Hi, I'm no breeder, but I know a little about genetics and statistics. The parti color is a recessive gene, when you are breeding for a recessive gene, you must get 2 recessive genes for the trait to show up. The parti color parent can only give one recessive gene to each offspring, the carrier can either give a recessive gene or a dominant gene, so what he gives is 50/50. The confusion arises when people believe that 50/50 odds mean half the pups in a litter will be born as carriers and the others as parti colored. Statistics doesn't work this way, it's out of 100 dogs "chances" are 50 will be born as carrier, and 50 will be born that show the parti trait. Think of a coin toss, chances are 50% heads, and 50% tails, but if you toss it four times, you could get 4 heads in a roll, or 4 tails, it's only as you continue to toss it 100 times that the 50% rule show up, and it won't show up every time.
If you have two parti dogs mating, 100% of the offspring will be parti colored, they cannot give the dominant gene to the offspring, so they will always be parti colored. |