The first Scottish and English Standards tried to give
a comprehensive list of all of the colors of the Scottish Terrier: steel or iron gray,
black-brindle, brown-brindle, gray-brindle, black, sandy and wheaten. Although some few
writers have insisted that these colors were listed in order of preference, there is no
evidence to support this. The huntsmen had little interest in the colors of their dogs.
The gamest terriers had the most opportunities to reproduce themselves and did so. In
the first revision of the English Standard, and in all subsequent English Standards, the
list of colors was reduced to the following: black, wheaten, and brindle of any color. The
1993 American Standard adopted this succinct list of colors but added language allowing
for sprinklings of white or silver hair that may appear in black or brindle coats, and for
a small amount of white hairs on the chin and chest.
When the Scottie became a show dog, black became the increasingly dominant color of the
breed. Two factors were responsible for this. One was the public fancy. Most early
breeders supported themselves, in whole or in part, by the sale of their puppies. If the
public wanted black puppies, these breeders had little choice but to produce black
puppies.
Another important influence on color in the 1930s was the fact that English Champions
Albourne Admiration and Heather Necessity were black. These highly successful stud dogs
passed on their color along with their numerous other virtues.
The brindle partisans struck back, claiming that brindle was the original
coat color. This notion is preposterous because it is impossible to single out the
"original" Scottish Terrier. Volume 1 of the Stud Book of the Scottish Terrier
Club (Scotland) was published in 1895 and contains 531 registrations, including many
pillars of the breed. While the many shades of brindle are the most common colors
represented, there were also blacks and wheatens. In fact, the range of colors listed in
that Stud Book include some rarely seen today, such as red, gray, and what seems to have
been black and tan.
The writings of Dorothy Caspersz and Dr. Fayette Ewing are often cited in support of
anti-black sentiment. In fact, both were adamant that all colors were equally beautiful.
While Caspersz had a personal preference for brindles, she argued vigorously that there
was no special merit in color as long as white was discouraged. Ewing developed an
interest in wheatens and imported the first wheaten to achieve an American championship.
He did not prefer the color, but he had a strong interest in ensuring its survival.
McCandlish and the other early writers made no comment on any relationship between coat
color and coat texture. By the 1930s, however, when black had become so wildly popular,
breed experts decried the relative softness of black coats when compared to brindles.
(Wheatens, being sufficiently rare, seemed to be regularly omitted from these
discussions.) There is no denying that many breeders of that era, in their haste to meet
the demands of a fickle public for black puppies, must have ignored the importance of coat
texture. Today, however, good (and bad) coats come in all colors. All the evidence points
to the fact that color is not genetically linked to coat texture or density.
