Progressive graying causes a dog’s eumelanin pigment color to fade over time. Black fades to gray or silver while brown fades to a sandy beige or reddish cream color. What is Progressive Graying? In some dog breeds, puppies that were born with regular black or brown eumelanin pigment will fade to a lighter and paler … Read more
French Bulldog cocoa gives a dark brown coat color that is caused by variation in a different gene than the usual chocolate brown coat found in other dog breeds. Cocoa changes the color of a dogs eumelanin and can occur in a variety of different color patterns. What is Cocoa? A b/b genotype at the … Read more
Dogs that are homozygous recessive at the B locus (b/b) will express brown instead of black pigment. This affects all the eumelanin in a dog’s coat, as well as the color of skin spots, nose, footpads, lips, eye rims, or nails, which will all be brown (liver, chocolate). What is Brown Coat Color? In coat … Read more
A recessive black dog has a solid eumelanin-pigmented coat. Since this uniform pattern is caused by a recessive loss-of-function variant at the A-Locus it is called recessive black. What is Recessive Black? A recessive black dog lost the ability to switch from eumelanin to phaeomelanin production. Instead, he will have a solid black, blue, liver, … Read more
A dog with a tan point pattern has a solid base color with white, yellow or red markings on the muzzle, eyebrows, chest, underside, lower legs, and under the tail. Although this pattern is also called black back or black-and-tan the base color can also be liver, blue, or lilac. What is a Black Back … Read more
A dog with a black saddle has dark hairs on its back and extended ventral tan markings. Dogs with saddle pattern are born with regular tan points that soon grow to form a saddle tan pattern. What Is A Saddle Pattern? Some dogs born with a black-and-tan pattern can change quite a bit during their … Read more
Agouti is a pattern with banded hair on the dorsal area and lighter markings on the dog’s ventrum. This phenotype is found in many wild animals and is also called wolf gray or wolf sable. What is Agouti? Agouti causes hair banding in all dorsal regions of the body. Agouti face markings include a nose … Read more
A dog is shaded yellow or shaded sable when he has a white, yellow, or red base coat with dark-tipped hairs in its dorsal areas. Sable shading is concentrated mostly on the dog’s back and often causes a widow’s peak on the forehead and a dark tail spot. What is Shaded Yellow? Shaded yellow or … Read more
Dominant yellow or clear sable (many breeds call it fawn) describes a phenotype with a predominantly red coat and very minimal dark-tipped sabling. These dogs look solid cream or red as adults. What is Dominant Yellow? Dogs with a dominant yellow base pattern have a solid cream, yellow, or red coat. These dog has very … Read more
The A locus interacts controls when and where phaeomelanin or eumelanin is expressed. Different allelic combinations may cause a clear sable, shaded sable, agouti, agouti saddle, saddle pattern, creeping tan, tan points, or recessive black pattern. However, A locus expression also depends on the K locus and E locus. Pattern Legacy Testing New Testing Terms … Read more