This is probably a great question for a dog trivia night. We are all quite familiar with the Dalmation appearance, probably even more so since the 1996 movie, ‘101 Dalmatians’. But how many people know the answer to the question: Are Dalmatians born with spots?
I always pictured a cute little Dal puppy covered in those adorable unmistakable Dalmatian spots. And in fact, even in cartoon drawings of Dal puppies, the spots are usually displayed in all their splendour. So, do Dalmatian newborns have spots or not? I, for one, find it hard to imagine this breed without spots. Let’s see.
If you are a Dalmatian owner, then you might already know the answer to this question. That is, unless you adopted a more mature Dal from a rescue centre. If, on the other hand, you adopted a young Dalmatian puppy, then you would most likely want to reassure me that your puppy did in fact come with spots. And I have no doubt that this is true.
However, consider the fact that most puppies are weaned after 8 weeks of age. What do they look like before 8 weeks?
Yes, that’s right, Dalmatians are in fact born white. The pure white coat at birth becomes spotted shortly after.
101 Dalmatians (Two-Disc Platinum Edition) [DVD]
When Do Dalmatians Get Their Spots?
On average the spots start to appear anywhere from 10 to 14 days. So, you can see why your 8-week-old puppy did indeed come with spots as expected.
Because the newborn’s white coat is very quickly sprinkled with the beginnings of the Dalmatian signature spots, it is understandable that most would assume that their puppy came into the world already sporting his spots.
As you can see from this video, the newborn is indeed white. But you can already notice some light spots starting to appear on one or two of the puppies.
