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Monday, February 20, 2012

Guess the Genotype #52

Can you guess this dog's genotype? Its breed?

Image is from Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license



This dog is an Ibizan hound that was photographed at a show in Poland. The breed is known for coming in basically every considerable variation on red and white: solid red, solid white, mostly red with any amount of white and mostly white with any amount of red. This particular dog seems to be mostly white with some red. So, what makes this dog, genetics-wise?

This dog's nose is incredibly pale. Indeed, it seems that basically every Ibizan has a nose this pale, regardless of amount of white. Pink noses are sometimes seen in dogs who have a lot of white on the face, but even solid or near-solid red Ibizans have these pale pink noses. This means that the black pigment in the breed is most likely diluted by both the liver and black genes down yo fawn. This genetic combination is known for producing very pale noses. Fawn is also often nearly indistinguishable from red, making it difficult to tell whether a dog is sable, brindle, or has some other set of genes combining black and red pigment in the coat. This would mean the dog is bb dd fawn (liver + blue).

It also appears that Ibizan hounds are recessive red rather than clear sable. As far as I have been able to find, there is no evidence of sabling in these dogs, even as very young puppies. Now this could be due to the dilutions of color that are present, but I suspect this means the breed is fixed for ee recessive red.

As for the white on this dog, there seems to be a lot of it. Though it is difficult to determine since only the face can be seen, I suspect that this dog is a piebald with heavy facial white. This is not unusual in the breed, and would most likely make this dog spsp piebald.

So, that's bb dd ee spsp or fawn-nosed recessive red piebald.

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