Guess the Genotype #71

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

Image is from Flickr.com under a Creative Commons license

This girl's name in Snooki and she's a schnauzer. I believe she is a miniature schnauzer, due to her size in relation to her surroundings. For those that are curious, this is what a schnauzer looks like without all of that hair! Snooki was in a shelter when this picture was taken, and as such it's likely the shaving of her coat was a necessary measure. In most cases, shelters will only clip a dog completely if the coat is in some way not salvageable due to neglect, such as severe matting. I do hope Snooki has found herself a wonderful new home. Looking at another picture taken about a month after the one above, she looks like she's well one her way to living a happy life.

As for her genotype, her color is the most commonly seen color in the miniature schnauzer breed. It is called salt-and-pepper and is caused by a combination of two genes. First, Snooki is awaw agouti. Salt-and-pepper is well known for having banded hairs, which is the hallmark of an agouti coat. Interestingly enough, agouti usually followed the pattern of tan point, but where the black would be, banded hairs are seen. This is why pale areas are seen on the face, legs, chest, and under the tail.

As for the red in the coat, it has been almost completely stripped of pigment and appears near-white. These are the pale areas that I mentioned above. This paleness of color and difference in coat distracts from the fact that the dog is still agouti, just like certain German shepherds and Siberian huskies. Since the red is so very pale, it's most likely that schnauzers such as Snookie are cpcp platinum (near-white).

So, that's awaw cpcp or platinum agouti (aka salt-and-pepper).