Ticking and Roaning can be impossible to tell apart. There is debate if there are indeed separate genes that produce the ticking and the roaning. We will speak in the manner of ticking being the same as roan. In either case, it is expressed with great variation. A ticked dog can have one or two spots of the base color pushing up through the coat or be literally covered with it. Sometimes it is so profuse that the tick spots start to blend together with each other forming larger areas. At birth the pups do not show the ticking pattern and slowly develop it as they mature.
     Different breeds call ticking different names also. It has commonly been called Belton in some breeds and Roan in others. It can appear on a dog of any color provided there is some white color on the dog for the gene to work. Ticking only comes up through a white coat showing the base color of the dog. Below are a few examples in different colors to show that the effects can be very different.
     The Dalmatian is a breed where ticking has been locked in so tight that it actually has taken on an appearance of its own. By breeding like to like over many generations the gene becomes breed specific.

Belton

These are both variations of the ticking pattern but called a different name from "Ticking"

Roaning

Ticking

Here we see ticking in two different colors. The dogs also carry the gene for "piebald" or patches of color making the coat even more interesting by breaking the color up with white patches.

Ticking

Ticking

The Dalmatian genes have been locked in so tight that each dog that is produced is generally uniform in color and has fairly regular spots as opposed the irregular patches or individual hairs pushing up.