Putting it all together
Putting it all together, every Malamute is a combination of all these factors. As I said at the beginning of this article, all these factors taken together “spell out” the color we see on a particular dog.
Let’s take a couple examples:
Fido’s color genetic makeup looks like this – Aat Bb DD domdom EE clcl
Aat – hairs are banded with a black tip, red/yellow band, black band, and light red/yellow base
Bb – the black band is not turned brown
DD – the black band is not turned gray
domdom - crisp clean markings
EE – the black band remains
clcl - the red/yellow band is reduced to white or off white
And so Fido is a gray who carries Red and Tan Point
Rex’s color genetic makeup looks like this – AA BB Dd domdom EE Clcl
AA – hairs are banded with a black tip, red/yellow band, black band, and light red/yellow base
BB – the black band is not turned brown
Dd – the black band is not turned gray
domdom - crisp clean markings
EE – the black band remains
Clcl - the red/yellow band is not reduced to white or off white
And Rex is a sable who carries blue and non-sable
Midnight’s color genetic makeup looks like this – atat BB DD domdom Ee clcl
atat – Black tip extends the entire length of the hair
BB – the black band is not turned brown
DD – the black band is not turned gray
domdom - phaeomelanin band at the base of the hair
Ee – the black band remains
clcl - the red/yellow band is reduced to white or off white
And Midnight is a seal who carries White.
Flame’s color genetic makeup looks like this – atat bb DD domdom EE clcl
atd atd – Black tip extends most of the length of the hair with a red/yellow band at the base
bb – the black band is turned brown
DD – the black band is not turned gray
domdom - phaeomelanin band at the base of the hair
EE – the black band remains
clcl - the red/yellow band is reduced to white or off white
And so Flame is a dark red
As long as that explanation is, it's a very simplified version. There are also a number of other issues that could be discussed. Like modifiers that determine just how much of the hair tip is colored or the range of shades of color. Also not discussed are linkages like the one that appears to exist between Tan Point and Brown. I would encourage anyone interested to look further into this fascinating topic.
