Quote:
Originally Posted by concretegurl  I'm confused I thought the answer was it is a naturally occuring mutated (or naturally mutating) gene....it just happens that way.
Lady Jane had it right, and Pinehaven did too; such things can be very manipulated with an understanding of genetic.
I used to know a Russian Dwarf hamper breeder she got really into color mutations based off natural mutations of the albino gene any-who she made purple hamsters one time... |
No, the gold coloring is caused when a dog has one copy of the ay gene or 2 copies of the recessive e gene. These are actual coat color genes seen in dogs - genes that can be tested for through DNA analysis. The gold coloring is not caused by a gene that has undergone a mutation.
Many of the early foundation dogs used in the make up of the breed were sable in color, otterhounds came/come in sable, skye's came/come in sable and who knows what other off colors were carried by the unpedigreed foundation dogs, dogs who may have seemed to be the desired color but carried recessive genes for other colors.