A One's Cocker
Spaniels
Colour Genetics
NB! When a breeder claims that her dog sires Gold, Black and Tan, and BLACK,
this breeder does not know what she is talking about, for sure. Gold, certainly,
black and tan, yes, because the tan points must come from BOTH parents. Nobody
can claim, however, that e g gold dogs can sire BLACK because black coloured
puppies have nothing to do with the genetics of their sire, if he is a recessive
colour to BLACK!
A recessive coloured dog CANNOT be responsible for (nor lay claim to the
responsibility of) siring puppies of a colour which is DOMINANT to his own
colour.
It is a bit like (in reverse) a dog which is Optigen tested clear of PRA
claiming to sire PRA carriers! It is ALL to do with the DAM's genetics, NOT the
sire's!
It would be as correct to claim that a certain cocker dog could sire Dobermann
X's........... and that would simply be dependant on the dam of the litter being
a Dobermann!
In a way you could say that a gold dog can produce black puppies but it is the
same as saying that a woman can produce male children! The gene that makes BOY
babies is not carried by the mother. In the same fashion a gold cocker does not
carry a gene which is responsible for BLACK coat colour.
If someone decided to mate their gold bitch to a gold stud dog which has been
promoted as "siring BLACK", they would not get ANY black puppies. A bit
unfortunate if BLACKS were hoped for !!!!
A gold dog can have tan points, just like a black dog, but the tan points are
not visible because his body coat is gold. The tan points just look the same
colour as the rest of him.
Golds can be either homozygous for "no tan points", heterozygous for tan points
(carriers but not actually having them) or homozygous for having tan points
(present, but "invisible" because the tan is the same colour as the body coat).
Blacks are the same, of course, but in the case of the homozygous for tan points,
the dogs are black and tans, because the colour is in contrast to the body coat!
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Yeah, yea, chromosome, Smarty-pants, I know that but it helped the example! ;-)