image of DNA Canine Coat Color Genetics Tool image of DNA

I primarily work with Labrador Retrievers, so that's what this project is starting with.

Genetics can be complicated, especially when multiple genes are involved in the expression of a trait, such as Labrador coat color. Three genes on three different chromosomes dictate coat color for the three standard (black, chocolate, yellow) and three dilute (charcoal, silver, champagne) coat colors. This makes 27 different possible genotypes, which gets complicated to calculate by hand. So I built a tool where you can put in the genotype of the sire and dam, and it will show you the probability of getting each color and each genotype from that particular pairing. Please note that this software does not indicate the makeup of a litter. These numbers are the likelihood of color and genotype for each individual puppy. The images above show an example of the output. The left image with the different colored puppies shows the color percentages, the right image with the suitcases shows the genotype percentages, listed by color. This software will be made available to the public once the final bugs are worked out. If you are interested, feel free to e-mail me.

I have also been asked if I'm going to be building the tool for other breeds - if the tool goes over well and works well with Labradors, I do plan to add other breeds. Let me know what breeds you're interested in!

Screenshots from prototype

Sample puppy colors screen from my Labrador coat color tool Sample puppy genotypes screen from my Labrador coat color tool