Why does my Great Pyrenees not look like a Great Pyrenees?

When most people think of Great Pyrenees, they imagine very large, solid white, fluffy dogs. While many Great Pyrenees do look like this, there is quite a lot of variety in the population! 

Our Great Pyrenees breed page shows some of the dogs Embark has identified as single-breed Pyrenees. You can see there are some solid white fluffy dogs, but several others have different coat traits. Some dogs have short coats instead of long; some have large patches of dark-colored fur on their bodies; some dogs are smaller. This is just a small sample of dogs we have tested, and the true variety in the breed is even greater than what is highlighted here! Additionally, distant ancestry from multiple generations back (and no longer testable), can greatly impact the dog’s phenotype even though, genetically, only Great Pyrenees ancestry remains.