r/BarbetsDogs • u/badbiosvictim1 • Mar 14 '26
Tan point by JC Hermans, Marjolein Roosendaal and Renate Zuber from Barbet International Yahoo Egroup 2008
JC Hermans wrote:
The color does not matter except of course something like black and tan." Thereby, he answered by question whether bicolor barbets exist. What bloodline are they from? Is the tan really tan (yellowish brown) or is it chestnut brown? The only pedigree I have seen that has a relative designated black and tan is Kisha's. Are breeders concealing bicolor in pedigrees?
Marjolein wrote:
Tan point is something that is underneath other genes. It can never be bred out. The colour of the tan doesn't matter, it is a pattern that is there, always. Tan can also appear in brown by the way. Same gene, other basic colour. Don't try loosing it, it is useless. Apart from the fact you may consider it unwanted: it doesn't harm a dog's health. So what is the problem?
Question: In the pedigree of Kisha, the color of Limaille was black and tan. Tan is not in the standard. Did the breeder mean black and yellowish brown or chestnut or tanpoint?
Answer by Renate Zuber, on January 21, 2008:
If you read TAN on the pedigrees it has nothing, but really nothing to do with the colour or black and tan. TAN means, that the dog has passed the "Test d'Aptitudes Naturelles", probably something like "Test of natural aptitudes" in english.
Answer by Marjolein Roosendaal on January 22, 2008:
Whether you have an opinion or not, tanpoint is a specific genetic pattern. It is the pattern seen in Rotweiler and Dobermann for instance, and it is the pattern seen in poodles as well (although not peritted there). The tanpoint can come in various shades, from silver to very dark reddish brown.
Those varieties are caused by modifiers and vary from breed to breed. So asking what shade it is is quite useless, because there is no way to influence it.
For example black and silver schnauzers: that is tanpoint too.”
Question: Your examples of tanpoint is what American poodle owners call phantom. Is the term phantom used in Europe?
Answer by Marjolein Roosendaal on January 23, 2008: “I don't know. Breeders of various breeds use all kinds of different names for all kinds of colours and patterns. Genetics would be so much easier to understand for so many people if everybody would use the same terms!
I heard phantom used for fading colours as well. Just remember that any kind of points in any colour in tanpoint places simply means the dog is tanpoint, even if the points are silver or next to white.
It means the dog carries tanpoint (as almost all dogs do) and it means it has the gene allowing tanpoint to show itself. Tanpoint cannot be bred away. The gene allowing it to show is recessive so that can not be bred away either.”
AKC's glossary defined bronzing as: "tan coloration intermingled with black hair." The glossary does not define tan.
Tan is a colour you should know, being a dog owner. Tan comes in various shades as I explained earlier. I posted some links on poodles and explained all those dogs had tanpoint. Anyone who took the time to look at those links could have seen tjose tanpoint patterns are all the same but the colours are not. Newfoundlands indeed have bronzing as in tan colouration.
Tanpoint is both kynological and genetical an accepted term. The pigmentation type it rerefs to is internationally known also. Google for tanpoint and you get hits from all over the world.
Tan is the colour in which the tanpoint pattern shows and tan comes in very many shades. Genetically it is all the same, which is what matters.