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 front and underside. 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 ther body. Agouti face markings include … 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 (also known as clear sable or fawn) describes a phenotype with a red base color with very little dark-tipped sabling. What is Dominant Yellow? Dogs with a dominant yellow base pattern have a solid cream, yellow, or red coat. These dog has very little dark hair tipping compared to a shaded sable pattern. … 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
The E-Locus defines how much eumelanin can be expressed. Different alleles can cause melanistic masks, domino, grizzle and cocker sable phenotypes or recessive red coat. E-Locus Overview The Extension-Locus was named a long time before genetic testing was available. It got its name because it can extend the amount of black to yellow pigment in … Read more
Recessive red (e/e) causes a dog to only produce phaeomelanin in all pigmented areas. Many dog breeds with a solid white, yellow, or red coat are in fact e/e-red. What is Recessive Red? Usually, pigment cells can produce both types of pigment, eumelanin and phaeomelanin. But by default, pigment cells produce only phaeomelanin. They need … Read more
The eH allele at the E locus causes an interesting phenotype in Cocker Spaniels that either resembles a regular sable pattern or is described as a dirty red color pattern. What is Cocker Sable? The eH variant found at the E locus modifies any base coat color pattern by partially inhibiting eumelanin production. It causes … Read more