Guess The Genotype #10

 Can you guess this dog's genotype? Can you also guess his breed?

Image is from Flickr.com under a Creative Commons license

Read more for my answer:



This is Truffles, a German shepherd/Labrador retriever mix. At first glance he appears to possibly be either a solid liver or a dark red. Neither is true.

Truffles is most likely agouti or saddle marked. If you look at other views of him, the darkness along his back is not continuous, which points toward him being agouti rather than saddle marked. This makes sense because of his German shepherd ancestry. Agouti is a lot like sable, but the hairs are banded rather than tipped with black (or the dilutes of black). Since he is not pure German shepherd, it is unlikely he is awaw agouti ("wild-type"). Instead, I would bet he carries tan points, which is a common gene in Labrador retrievers, showing up in purebreds as a "mismark" as well as many Lab mixes. So, Truffles is most likely awat agouti carrying tan point.

On top of that, he is clearly red and liver in color, and as such is a bb liver dilute. Though somewhat unusual, liver pigmented German shepherds do occur and as such it is quite possible that a liver pigmented mix could be produced from a German shepherd parent.

It is very possible Truffles could be carrying the recessive red gene, as it exists in both the German shepherd and Labrador retriever breeds (though it is far more common in Labs). Also, though it is difficult to tell, he may in fact have a melanistic mask, a gene which is nearly fixed in the German shepherd breed. I am going to assume he is Eme masked carrying recessive red.

Most Labradors are KK black, even the chocolate and yellow dogs. However, it is quite possible for Labs to be Kk black or kk and express "mismarks" like the black and tan phenotype mentioned above. Since Truffles is not solid liver, he must be kk non-black.

So, my conclusion is that Truffles is awat bb Eme kk or masked liver agouti carrying tan point and recessive red.