Ticking

The term “ticking” includes both spotting (spots or specks in the ground colour) and stippling (intermingling of pigmented and repigmented hairs). Both types of pattern can only develop in white pied (i.e. previously repigmented) areas. Ticking starts to develop in the first days/weeks of life, so the dogs are born as pied.
Thus, every dog that develops visible ticking is automatically genetically a pinto.
So far there is no genetic test for ticking, but it is known from breeding experience that ticking is dominant over non-ticking. However, a dog without white spotting cannot tell if it has ticking or not.
The dog in the example table has the ground colour black. In dogs of other ground colour, ticking is developed according to the respective ground colour.
By the way, ticking is something else than white ticking hairs that blend into pigmented areas of the coat in the course of time.
In some breeds, dogs with ticking are called “grey” – this is different from grey in horses (grey in horses is born dark and lightens with time – similar to progressive greying in dogs).