Guess the Genotype #59

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

Image is from Flickr.com under a Creative Commons license.

Well, the breed on this dog is quite obvious, but its color is a little more difficult to discern. This Afghan hound is actually brindle. In the last GtG I mentioned how coat texture can cause color to be more difficult to differentiate. This is an extreme example as the stripes on this dog are almost invisible. The topline is very telling, however. If you look closely you can see stripes of tan and black that are clearly visible since, like all Afghans groomed for show, the hair along the back is shorter than the rest of the coat. As would be expected, Afghans that are brindle are far more obvious as puppies before the full coat comes in. Seeing brindle in the various coat stages seen in the breed is quite interesting. Anyway, on to the genotype.

To begin, this dog must be sable. At first it seems like tan point might be a better explanation, but the stripes along the back make it obvious that sable is the answer. Tan point is, however, pretty common in the breed so I am going to assume this dog is Ayat sable carrying tan point.

Next is the intensity of the red in this dog's coat. It's moderate, so it's likely cchcch moderate red.

Next is the brindle gene. Though we can tell the dog is brindle, it's impossible to say whether or not it carries a non-brindle gene. Afghan hounds are very often not brindle, which makes me suspect this dog only has one copy of the brindle gene. This would make it kbrk brindle carrying non-brindle.

So, that's Ayat cchcch kbrk or tan brindle.