"RARE" Colors
In The Cane Corso
BUYER BEWARE
If you’ve decided that the Cane Corso is the breed for you, we hope you will place the temperament of the dog as your highest priority. You may also be choosing a sex and stating a color preference to your breeder.
According to the Breed Standard with the American Kennel Club, “Acceptable colors are black, lighter and darker shades of gray, lighter and darker shades of fawn, and red. Brindling is allowed on all of these colors. Solid fawn and red, including lighter and darker shades, have a black or gray mask. The mask does not go beyond the eyes. There may be a white patch on the chest, throat, chin, backs of the pasterns, and on the toes.”
Be wary of a breeder specializing in any one coat color or selling non-standard colors for ridiculous prices. If money is the priority for supplying the demand then health, temperament and quality are forgotten.
While the mismarks are cute and uncommon, they go against the breed standard that is meant to keep the Cane Corso distinguishable as its own breed. The disqualifying coat pattern for Cane Corsos is tan-points, as commonly seen in Rottweilers or Dobermans. It is a solid base coat color with solid tan markings seen on the face, chest and/or legs. Other non-standard colors include chocolate or liver and dilute liver called isabella fawn; both with matching pigment around the eyes, the nose and nails and may have light eyes in a yellowish tint. These mismark colors can be solid coated or have the brindle or tan-point pattern. Another non-standard coat color is referred to as straw. It is a light yellow or cream color with no mask and the nose is most often a faded brown color or black.
The "rare" colors are uncommon because they are produced by recessive genes. They are traits that lay hidden in dogs and occasionally when two purebred Cane Corsos are bred together, puppies can be born of non-standard colors or markings. This in and of itself is not a bad thing, it can happen to any breeder and it does not necessarily indicate any form of cross breeding. However, people should not be promoting these colors or patterns as rare, exotic or higher priced than standard colored puppies. Mismarked puppies should be sold as companions with limited registration papers to be spayed or neutered and not to be bred at all.
Submitted by Robyn Salisbury
