Question about ticking and losing white fur

I was just curious about why ticking occurs? When we first got Ellie she had no ticking but now my husband and I are noticing that she is starting to get some black ticking on her legs. I dont really care as she is a pet and I would love her no matter what but I was curious to learn why this occurs? I read that some breeders think that a pup with all pink paws wont tick but Ellie does have all pink paws and she does have ticking so I guess thats just an old wives tale or something. Also Ellie has a very thin blaze which I think will eventually disappear, once again I dont care Im just curious to learn more about the breed, and I was wondering if some of her white marks on her back would eventually go to? I know the black invades the white they say on tris but does this happen to Blens as well? I have seen ticking on other tris before when visiting breeders but I realized I never saw it on a Blen before. Does this only happen to Tris? Also does the chesnut coloring of Blens invade into the white? Thanks for satisfying my curiousity! :flwr:

Yes the chestnut does spread. Little flecks, in Joly's coat, eventually turned into blotches and his chestnut patches spread quite a lot. Seeing him two months later, his breeder said that he wasn't as lightly marked as she'd thought.

Chester developed a couple spots of ticking on his legs as he aged and one spot on his back that was hardly visible when he was really tiny grew larger and darker as his coat filled in. His paw pads are almost completely pink except for a black spot on one little pad. From what I know, they can develop new spots/ticking as they develop their adult coat and it's perfectly normal.

If you're want the real scoop I would call Mary Ann (the breeder) and talk to her. Lord knows she LOVES to talk about her dogs and she'll be able to tell you what her experience with her other dogs has been.

Please post more pics of Ellie when you can!

Only a really heaviliy ticked dog would likely have shown ticking as a young puppy -- ticking only tends to appear as puppies mature, from maybe 4 months on if I remember from Jaspar -- often spots start as teeny flecks and turn into large spots. Ellie must be around the right age for them to start to show and they will likely get a bit larger. I can remember watching a tiny speck on Jaspar gradually turn into a little spot on his front leg!

The black hair just tends to be more profuse than the chestnut on blenheims and it fills in more of the white, but blenhaims can also have ticking. Hence even a fairly wide blaze may totally disappear on tris and white vanishes on the rest of their body as well. A tri needs a lot of white for it to hold out clearly against black markings. Jaspar had a fairly wide blaze and small mask and the mask grew and the blaze narrowed. Also his zigzag of white git smaller on his back.

Their paws often start to get black spots even if they start as all pink. Adult pads will usually look quite different from puppies! I remember someone once writing to one of the boards or lists -- might even have been this one -- wondering how to get rid of 'oil stains' on her puppy's pink paws. She actually scrubbed and scrubbed and tried different things to remove the 'stains' -- before someone suggested they were probably normal dark spots that had developed since the last time she'd really looked at the paws. Of course, they were natural colouring and she was embarrassed! But goes to show that changes do happen pretty quickly.