skipper is my first Carin and I am learning a lot

Skip's dad Jim

[pkcrossley]

that tabitha, what a card.

[biochembelle]

When Kenna got a haircut, she looked totally wheaton but maintained her black muzzle. As she grew out, more red and black showed up. Now that she's in need of another cut or stripping, the red is very obvious. Her face has definitely gotten darker over the last 8 months (she's 13 months old). So yeah, she gets darker as she gets older and as she grows out. No predicting these Cairns.

[jetersmom]

My little guy Bernie Bernstein is pretty blonde. His muzzle and ears are darker but the muzzle has faded quite a bit from when he was a wee pup.

[rtherapy60]

We often wondered about Coopers coloring. His registration says Wheaten, but he is very light, almost creme with no black markings.

Where as Jezzy has the Wheaten color with some black on her muzzle and ears.

[pkcrossley]

can't see cooper's ears. if they are blond, he is probably a wheaten.

jezzy looks like a very light red brindle.

as the link above points out, there are plenty of over-precise terms to describe all kinds of fair-haired cairns. but i think the finite coat genetic combinations distinguish red brindle from wheaten pretty definitively. variations on wheaten or red brindle depend on sex, dominant and recessive, and oncogenic actions from other genes.

[Hagar]

The photo in my avatar was taken when Renny was 1 year old and he was very blonde. The picture was taken in bright sun and he was laying on a relatively new concrete patio. My neighbor and her adult daughter often say that they would positively kill for that haircolor! His coloring varies according to the season, with him tending to be quite blonde in the Summer, and more reddish brown in the Winter. His registration says he's "brindle", and his face and ears darkened as he got older and tend to stay black now regardless of his other "color of the moment".

I just recently had him at a pet resort while I was on vacation for two weeks. For some reason my mobile groomer has apparently gone out of business, and he was quite overdue for a grooming. So, I made arrangements to have him groomed at the "resort" a day or so before my return. Previously his grooming has consisted of a bath and a good combing out with only enough trimming to even up the hair along his sides and a little around his butt.

The new groomer gave him quite a short clipping and in the process his coloring went from quite blonde to almost a silver gray. With the short coat, he looks more like a puppy than a 3 year old adult dog. With Fall and winter not too far away, it will be interesting to see what color he is when it grows back.

Does anyone else have a Cairn that changes colors on a frequent basis?

[Tracy A.]

Does anyone else have a Cairn that changes colors on a frequent basis?

I'll post some pictures of Mett & Bratt when I get home...

They both have the ever changing muzzel from dark to red to light back to Dark.

[rtherapy60]

Jezzy's coat stays pretty well the same color so far. She looks a Wheaten color with a red streak down her back.

[jimnconnie]

This past week I had been doing a little at a time with the mars king coat. When I had Skipper out for walk this weekend really noticed how much lighter his fur/hair was.

Skip's dad Jim

Skip's Dad Jim,

How much do you use the MCK on Skipper? Quite some time ago I was using the MCK regularly (weekly?) on our red Cairn, Bailey, and before too long his coat really got a lot lighter in color. After a visit to our breeder, whereupon she told me I was cutting too much of his coat with the MCK, I stopped using it. After several months and a couple of hand strippings, Bailey's coat returned to its' original color. I don't know if this has anything to do with Skipper or not, but I thought I would mention it.

Bailey's Dad Jim

[boats85]

Bailey's Dad Jim

I was using the MCK about once a week but not too much at a time, last few months been trying to hand strip a

little at a time. I take Skipper to gromers about every two months to get him trimmed around the paws and some of the wild stuff on his face. Skippers color is still light reddish blond.

[sheila and Misty]

isty as an adult goes through two color changes wheaten with sligt black tan mix to platinum blonde

[Aurora5000]

Just look at Chase and Gus

[Puddlesmama]

Iris is my Blondie.

[Greg P]

I like to refer to Kula as our platinum blond.

When she was a puppy, she was a deep , dark charcoal color. She basically "whited" out. She has light gray brindle hairs running through her coat down her back and on her ears. Her head, chest and legs are void of all other brindling......it is basically white. If she is against a true white dog, like a westie, however, you can see that her color has a sliver hue to it.

She has a very poor cairn coat. Her head, chest and underbelly and leg coat is soft and silky. Her back and sides have some coarseness. She was purchased years ago from a small breeder as a pet and looked to be all cairn as a puppy. If we didn't have a full AKC pedigree, I would wonder if she was a mix.

[toomanypaws]

Abbey is blonde in front, but has new red color coming out on her back.