BRINDLE
DEFFINITION OF BRINDLE: A coat that exhibits a tiger-striped pattern resulting from layered black hair intermingled
in areas of lighter color: ie: lighter color with black stripes. Reverse brindle occurs when the black striping is so
heavily concentrated that the lighter background, while clearly still present, is much more subdued, giving the appearance
of the coat being black in color with lighter stripes.
Now if you were to study a single hair from a brindle you would see that the hair shaft is a solid color
all the way through and down the length of the shaft. It is the placement of these hairs, whatever solid color
they may be, in swirls that gives the brindle its tiger striped pattern. The brindle color will ALWAYS be
present in the coat no matter how often or how short the coat is taken down. This is the same pattern that you can
see in Great Danes, Boxers, Bull dogs, Afghan hounds, and several other breeds. Brindles even if shaved clear to
the very skin, will still display their stripes. The brindle pattern is more noticeable if the coat is kept short
on the poodle. If the coat is grown out it all mixes together and gives the dog a more solid looking color all over,
albeit a muddy looking color.
These pictures demonstrate the brindle pattern at birth, 3 weeks and 7 months of age.
