Thanks
I appreciate your time!
Achieving dark steel blue through graying gene only, is a bit confusing based on the information we have until now.
Its like racing against time before hair completely dilutes. There must be some kind of maintenance at a specific hue - preferable dark hue. The key word is "maintenance", otherwise color will keep diluting until silver or worse white is achieved. And unfortunately that's the case in too many yorkies - excellent species in soundness and conformation.
But that is not what's happening to yorkies that hold their color much longer. Interestingly the signs that a dog will keep color are apparent on phaeomelanin - like thumbprints for example.
So maybe we are dealing with 2 different genes, or a mutation of some kind - like you 've mentioned.
Looking forward for news concerning Bella's DNA and new researches. Its always a pleasure to read new findings!
Mike