Colour Predictions - Parti-Colours
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Cocker Spaniel Solid Colour Examples

Cocker Spaniel Coat Colour Inheritance

Parti-Colour & Roan - Cocker Spaniels

In the parti-colours & Roans the principle is the same, the base colour genes are the same ('A', 'B' 'E')  however the parti-colours and the Roans have recessive 'Sp' allele (an epistatic allele for 'and white') and the 'RR' alleles (the gene for 'roan') respectively. The term 'liver roan' or 'liver & white' is synonymous with the term 'chocolate roan' and 'chocolate & white'.

Female
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BB EE AA RR
Male
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BB EE AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE AA RR
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BB EE AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE AA RR
Both parents Blue Roan, neither carrying for any other colour. All offspring Blue Roan - none carrying for recessive colours.
Female
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Bb EE AA RR
Male
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Bb EE AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
Bb EE AA RR
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Bb EE AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
bb EE AA RR
Both parents Blue Roan, both carrying for Liver. 75% Blue Roan, 25% Liver Roan - 2 of the Blue's will carry for Liver.
Female
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BB Ee AA RR
Male
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BB Ee AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB Ee AA RR
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BB Ee AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB ee AA RR
Both parents Blue Roan, both carrying for Red. 75% Blue Roan, 25% Orange Roan - 2 of the Blue's will carry for Red.
Female
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BB ee AA RR
Male
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BB Ee AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB Ee AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB Ee AA RR
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BB ee AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB ee AA RR
Blue Roan Father (carrying for red) x Orange Roan Mother (50% offspring orange roan/50% blue roan - All the blue roan offspring carrying red)
Female
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BB EE AA rr sp
Male
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BB EE AA rr sp		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE AA rr sp		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE AA rr sp
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BB EE AA rr sp		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE AA rr sp
Two Black & White Parents (the example shows recessive 'r' meaning none roan and Sp meaning 'and white'. All offspring Black & White.
Female
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BB EE AA ssp Rr
Male
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BB EE AA spsp rr		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE AA sspRr		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE AA spsp rr
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BB EE AA spsp rR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE AA spsp rr
Black & White Father x Blue Roan Mother (mother carrying for Parti-Colour). 50% of the offspring Blue Roan, 50% Black & White, 25% of the blue roans will carry for 'and white'.
Female
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bb Ee AA RR
Male
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Bb ee AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
Bb eE AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
Bb ee AA RR
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bb eE AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
bb ee AA RR
Orange Roan Father (carrying Liver) x Liver Roan Mother (carrying Red). 25% offspring Blue Roan (carrying Liver & Red), 25% Liver Roan (carrying Red), 50% Orange Roan (carrying Liver).  Although 25% of the Orange Roans have the double recessive 'b' brown series, the dog will not be Liver due to the double recessive 'ee' which allows the extension of phaeomelanin but prevents the extension of eumelanin, so there is no eumelanin in the pigment and therefore the animal is red - the dog will have a liver nose though rather than a black nose!
Female
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bb EE AA RR
Male
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Bb ee AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
Bb eE AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
bb eE AA RR
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Bb eE AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
bb eE AA RR
Orange Roan Father (carrying Liver) x Liver Roan Mother (not carrying red). 50% offspring Blue Roan (carrying Liver & Red), 50% Liver Roan (carrying Red)
Female
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bb EE AA RR
Male
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BB ee AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
Bb eE AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
bB eE AA RR
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Bb eE AA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
Bb eE AA RR
Orange Roan Father (not carrying liver) x Liver Roan Mother (not carrying red). 100% offspring Blue Roan (all carrying Liver & Red)
Female
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BB EE Aat RR
Male
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BB Ee atat RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE atA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE atat RR
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BB eE atA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB eE atat RR
Blue Roan & Tan Father (carrying red) x Blue Roan Mother (carrying tan). 25% offspring Blue Roan (carrying tan), 25% offspring Blue & Tan (not carrying red), 25% offspring Blue Roan (carrying red and tan), 25% offspring Blue & Tan (carrying red)
Female
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BB EE Aat RR
Male
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BB Ee atat RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE atA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE atat RR
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BB eE atA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB eE atat RR
Blue Roan & Tan Father (carrying red) x Blue Roan Mother (carrying tan). 25% offspring Blue Roan (carrying tan), 25% offspring Blue & Tan (not carrying red), 25% offspring Blue Roan (carrying red and tan), 25% offspring Blue & Tan (carrying red)
Female
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BB Ee Aat RR
Male
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BB Ee atat RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE atA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB Ee atat RR
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BB eE atA RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB ee atat RR
Blue Roan & Tan Father (carrying red) x Blue Roan Mother (carrying red and tan). 25% offspring Blue Roan (carrying tan), 25% offspring Blue & Tan (carrying red), 25% offspring Blue Roan (carrying red and tan). 25% Orange Roan & Tan (tan is not visible due to red coat colour)
Female
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BB ee Aat RR
Male
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BB Ee atat RR 		Image of dog subject to copyright
BB ee Aat RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB ee Aat RR
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BB Ee atat RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB Ee Aat RR
Blue Roan & Tan Father x Orange Roan Mother (mother carrying for tan). 50% of the litter orange roan carrying tan, 25% of the litter Blue Roan & Tan carrying orange and 25% Blue Roan carrying tan and red.
Female
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BB Ee AA ssp Rr
Male
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BB ee AA spsp rr		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB Ee AA ssp rr		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB ee AA ss Rr
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BB ee AA sps rr		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB Ee AA ssp rR
Orange & White Father x Blue Roan Mother (mother carrying for Parti-Colour and Red). 25% of the offspring Black & White, 25% Orange Roan, 25% Orange & White and 25% Blue Roan.

