Looking at photos and descriptions of various other litters and dogs I have seen many that people were having trouble distinguishing from "Roan" vs "Ticked" and some were even mis-identified on their registration. While this might seem as unimportant in the grand scheme of things, proper identification of a dog's color CAN be very important when breeding, or simply as a way of identifying a dog, especially if it is the only way of identifying a dog.
Why it matters with breeding. Some people want a specific color. They will for whatever their reasoning, go to extreme lengths to obtain a puppy in the color of their choosing, including putting a sizable deposit on a future litter that has been "guaranteed" to produce that color. And so if the color of the dam and or sire is mis-identified, the resulting litter might not produce the desired color and in many cases, deposits are non-refundable. Even if the deposit IS refunded, that time waiting for the litter to be born is spent and cannot be "returned". The potential buyer has not only wasted time on a litter that could not produce the desired color, but has also potentially passed up on other litters that would or did actually produce what they desired.
Another breeding consideration is that colors are recorded on the registration papers, and we should want them to be as accurate as possible to for future generations to be able to trace back to see what colors the forefathers (and mothers!) of their dog was. This helps predict what potential colors their dog could "throw" or produce themselves. It also helps to "prove" fraud in some cases where "rare" or in other words, mixed breeding occurs when people try to claim that a litter of pups of a color that is impossible and therefore not allowed in the breed, came from the claimed parentage. Such as "merle", "blue (a solid grey like a Weimaraner), which are not only colors never produced by purebred working cockers, but is also a dangerous color to be breeding as they has health considerations attached to those genes including but not limited to: deafness, blindness, severe allergies, alopecia, and a lethal gene that causes stillborn pups.
When a color is used for identification purposes, such as in a litter with both roan and ticked pups, as identifying a pup or dog for sale, or as one being bred, or even on and especially when being used to identify a dog with a micro chip registry, it is very important to be consistent with the terminology so that should the dog be used as a stud in a kennel with both colors, one can properly identify the dog being used. If the dog is listed with a micro chip as a certain color with your vet and with a chip registry, you want to be sure that it is correct so that anyone finding your dog can identify it quickly as being yours!
Now that said, how does one tell the difference between the two? Well. If you are the breeder it is pretty simple at birth to tell the difference. Hopefully one isn't too sleep deprived and has adequate lighting during the whelping process as the difference can be seen most easily when the pups are first born and still wet.
For the Roan coloration, the pigment/skin of the nose and muzzle of the pup, along with pigment of the skin in general, but most easily seen on the muzzle and legs/feet and footpads, appear a light grey in color. The nose itself is often a darkish grey, almost "purple" in color. The pup's coat could already sport roaning of the hairs-along with any larger black, liver, or red/lemon/orange spotting on the head and body. Roan is characterized by a "salt and pepper" type of coloring-the individual hairs may be partially colored halfway up the shaft of the hair or they are clustered in a way that they are mixed to form a "blueish" coloration using black and white hairs for "Blue Roan" pups, liver and white for "Liver Roan", and red/orangish and white for Red/Orange/lemon Roan. Please note: Liver and Liver Roan pups will have a light pinkish/brown nose. Those of the Red/Orange/lemon coloration can have either the dark grey/purplish (later turning black)or the pinkish/brown color (later turning liver) nose. Unfortunately I do not have any photos of newborn Red/Orange/Lemon pups to show you, as I have not yet produced those colors. So back to the color Roan: The footpads of the roan pup will also often be completely or at least edged all the way around with pigment, which will fill in with color within a couple of days. If you look at the roof of the mouth of a Roan pup, it will also often be a solid color. In the case of a pup without a complete double sided mask, the unmarked sides ear leather on the inside will also be a grayish cast for Blue Roans and light brown for Liver pups. As the pups age, the roaning can get to be very dark and almost a "solid" coloring that is hard to distinguish between the patches of sold color and the roan areas. They can also have patches of solid white amongst the roan coloration, often at the top of the head and in the shoulder/back areas. The legs of a Roan dog often are almost a solid color even if the body is not, looking like "stockings".
The example for Blue Roan is the pup on the left in the photo.
Ticking. In the litter that we had 3 wks ago, we had all of the possible colors of "black", since the mother "Berry" does not carry for any other color. She herself is a Black and White with Ticking. While she does look "roan" on parts of her body, including her face and in between the spotting on her torso, she is in fact Ticked, not roan. This is because she in fact has pink pigmented skin with distinctive small dots of spots along with her larger spots that she was born with. The smaller dots did not start to appear until she was around 6-7 weeks old, getting more and more prominent as she (and her littermate sister Fenloch Acacia who is the same color) aged, much like Dalmatian puppies do. The "background" color on a Ticked dog remains white, noticeable especially on the legs due to the shorter hair. A ticked dog can be heavily marked, and with "and Tan" variations, can be spotted in more than one color! Conversely, the dog can also be very lightly ticked or ticking could be located just on the legs and/ or muzzle of the dog. Dogs that have NO ticking are called "Open Marked" or just "Black (or Liver, Red/Orange) and White" which means that the predominant color is WHITE with colored spotting. Not to confused with a colored body with a white blaze on the chest, muzzle, or white toes! This is just a solid colored dog with "mis-marks". On those dogs' registrations, the papers should say, "Black, Liver, or Red/Lemon/Orange/Golden and the worlds WITH white MARKINGS. NOT "color" AND WHITE.
The ticking on a dog will have fairly distinctive dots or spots. The skin underneath the dots or spots will also be colored, but the surrounding pigment will be pink/white skin toned. Ticked pups will have pink or mottled pigmented noses, their pads on their feet will be pink or a pad or two may be dark or mottled, and the roof of their mouths will often be two toned as well. When born, the muzzle and feet will appear bright pink as will the skin of the entire pup, except for areas that will be ticked in the near future may seem "smudged" with pigment. Even a heavily ticked dog like "Berry" that appears roan will have pink skin underneath which can be easily seen when shaved or wet.
The pup on the right hand photo is Black and White with Ticking
