Colours and Genetics

 

According to the breed standard, Lowchen are permitted to be "any colour or combination of colours", with no preference or sway given to one colour or the other. But in the standard it also states that pigemetation is to be complete around the eye rim and nose, eyes to be as "dark as possible" which may lead to confusion about what colours ARE in fact preferable over others. Here, I will be dicussing the different colours that are possible in Lowchen and how you can know what to expect in a litter!

 

Firstly, all Lowchen must be either Black (E/E or E/E) or Red/Yellow (e/e). Dogs that fall under the black catagory will have black hairs so long as they aren't brown (I'll explain that later). Reds on the other hand may be any shade of yellow through to red (from the palest lemon down to the deepest auburn) with no black hairs. None, zilch, zippo, nadda! These are the 2 primary colours, everything else is a variation of this. It is important to note that a "Black" dog can produce a red as red is a recessive gene and requires 2 copies to express (be red), if there aren't 2 copies then the dog will default to black.

 

Next we have the Agouti Signal Peptide, which is our fawn/sables, black and tan and recessive black traits. You will only see these on dogs that are black, if the dog is red the genes are hidden and we can't tell what the dog can produce by simply looking at it. Fawn or Sable is the dominant gene here (ay). Dogs that are fawn will have a cream, red or yellow coat with black ears and tail tip. Some fawns are smuttier (more black) than others. Sables on the other hand have an even mixture of red hairs and black hairs withing the coat. Charlie and Cersei are "clean fawns" while Sookie and The Colonel are "sables", Colonel could pass as a smutty fawn in some cases. The next gene is Black and Tan (at), this is where the coat is black, but the bracelets, eyebrows ears and sometimes chest is silver, cream or tan. Examples of this colouring are Sid and Chandler. Lastly we have the recessive black gene, this causes the dog to be all black. We are yet to produce a dog that is a recessive black.

 

Dominant Blacks and Brindles (Kb and Kbr). None of our dogs have the capacity to produce these colours. Dominant Blacks are all black, like the recessive black, but the difference is that this gene is the trump card over the Agouti Signal Peptide, it over rides the genes and the dog is black. If the dog passes this gene on to it's progeny then the same thing happens to them. The mutation of this gene is Kbr, Brindle. This gene is the same as the black, but if the dog was going to be a fawn (ay) then the dog will have brindling (stripes) through it's coat, if the dog was going to be black and tan (at) then this would be limited tothe bracelets and eyebrows, lastly, if the dog was going to be a recessive black, no brindling would be expressed and the dog would look like a dominant black! The catch with the Kb and Kbr genes is that if your dog is a red or a chocolate, you won't even know it's there!

 

Next we have Brown, Liver or Chocolate. (b gene). Chocolate is when the coat is brown as well as the leathers (nose, skin, ears and eye rims). Any hair that was going to be black will be turned to brown and yes this included our dominant blacks and brindles! The Agouti stays in play though. If the dog was going to be a black and tan, it's now a chocolate and tan! The down side to this colour is that the eyes are often lighter. While eyes that would have been almost black may go the colour of milk chocolate, which is totally acceptable, eyes that were tobacco brown will go yellow which definetly isn't "as dark as possible". Chocolate, like red, can be hidden for generations before it surfaces.

 

Lowchen do not come in dilute colours (blue or lilac).

 

White markings (S, sw, sp, si) are a tricky one. Solid (S) is dominant over all white marking genes, examples of solids are Charlie, Sid, Sookie, The Colonel and Carmen. This means that is a dog has no white on them, they still may have the capacity to produce a dog with white. The most common colour we see when it comes to white is the parti colour (sp) or harlequin. These dogs will have a white body with patches of whatever their solid colour would have been (see colours above). The patches can be any size of shape, but most usually are medium in size and well broken, often with one or 2 over the eyes and ears. Animal, Tino and Deacon are parti colours. Another common colour with white markings is the Irish Pied. Irish Pied typically have some white on the face, white bracelets and a white collar or part collar and chest. Examples of Irish Pied dogs are Fox, Cersei and Cora. Lastly we have the extreme white. These dogs are all white with no solid colour, these are uncommon in Lowchen and we haven't bred one. Some dogs, like Cersei, may have a Parti/Harlequin gene and an Irish Pied gene (sp/si) in these cases the highest on the gene hierachy will express, that being Irish Pied (si), but she may produce parti colours. She will not produce a solid unless she is put to a dog with a solid gene.

 

Lastly, we have the progessive greying gene (G). This is often referred to as fading. This effects all colours if it is passed on and will cause the coat to gradually become lighter. Black dogs will gradually become grey, chocolates will get milkier and reds will fade to yellow or cream. Some dogs will only fade a little and some will fade out completely. This will often be observed from 9 months onwards and often not noticed in young puppies. Some coat colours (like fawn) will naturally change colour intensity, going lighter then darker, without carrying the greying gene. Greying cannot be tested for and not much is known about it by geneticists as it is difficult to trace across many breeds. In lowchen, greying is dominant meaning only 1 copy of the gene needs to be passed from either parent to express. This also means that if both parents have the greying gene, progeny may still not have the greying gene. Examples of greying are Animal, Sookie, Maddie and Chandler. Examples of no greying are Cersei, Charlie, Sid, Aja and Tino.

 

Aside from conducting genetic tests to find out what colours a dog can produce, we can acertain most ourselves. Firstly we observe the coat colour to see which colours are expressed. The next step is looking at the parents and grandparents to see what colours are behind the dog to see what colours could have been passed onto the dog we are breeding from, while this doesn't confirm what the dog has, this means we can rule out certain colours. The next step is observing what the dog produces, if a red or a chocolate is produced, this means both parents must carry the gene and therefore the gene has been confirmed. Sometimes even a dogs grandchildren can confirm the genes of that dog. Such as Animals son producing a Chocolate confirmed that he carries the chocolate gene.

 

To see what possible colours could be produced by some of our dogs, please check their pages.