Guess the Genotype #37

Can you guess this dog's genotype? What about its breed?

Image is from Flickr.com under a Creative Commons license

This little girl is an English cocker spaniel. Though this dog's color looks rather straightforward at first glance, it is a bit more complicated than you might think.

To begin, this dog is actually tan pointed. If you look closely, you can distinguish the tan markings from the surrounding liver. Though recessive black is known in the American cocker, I couldn't find evidence of its existence in the English cocker breed. As such, this dog must be atat tan pointed.

Since she is also liver, as her coat is clearly predominately brown, this dog must also be bb liver.

As for the red pigment seen in this dog, it is actually quite dark. As such, I suspect that she is CC dark red.

The white hairs that are seen on this dog are not caused by age, but rather by the roan gene. This can be seen in the distribution of the white on the dog, such as on the top of her head. Since roan is so common in English cockers, I suspect that this dog is likely RR roan.

For this dog to be able to be roan, she must also be expressing one of the white spotting genes. The most likely combination, based on her breed and the distribution of the white hairs, is spsp piebald white.

In addition to the above, she must also be ticked to express the roan phenotype. Again, since roan is so common in the breed, I suspect that she must be TT ticked.

So, that is atat bb CC RR spsp TT or liver and tan piebald roan.