GENETICS OF COLORS IN THE ENGLISH COCKER SPANIEL
A Short Course on Coat Color in Spaniels
These
comments are courtesy of Karen Fremuth on the
inheritance of color:
- Solid is always dominant over parti-color.
- Roan is dominant over open marks.
Solid can carry for parti-color, but parti-color
CANNOT carry for solid. A solid carrying two genes for solid can only produce
solid and bred to a parti-color will only result in
solid color puppies, but ALL those puppies will be
carriers for parti-color. Breed a solid that carries
a gene for parti-color to a parti-color
and some puppies will be solids and some will be partis,
but all the solids will carry for parti-color.
Roan can carry for open
marks, but open marks cannot carry for roan
Notice I did not
include ticking. Ticking is by some considered to be a form of roaning, by others to be a different gene. Those who feel
it's a different gene consider it recessive to roan but dominant over open
marks.
Also, there are color gene modifiers that set theories askew.
Example: Dark roan is
dominant over light roan therefore two light roans cannot produce dark.
However, we all know lighter roans producing darker roans. What is in action here are modifiers that affect the extension of
color. Similar to why some tan marked dogs have a lot
of tan, others just have small spots, why some tan-marked dogs are "smokey" on their tan and others are perfectly clear,
etc..
The genes for black (B)
and liver (b) are the same gene with black being dominant. They affect skin color as well as coat.
The gene for red is not
the same as the gene for black and liver. Red (e) is recessive to the gene for
"no red" (E). If a dog carries the dominant gene for "no
red", it will be black coated(unless it also
carries the two recessive genes for liver, in which case it will be liver
coated.) If it carries two genes for red (e) it will
be red.
This is why you can
have reds with liver noses. Liver nosed red bred to a liver or to a black that
carries for liver, such a breeding will produce solid livers. If that liver
carrier also carries for red, such a breeding will produce liver nosed reds as
well.
The genes for actual color (liver, black, red, tan marks) have nothing to do
with the genes for markings (solid, parti-color).
The exception to this
rule is that red, more than black or liver, seems to be more heavily affected
by any gene modifier that reduces pigment. Solid reds have something like a 30%
higher chance of retaining white on their face than black or liver puppies do,
and red/orange parti-colors tend to have more overall
extension of white than black or liver do.
BTW, a red or red parti-color that is the product of two tan-marked parents
carries two genes for tan, therefore it is genetically
a "red and tan" or "orange roan and tan".
Sable
This color you describe (black dogs with brindle and gold
fringes) sounds like a shaded sable.
Briefly, Sable is a
gene in the "A" series. The specific gene is called "ay".
The "ay" gene is very common in some breeds....hounds, collies,
shelties....but rare in Spaniels.
Sable is inherited in
Cockers the same way it is in Collies. You need a sable gene ("ay")
combined with the tan gene ("at") for shaded sable to occur. Clear
sable looks just like a "normal" red (ee).
Some of those reds in the ancestry are probably clear sables.
Dark shaded sables tend
to be very dark at birth and sometimes look like black and tans with the tan
gone a bit awry. As they mature, the gold/red extends until the body coat is
red and the jacket hairs are black tipped.
The Germans have taken
quite a fancy to sable and they have become quite commonplace. They are
producing both black shaded sable and liver shaded sable. The foundation stock
in
It is felt by many
purists that sable is an inappropriate color for ECS
as it implies an impurity.....perhaps a cross at some point to a beagle or
other similar type hound. Existing sables today, however, have been bred pure
for many generations such that if there was an impurity, it is so diluted as to
have no discernible influence on the breed, save the color.
The ECSCA, I believe,
does recognize sable and sable parti-color (which I
have not seen but understand is stunning) as valid colors
although not without it's diehard critics.
Sable can also be liver
shaded as well as black shaded although I have not seen any mention of liver
sable being known of or accepted here in the US.
From a practical point
of view, shaded sable (as opposed to clear sable which looks like normal red,
sometimes with a dorsal stripe) is NOT what I would want for a field dog as the
color is VERY hard to see. On the other hand, any
solid color as well as very dark roan is difficult to
see at least part of the year. So any argument on that account loses it's validity.
Folks interested in
sable will find the most and possibly the best in
Recommended Readings
·
Genetics of the Dog by Malcolm Willis
·
Aldo, The Inheritance of Coat Color in Dogs by Clarence C. Little, published by Howell Book House, 230 Park
Av., New York
Copyright
1996, 1997. Nina Skorus-Neeley. nskorus@ix.netcom.com.
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