Breast cancer 1, early onset (BRCA1) is one of the most important genes in human familial breast cancer, which also plays an important role in canine mammary tumors. The objectives of this study were to determine the promoter sequence of canine BRCA1, to investigate its promoter mutation status and to describe BRCA1 expression pattern in canine mammary tumors. The promoter sequence of canine BRCA1 was acquired by aligning human BRCA1 promoter sequence with canine genomic sequence and confirmed by standard promoter activity analysis. Same as human BRCA1 promoter, the CAAT box and G/C box were found in canine BRCA1 promoter. In order to explore the mutation status of the promoter region and to investigate the expression pattern of this gene, 10 normal canine mammary tissues, 15 benign mammary tumors and 15 malignant mammary tumors were used. By sequencing, 46.7% of the malignant mammary tumors were found with a deletion of one cytosine in the promoter region. The mRNA expression of BRCA1 was significantly reduced in benign and malignant mammary tumors (P<0.05), and the protein expression of BRCA1 was significantly reduced in malignant mammary tumors (P<0.05). This study is the first time to determine the canine BRCA1 promoter sequence and to describe the promoter mutation status in canine mammary tumors.