Bella my brindle shih tzu girl

by Uriah
(Louisiana )

When we first got Bella, she was a dark brindle color and so were her brothers. Though her dad was a kinda light brown and her mom was a tricolor.

Bella started to get lighter as time went by and I was very confused and didn't know why.

I still don't know why that happened. I liked her dark color.

Do you know why this is happening?

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Hi, Janice here from Miracle Shih Tzu
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Anyone who has ever had a Shih Tzu knows that at some point they begin to notice that the puppy whose hair color that was so stunning has begun to change.

If breeders don't warn their puppy buyers of this phenomenon, puppy parents are often caught off guard.

Sometimes the color changes we observe are caused by graying or fading genes that the puppy has inherited from his parents. Seeing the parents often helps to know how the dog will appear as an adult.

But not all Shih Tzu puppies resemble their parents. Some actually look more like the grandparents. It's as if the gene soup got stirred a bit too much and ended up getting scattered in a way that we can't always predict.

Most people first notice this change after a puppy has gotten her first haircut. The darker colored hairs are trimmed only to find that the roots of the hair are much lighter.

In this situation, the color of the hair did not change at all, but rather we didn't look at the roots of the hair. If you pick up a puppy's tail and look at the underside, you are most likely going to get a good idea what the hair color will be as an adult. As the puppy grows, you can also part the hair to see what is growing under the darker outer hairs.

In all likelihood, your Bella now looks very much like her father. If you were to ask her breeder, she would tell you that Bella's father looked like Bella as a puppy.

Hope this helps explain why your Brindle Shih Tzu

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