Winter Nose

Most puppies are born with pink noses. At the norm, their nose should be pigmented from as early as 4 weeks to about 8 weeks. Although some puppies take more time for their nose to be fully pigmented, others really don't get pigmented at all, they spend their lives having a pink nose or a winter nose.

Nov. 18, 2008 photo

Our Chuck Bass and Lexie Grey have partially pigmented noses as of now. Lexie is still 10 weeks old and you can practically see the growth progression of the black pigment on her nose, no worries there. Interestingly, Chuck still has a partially pigmented nose and he's already 1 year and 3 months old. When we got him at 6 months old, we initially thought his partially-pink nose would be completely covered in liver color after while. But after 6 more months without a solid liver-colored nose, we've already accepted his partially pigmented nose as permanent and that it may stay that way for life... or so we thought. Last night, Ivy and I compared Chuck's nose photos at 6 months and his recent nose photos (yes, Chuck has a lot of nose photos in our archive. A liver colored nose also indicates that Chuck is a Red dog and will have no black pigmentation in his body at all). It was fascinating to find out that Chuck's nose has a slow but progressive growth of pigmentation. 

May 14, 2009 photo

That's really good news for us all! Not only because of aesthetic reasons but mainly because pigmentation is crucial for dogs, as their nose, if without pigmentation, are very susceptible to sunburn and skin cancer. 

So if your dog has a winter nose, make sure you put a little sunblock on that cute nose before getting him or her under the sun for long periods of time. Be responsible!