Why is the coat color called RED and white??

[Legendaryfrank]

From what I can see, it's more orange than red, unless the naming is talking about the dogs skin which is actually a bit red.

 

for reference

[palmettobug]

It depends on the light, sometimes mine are red, sometimes a little more orange, sometimes almost brown. It's like people's red hair, it comes in lots of shades. Of course, once we all get older, it fades and goes to white.

That hound looks like my Roman, he doesn't have the saddle, tho.

[HeyRunDog]

There wasn't a word for orange before 1512 ish when the fruit was introduced to England which is why orange things are called red e.g. red deer, red kite, robin red breast etc.

[Banjoman]

You can have “red fawn” and “blue fawn” colour coats when registering dogs. “Blue” is actually grey!

I have had red fawn and blue fawn dogs, the red fawn is a darker red/brown while the blue fawn is a lighter cream/ grey.

Red brindle dogs have a darker background and black markings while blue brindles have grey markings and possibly lighter colour background.

[Jerilyn]

14 hours ago, HeyRunDog said:

There wasn't a word for orange before 1512 ish when the fruit was introduced to England which is why orange things are called red e.g. red deer, red kite, robin red breast etc.

Never realized that, but it makes total sense!

Lila definitely was more orange than red. Coincidentally, I am also a redhead whose hair is not really red.

[Legendaryfrank]

3 hours ago, Jerilyn said:

Never realized that, but it makes total sense!

Lila definitely was more orange than red. Coincidentally, I am also a redhead whose hair is not really red.

the more you know, huh?

[greysmom]

Just like with lots of descriptive adjectives for colors, it's all relative.  

From what I can tell, "red" is a subset of the "fawn" color classification.  It delineates it from Blue fawn or other shades of fawn - though there are loads of descriptive color types that aren't official like champagne fawn.  A regular, plain fawn is a sort of tan or toast color, while red fawns are considerably darker, and may actually be sabled (with black or darker tips on the outer guard hairs).

Here's an "official" chart. but many variations exist.  Color is not an official disqualifier in the AKC breed standard, and it matters not at all for NGA registration.

Official Greyhound Color Chart