Sealed Brindles

Question
QUESTION: Could you please explain a bit about sealed brindle Boxers? How are they bred for, are they genetically brindle? Thanks!

ANSWER: Hi Betty. Seal brindle is just a term, it is genetically a brindle and is dominant over fawn in Boxers. Some people also use the term reversed brindle, it's the same. This term means a dark brindle. A normal brindle is a fawn background with thin black stripes. Seal, or reversed, brindle is when the background color looks black insead of fawn, with fawn stripes. I have a good picture of this type of brindle if you're interested. These types of brindles seems to be more dominant of the normal, or light, brindle. I had a girl that was a light brindle, and she only had one light brindle puppy. The rest were reversed brindles, and she would only have one fawn puppy out of a litter, the rest brindles. Brindle is considered a coat pattern, not really a coat color. In Boxers, you have two colors, fawn and brindle, not even bringing the whites into this equation. If you have two fawn parents, the pups will be fawn. If you have a fawn parent and a brindle one, then you will get fawns and brindles as long as the brindle parent has one fawn parent itself. If the brindle gene is present, the pup will be brindle as brindle is dominant. It can get kind of complicated.:-) But seal brindle is just another term for the darker brindles, and if you want that type of brindle, then your best bet would be to breed a dark brindle dog, this would make your chances better at getting one. Either brindle is beautiful. Hope I made sense.:-)

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QUESTION: Thanks Renee, the sealed Brindles I was talking about appear solid black- most breeders are referring to them as sealed brindle (aka black, or black/white flashies.) Most info I've found indicates black is not genetically possible for a Boxer and other breeds must be involved somewhere along the line- although most of these guys are AKC reg (I know there are ways to register non-purebred dogs through AKC if breeders are being dishonest) Do you know anything about these "black" Boxers? Thanks!

Answer
Hi. The correct useage of the term sealed brindle in Boxers is talking about a really dark brindle. There is no such thing as a black Boxer. Sometimes some people think they have a black one, but if you take him into direct sunlight, you'll see faint fawn stripes. If the dog truely is black, then he is not 100% Boxer. It's not in the genetic makeup of the breed to have black as a color. If you see a breeder advertising solid black Boxers, then something is fishy, I don't care what they say, something's up as it's not possible. I have a great link about Boxer color genetics if you want it, the site also has a ton of great Boxer info by a long time Boxer breeder. But you are correct in that it's not possible.:-)