Question:
Hi guys,

I had a jack russel many years ago who was white/brindle. When we first got her, her brindle spots were lighter colour (still brindle-ish but a lighter tone of brown) and as she grew older, the brownish got darker.

I was talking about this with a friend of mine who didn't seem to belive it, she mentioned it to be odd. I just assumed that dog hair was somewhat like human hair right? you can be born with blond-ish but as you grow older the hair colour can become darker.

I guess I am looking to see if I could be right or maybe i'm remembering wrong? this was back in 1999 - so my memory could be off but i was/am pretty certain i didn't imagine this.. LOL

any insight?

Answer:
Jacks can and do change quite a bit over the years! You can't even tell whether it's going to stay short haired or long, smooth or broken or wire haired until they're about a year and a half. Their colours can lighten/darken, and they can even develop more ticking (coloured hairs mixed in the white areas) as they age. One that I know actually developed so much ticking that she ended up looking a completely different dog by the time she was 12 years old, she looked nothing at all like she had just a couple of years earlier. Everybody who saw pictures of her through the years thought my friend had owned several different dogs!

Answer:
That's really weird because most dogs hair lightens as they age. Was she a pup when you got her? My Beagle I had was white & dark brown when we got her. As she grew older she too got a lot of ticking, but ended up white & very light brown. Some dogs, like Dalmatians; and Cairn & Kerry Blue Terriers develop their coloring as they age. I didn't know Jack Russels could change too though. That's !

Answer:
Yep, my dad's got darker too, but in his case, we just passed it off as poor nutrition in the beginning...

Leonbergers, I've heard, go through around 5 complete color changes in their lifetime (mostly around the face).

Answer: