[iamedic]

My wife and I just got a puppy. The Dad is a Weimaraner and the Mom is an American Eskimo. I have tried to google this combination of breeds and I'm unable to locate anything. Is this a rare/unusual mix?

 

[timber]

Never heard of that mix yet. Got any pics?

 

[Tilden]

The mother was the American Eskimo? That poor thing having to push out half-Weimaraner puppies....

 

[traciek88]

Yes that's rare and kind of weird. I hope it was an oops litter and not bred on purpose.

 

[iamedic]

It was an opps litter. My cousin and his girlfriend moved in together and they both had their dogs and the rest is history. Here is a pic of my little Eddie.

 

[Sabina88]

Are you sure its a wiem mix? Correct me if im wrong but you wouldnt get a black puppie from a solely white breed and a solely silver breed. Verry cute puppie though, how old is she?. And i hope your cousin/his girlfriend will get their dogs fixed to prevent this from happening agian. Good luck with her

 

[TiggerBounce]

Are you sure its a wiem mix? Correct me if im wrong but you wouldnt get a black puppie from a solely white breed and a solely silver breed. Verry cute puppie though, how old is she?. And i hope your cousin/his girlfriend will get their dogs fixed to prevent this from happening agian. Good luck with her

The solely white breeds like eskies and westies do sometimes still carry genes for other colors. They both were bred from ancestral breeds that came in colors besides white, including recessive black. Dogs need two copies of the recessive allele for it come out black....Selective breeding can't completely eliminate the gene from the gene pool because if a dog only has one copy of the allele, it'll be white. You have absolutely no way of knowing it's a carrier for black except by chance mating with another dog that is also a carrier of the allele. It's very slim, but it does happen.

As for how the pup came out black, my guess is that it's all the weim.... Genetically, a weimeraner is actually dominant black (a different gene that causes black coats from what I mentioned above with white dogs). The reason they are blue/silver is because they also have a second recessive dilution gene that acts on the black and lightens it. It dilutes it. In order for your dilute dog (the weim) to produce dilute puppies, it has to be bred to another dilute (a weim, or a fawn/blue doberman, for example), or it has to be bred to a normal colored dog that carries one recessive dilution allele. Like a black and tan doberman that carries a copy of the dilution allele.

So we have the weim. Geneticallly dominant black with recessive dilute....Being bred to a dog that we know does not carry the dilution gene...Makes sense that you have black puppies.

 

[iamedic]

Are you sure its a wiem mix? Correct me if im wrong but you wouldnt get a black puppie from a solely white breed and a solely silver breed. Verry cute puppie though, how old is she?. And i hope your cousin/his girlfriend will get their dogs fixed to prevent this from happening agian. Good luck with her

Yes we are 100% sure that he is a weimaraner eskimo mix. The weim is the only other dog the Mom was exposed to. Eddie is 7 weeks old and thank you we think he is very cute too!

 

[iamedic]

The solely white breeds like eskies and westies do sometimes still carry genes for other colors. They both were bred from ancestral breeds that came in colors besides white, including recessive black. Dogs need two copies of the recessive allele for it come out black....Selective breeding can't completely eliminate the gene from the gene pool because if a dog only has one copy of the allele, it'll be white. You have absolutely no way of knowing it's a carrier for black except by chance mating with another dog that is also a carrier of the allele. It's very slim, but it does happen.

As for how the pup came out black, my guess is that it's all the weim.... Genetically, a weimeraner is actually dominant black (a different gene that causes black coats from what I mentioned above with white dogs). The reason they are blue/silver is because they also have a second recessive dilution gene that acts on the black and lightens it. It dilutes it. In order for your dilute dog (the weim) to produce dilute puppies, it has to be bred to another dilute (a weim, or a fawn/blue doberman, for example), or it has to be bred to a normal colored dog that carries one recessive dilution allele. Like a black and tan doberman that carries a copy of the dilution allele.

So we have the weim. Geneticallly dominant black with recessive dilute....Being bred to a dog that we know does not carry the dilution gene...Makes sense that you have black puppies.

Thank you for the very thorough explanation. We were really hoping he would end up a light silver color like his Dad, but we will love him just the same :thumbsup:

 

[Sabina88]

Thanks for the info Tiggerbounce, that makes sense. Im horrible with color genetics lol.

 

[FinnAlva]

If the eskie was white, it was likely a very pale ee yellow. Recessive e washes all eumelanine (aka black pigment or its dilutes liver (bbD-, blue (B-dd), and lilac (bbdd)) from the coat and the dog can be almost any color behind that. If the nose and eye rims are black, you know it is not a dilute.

Two white dogs bred together should not produce black puppies. Recessive black is as much hidden behind ee as the dominant version and because e is recessive, two ee dogs should not throw black puppies.

The Weim is likely dominant black, definitely non-yellow and has both dilutes and is thus lilac (silver in that breed?) and not black.

So the puppy gets a non-yellow E or Em allele from the Weim and eumelanine can express in its hair. So it is not yellow. It also gets at least one dominant black K allele from the Weim parent and possibly another from the Eskie even though it can also give ky. The Eskie likely is not any sort of dilute so D and B come from there and poof, the eumelanine is black and since the dog is all covered in eumelanine by not being yellow and having dominant black from either side, the puppy is solid black. The Weim is probably atat (black and tan) in the A locus because it is common in hound and pointer breeds. Another option is Ay, sable. aw (wolf) or a (recessive black) are less likely. The Eskie can have any allele of A locus for what I know it is related to German spitzes that have all four in their gene pools.

 

[iamedic]

Thank you for all of the information!

 

[Kyllobernese]

When you say the mother is an American Eskimo, are you talking about the small white dogs, not a lot bigger than a poorly bred Pomeranian?

 

[iamedic]

When you say the mother is an American Eskimo, are you talking about the small white dogs, not a lot bigger than a poorly bred Pomeranian?

The American Eskimo Mom is 20 inches and 26 lbs.