The orange & white x blue roan combination above was a mating we undertook at Powerscourt. The resultant puppies (9) were 2 x black & white, 1 x orange & white and 6 x orange roan. There were no blue roans in the litter! This emphasises Mendel's "Law of Independent Assortment" in action! Click here to see the larger Punnett square.

Female
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BB EE ss RR
Male
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BB EE SS rr		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE SS rR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE Ss rR
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BB EE SS rR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE Ss rR
Black Father (not carrying roan) x Blue Roan Mother. 100% of the offspring will be black. All of the offspring will carry for roan.
Female
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BB EE spsp RR
Male
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BB EE Ssp Rr		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE Ssp RR		 Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE Ssp RR
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BB EE spsp rR 		Image of dog subject to copyright
BB EE spsp rR
Black Father (carrying Roan & parti-colour) x Blue Roan Mother (carrying parti-colour). 50% offspring Black (with potential white patches = 'mismarked')/50% offspring Blue Roan, 25% of the Black offspring carrying for parti-colour ('Sp'). 50% of the Blue offspring carrying for parti-colour but not parti-colour themselves due to also carrying dominant 'R' Roan. Note the mother carries recessive parti-colour, however as she carries dominant Roan ('R') the she will be Roan herself.

Notes:

Every individual has a full compliment of genes i.e. a black dog is BB EE AA (black = BB, not carrying red = EE and not carrying tan = AA). Prior to conception the cells have undergone division so the new offspring inherits only one copy from each parent and therefore acquires the correct number of chromosomes (78 chromosomes making 39 pairs). There are 76 Autosomes in the canine & 2 sex chromosome which make up the 39th pair of chromosomes in dogs; colour is carried on the Autosomes i.e. not on the sex chromosome 'XX' (female) or 'XY' (male).

As mentioned the main coat colour genes are the 'A', 'B' & 'E' alleles and therefore although the other genes will be present they are not shown in the Punnett squares (in the examples on this page) unless they have an obvious connection to the coat colour and are all based on Mendel's 3 : 1 ratio. In addition to this, when the parents carry for more than one trait, the Punnett square should really have the genes broken into subgroups (one group for each trait - showing the dominant then recessive allele) in order to give a complete picture of probabilities.

For reasons of space I haven't shown a multi-gene Punnett square therefore the predicted outcomes for multi-gene traits do not show all the combinations unless the alleles for each trait are split! For a single locus ('B'), we have a 2 x 2 square with 4 cells. For two loci ('B' & 'E'), we have a 4 x 4 square with 16 cells. With three loci ('B' 'E' & 'ay'), we would have an 8 x 8 square with 64 cells, for four genes we'd need a 16 x 16 square with 256 cells and so the list goes on until we have split each series of genes into separate squares!

If you wish to more accurately predict the coat colour combinations for a planned litter it would be a good idea if you built your own Punnett square to calculate the expected colours.

The gender of each parent in the Punnett squares are interchangeable, i.e. where an orange roan father is mated to a liver roan bitch, it could be in reverse i.e. the mother is orange roan & the father is liver roan.

These are the combinations in the Parti-colours. Each combination could have tan points subject to the parents carrying the 'at' gene and the recessive 'k' gene - tan points are usually not visible on orange roans/orange & white coloured cockers due to the fact that the tan and red look identical to the human eye.

This information is copyright to Chris Pritchard. If you plan to use this information as part of course work or any other published material please credit Powerscourt Cocker Spaniels.

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