The Coat Colours
As in other mammals, dogs appear to have two major types of pigment in their coat. The basic colours are either dark (brown or black) or yellow. The rich colour varieties seen among dog breeds are due to genes controlling the amount, extent, and distribution of these two colour pigments. In the Labrador- and Flatcoated retriever, three different coat colours are are currently acknowledged- black, brown or yellow.
The Trait of Inheritance
The three alleles (forms) of this gene are black (E), melanistic mask (Em) and red (e). E and Em are dominant to e, therefore a dog must have 2 copies of e to be red / yellow.
The red/yellow coat colour (e) is inherited in an autosomal-recessive trait.he DNA test offers the detection of carriers which helps prediction of the colour of the offspring. The test does not detect the melanistic mask allele (Em).