Sometimes we see dogs with short coats who have mostly long-haired dogs in their ancestry. This can be surprising for pet parents!
In most dogs, coat length is controlled by a single gene, called FGF5. Long hair is a recessive trait, which means that a dog must inherit a long-hair gene from each parent in order to have long hair. Embark denotes this long hair gene as an “Lh” allele. A dog must have a result of “LhLh” to have long hair.
The short coat gene is dominant, meaning a dog only needs to inherit one copy of the gene to have a short coat. Embark denotes this with a “Sh” allele. Results showing either “ShSh” or “ShLh” generally have short coats, while “LhLh” dogs have long coats. If your test kit includes Traits, you can view your dog's genotype for this allele there.
So, what does this mean for your dog? Even if a dog has mostly long-haired breeds in their ancestry, they can still have a short coat as long if they inherited a “Sh” allele from a parent.
Don't forget! Your MyEmbark account includes information about your dog's sample status, your dog's results, and many other helpful resources. Log in to your account here! |
Comments
0 comments
Article is closed for comments.