Guess the Genotype #70

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

Image is from Flickr.com under a Creative Commons license

This is Ollie, who is described as both a lurcher and a longdog in the tags on his pictures. In my opinion, he appears to be either a longdog, which is a mix of only sighthound breeds, or a lurcher with very heavy sighthound heritage. Though he is slightly different in type, he appears to be very much like a greyhound. His coloring is a bit atypical for what is usually seen in a purebred greyhound.

To begin, Ollie's nose is most definitely brown. This is also true of his eye rims, lips, and pawpads. Due to this, he must be bb liver.

The red on his body is also quite pale, though still definitely reddish. In keeping with the theory that red intensity is controlled by the Chinchilla locus, this would mean he is most likely cece pale red.

In addition to having a brown caste, Ollie's nose is also very pale, appearing more pinkish than the milk-chocolate color that is most often associated with liver dogs. However, I don't think this is evidence enough to say he is also expressing the blue dilution gene. This is mainly due to his eye color. In Isabella/fawn dogs, which is what you get when the liver and blue genes act together, the eyes are usually quite pale, while Ollie's eyes are a rich golden color. I suspect that Ollie is Dd blue since the blue gene is seen fairly frequently in a number of sighthound breeds.

Next, it appears that Ollie is a recessive red. There doesn't appear to be any trace of dark pigment in his coat, which in this case would be liver thanks to the presence of the liver gene as mentioned above. Though this isn't definitive proof of him being recessive red, most dogs who are "clear sable," genetically sable but lacking the usual black overlay, will have some dark whiskers or dark hairs on their tail. Ollie has neither. Thus, I believe he is ee recessive red.

Ollie also has some quite obvious white markings, particularly on his face. The markings follow the patterns that are expected from Irish white markings. However, quite a number of sighthounds, including the greyhound, either lack or rarely express the Irish Spotting allele (si). In the greyhound, for example, the most commonly seen alleles are solid (S), extreme white (sw) and piebald (sp). As such, I suspect that Ollie is actually Ssw solid carrying extreme white.

He also appears to be roan, with the white on his body being quite obscured by colored hairs. Though some areas appear more spotted, areas such as his facial blaze appear to not have distinct spots, which is a characteristic of roan. It's believed that roan dogs requite both the roaning and ticking genes to be roan. In addition, ticking is sometimes seen in sighthounds but not exceptionally often, and roan is uncommon if not absent. As such, I suspect that Ollie is Rr Tt roan.

So, that's bb cece Dd ee Rr Ssw Tt or liver-nosed cream with Irish roan (carrying blue, extreme white, non-roan, non-ticked).