homozygous piebald means he should appear mostly white with red patches concentrated at the base of his tail and on his ears/head. He shows the white markings I would expect a piebald/pinto carrier to exhibit.
Hmm, that is a mystery, there's got to be something else going on. I wonder if because yushoku were strongly selected to be solid, that it mostly eliminated the pinto gene that expressed normally and only a minimalist variant survived.
If that's the case, then it could be possible that some white Kishu's could be cryptic pintos and since the normal pinto couldn't be selected against on a white dog then crossing one of these dog with a yushoku with minimalist pinto could produce a standard pinto.
I'm not advocating color breeding, just brainstorming the genetic lottery.
@Ajax - this phenomenon actually appears to be wild-type in nature. When I got the results, I found that wolfdogs and Alaskan Huskies also test as homozygous piebald (pinto), but appear solid or have minimal white. Chances are we just don'the know all the alleles or loci that go into the pattern, and some dogs are straightforward where others are not. But it may be that the normal/straightforward variant was selected against, so we have this strange variant left, you're right.
As far as some white Kishu being pinto, I am sure it has happened where they are cryptic pinto, appearing solid white. I just don't imagine it is super common, tho. I definitely think there are wonky things going on.
Either way, both of my girls are homozygous for solid patterned coats, so I don'the have to worry about any pinto, but I think he may produce pups with white socks if he were to sire a litter.
@Justin - As petty as it sounds, when I was presented with all the choices and asked to make my pick, all the males in the litter (I wanted a male) looked rather similar, but I thought he had the strongest red pigment and his mask would be the most likely to fade (both more correct, color-wise, per the standard.) So I picked him based on that, and his more engaging personality as far as I could see it on the videos of the litter...
So I'm pretty glad about his muzzle lightening like it did! I think the stuff under his chin that's left will also fade, but take longer.
@Crispy How did you know the muzzle would lighten as he got older? From prior experiences? Although I must say the puppy pics with the darker muzzle are very adorable.
@Justin - I didn't know for sure, but I suspected based on how small his mask was compared to siblings and other dogs I'd seen so far from puppy to adult. His mask was super small as a puppy.
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If that's the case, then it could be possible that some white Kishu's could be cryptic pintos and since the normal pinto couldn't be selected against on a white dog then crossing one of these dog with a yushoku with minimalist pinto could produce a standard pinto.
I'm not advocating color breeding, just brainstorming the genetic lottery.
As far as some white Kishu being pinto, I am sure it has happened where they are cryptic pinto, appearing solid white. I just don't imagine it is super common, tho. I definitely think there are wonky things going on.
Either way, both of my girls are homozygous for solid patterned coats, so I don'the have to worry about any pinto, but I think he may produce pups with white socks if he were to sire a litter.
The collar looks good too. Is that a Sangmort special?
So I'm pretty glad about his muzzle lightening like it did! I think the stuff under his chin that's left will also fade, but take longer.