The Piebald or Pied Fila Brasileiro

Although there is a bias against fila with too much white on their coat, these "mismarked", pied or piebald dogs continue to crop up in many bloodlines. Full body white is disallowed in both registries, but marginal white markings such as on the tail tip, paws, chest and belly; and the white marks on the nose and neck are allowed although not encouraged and generally discriminated against in the show ring. Of course, a coat pattern doesn't make any difference to the pied fila's working ability.

Some of the modern bloodlines pop out the odd pied puppy. These are usually culled, spayed or neutered. There are breeders on the farms in Minas Gerais that have a lot of piebald in their fila  bloodlines, although these are said to have little of the hard temperament favored by many today.

In 2008, a litter with five pied fila pups was whelped in Poland, another with two fawn pieds whelped in California and a black and white pied pup was whelped in Caliornia in October.

For more information on research that has been done on the pied coat pattern, see the following resources:

The Harlequin Great Dane Project
http://www.chromadane.com/standardcoat.htm

Sheila Schmutz' page on dog coat colors and patterns
http://homepage.usask.ca/~schmutz/dogcolors.html

A commentary on a rare dilute color in the dane...similar to cinza perhaps?
http://www.chromadane.com/drapp.htm