White Dogs and Deafness: When White Becomes a Risk

The sensory hair cells die because the stria vascularis – the blood-vessel-rich tissue on the outer wall of the cochlear duct – degenerates without melanocytes. The technical term is congenital sensorineural deafness of the cochleosaccular type. In Dalmatians, hearing develops normally until about three weeks of age; then the stria degenerates and the hair cells rapidly lose function. Mammals cannot regrow hair cells, so the loss is permanent.

The stria keeps the endolymph in the cochlear duct rich in potassium and generates the endocochlear potential of roughly +80 to +100 mV that the hair cells in the organ of Corti depend on. Strial melanocytes are essential for this. Without them the potential collapses, the hair cells die and Reissner's membrane collapses. The name cochleosaccular reflects that the saccule can be affected as well as the cochlea.

Why are the melanocytes missing? Their precursors (melanoblasts) migrate from the neural crest to the skin, hair follicles, eye and stria vascularis during embryonic development. The recessive alleles of the white-spotting locus S – Irish spotting (si), piebald (sp) and extreme white piebald (sw) – are linked to variants near the MITF gene on chromosome 20 and disrupt the migration, proliferation or survival of these cells. Dalmatians are homozygous for sw. When migration from the head portion of the neural crest stops, the head and inner ear stay unpigmented.

Blue eyes (no iris pigment) and a missing tapetal pigment point to strong expression of the spotting gene and go with more deafness; a coloured patch present at birth points to weak expression and goes with less. In 8,955 British Dalmatians, the genetic correlation between deafness and blue irises was +0.6, and with a head patch −0.86. Inheritance is not simple: matings of two bilaterally deaf Dalmatians have also produced hearing puppies. That is why there is still no DNA test that predicts this deafness.

Merle is a second, separate route to the same damage: an insertion in the PMEL gene lightens the coat, and homozygous merle dogs are often deaf and/or blind – covered on the merle and double-merle page. Albinism is different: the melanocytes are present but make no melanin, and albino dogs do not show hereditary deafness.

By the written BAER result – not by looks. A responsible breeder of an affected breed has every puppy in the litter tested and shows you the original results for the puppies and both parents. Outward signs such as eye colour and patches only shift the odds.

No. What matters is not the coat colour but whether pigment cells are missing from the inner ear. A white coat arises in dogs in at least two ways: either the melanocytes are absent from skin and hair (white spotting), or they are present but make almost no pigment. Only the first route is linked to pigment-associated deafness.

Many solid white or cream breeds – such as the West Highland White Terrier, White Swiss Shepherd or Bichon – are homozygous e/e at the MC1R gene, so they only make pheomelanin, which is also extremely diluted (partly through a variant in the MFSD12 gene). These dogs are not albinos and keep pigment on the nose, eye rims, lips and pads – their pigment cells are there. No colour-related increase in deafness risk has been described for this route, although congenital deafness can in principle occur in any breed. Some breeds also carry white-spotting alleles – if in doubt, a BAER test settles it.

Good – with some adjustments. Dogs deaf in one ear live practically normal lives and seem to hear normally day to day. Dogs deaf in both ears learn reliably through hand signals, respond to light signals and vibrating collars, and take cues from other animals in the household.

What matters most: a deaf dog can't hear cars or your recall, so it belongs on a lead outside secure areas. It can also startle badly when touched unexpectedly. Approach within its line of sight and wake it gently – for example by tapping the floor or touching the same spot every time.

No colour or breed is banned as such – German law does not name specific breeds. But Section 11b of the Animal Welfare Act prohibits breeding dogs where the offspring can be expected to suffer inherited pain, suffering or harm because body parts or organs are missing, unfit or altered. Whether a case counts is assessed individually, based on the animal's traits. The expert opinion on interpreting Section 11b, usually dated 1999, serves as an interpretation aid. It names hearing damage “linked with white, as in the Dalmatian” and recommends a breeding ban for affected animals and known carriers; the simple recessive inheritance it assumes is now considered outdated. The Bavarian state office (LGL) considers the opinion outdated, so authorities also rely on TVT fact sheet no. 141, which explicitly names deliberate selection for extreme white spotting and white heads (for example in Dalmatians and Dogo Argentinos) as a trait relevant under Section 11b. A statutory list of symptoms planned in 2024, which would have named “deafness” explicitly, has not come into force.

Since 2022, dogs with inherited extreme-breeding traits may no longer be shown in Germany at exhibitions or other events where dogs are judged (Section 10 of the Dog Welfare Ordinance). Owning such a dog is not prohibited – the ban covers breeding and exhibiting.

In Austria, Section 5(2)(1) of the Animal Welfare Act names “deafness” explicitly as a symptom of extreme breeding. Since 2025 it has also been illegal there to import, acquire, broker or pass on animals with extreme-breeding symptoms or visible extreme-breeding traits – with exceptions, for example for animal shelters, and a transitional rule for animals lawfully bred or imported before that date.