Guess the Genotype #9

This one has two parts. Can you guess the genotype of the mother and the father of this litter? Take a careful look at the puppies.

Image is from Wikimedia Commons under a creative commons license

As usual, click "read more" to see my answer.



The mother of this litter is a liver-pigmented sable merle. You can tell this because of her mottled ears, blue eye, and brown nose. She could possibly be carrying the tan point gene or the blue dilute gene. However, dilute is not very common in the breed and only one parent is likely to carry tan point since there is no evidence of it in the litter. Tan point, however, is quite common in the breed. Since the mother has some white, it's very possible she carries the Irish white gene, also common in the breed.

My guess as to her genotype is Ayat bb DD kk Mm Ssi or liver-pigmented sable merle with residual white carrying tan point.

For this litter to occur, the father would have to be a merled black ("blue merle," called leopard in the breed) carrying liver and non-black. He could be carrying white markings and/or the tan point gene. This can be determined because the litter includes sable, black, merled liver and possibly merled black, pups with some white, and what appears to be at lease one double merle. Since I'm assuming the mother to be carrying tan point, it is unlikely the father would be too. Though he could be carrying blue dilute, it is again unlikely.

So, my guess as to his phenotype is AyAy Bb DD Kk Mm Ssi or merled black with residual white carrying liver and non-black.

It is quite possible neither parent carries the Irish spotting gene. It looks as though all of the puppies that have white are merles (including the sable puppy at it's mother's knee, which has what appears to be a splotched tail) and because of this, there is the potential that they could all be double merles. Merle acts a bit differently in this breed, so it is a bit difficult to tell. However, the puppy in front of it's mother's left paw is almost guaranteed to be a double merle due to the amount of white it has. Hopefully, it and any of its siblings that may also be double merles are free from the blindness and deafness that is ever so common in double merle dogs.