The Rat Terrier Club of America distinguishes between an apricot and lemon Rat terrier color based on more than just general coat coloring. While apricot has a brown nose carried by the chocolate gene, the lemon Rat terrier has a black nose.
A sable Rat terrier’s root of the hair is a lighter shade of its solid color, and the closer you get to the top, the darker it becomes. In Rat terriers the root can be red or tan with black tips.
The true merle is also known as the blue merle due to the recessive gene’s dilution of the black coat into a bluish color that, in fact, is a shade of gray.
This is more of a color pattern than a color itself. There are spots of regular Ratter colors on a predominantly white body. Their eye color varies and can be dark or light.
Blue and white Ratters are exactly that – a mainly white coat with almost symmetrical parts in blue. The blue color usually appears on the head, ears, along the dog’s back and tail.
A black & white Ratter will have a white base with full or partially black head. The ears are almost always colored with paws and tail having parts or being entirely tinted.