Guess the Genotype #14

Can you guess this dog's genotype and breed?

Image is from Wikimedia Commons and there is no information available on license, so it is © TomWolf

This is described as an "Australian Retriever"or a Australian shepherd/golden retriever cross. Here is the same dog as a puppy.

This dog has to be a sable because of the presence of both red and black in its coat and the distribution of the black overlay. Also, it is likely carrying the tan point gene because most Australian shepherds are tan pointed. This, it is Asat sable carrying tan point at the Agouti locus.

Since this dog is half golden retriever, it must carry the recessive red gene. It also has a prominent black mask, and as such it must be Eme masked carrying recessive red at the Extension locus.

This dog is also a merle, as seen by its blue eyes (with a brown spot in its left). Though it isn't very clear in this image, it is likely there is mottling of the sable overlay on the dog's head and back which shows it to be a sable merle. This is not unexpected with an Australian shepherd ancestor, and has to be in the heterozygous form since the merle gene is absent from the golden retriever breed. So, it is Mm merle at the Merle locus.

Finally, this dog has white in the Irish white format. It's nearly impossible that this dog is sisi because extensive white markings are nearly unheard of in golden retrievers. So, it has to be either Ssi or Ssp. I believe that it is Ssp solid carrying piebald at the Spotting locus. Piebald is sometimes seen in non-merle Aussies, and it's very possible that the fairly extensive white seen in most show Aussies is caused by either one copy of the piebald gene or plus modifiers that take Irish white to an extensive collared Irish form.

So, that is Asat Eme Mm Ssp or sable merle and Irish white.