Not really sure what this guy is, but he sure was fast!
Edit: As pointed out below, in a comment, by one of my extremely knowledgable readers, this guy is highly unlikely to be half Italian greyhound or whippet. You learn something new every day.
He’s a bit bigger than an Italian greyhound, but a little smaller than a whippet. Could be half-either, I suppose.
Very cute dog, but not a first generation cross of either Whippet or IG, since neither breed has the black and tan pattern, which is a recessive (both mom and dad have to carry the gene.) Maybe one of the grandparents 🙂
Good catch! I totally didn’t think of that.
One wonders how many dogs have those recessives floating around in their gene pools, though. I ran into a golden retriever/Bernese mountain dog mix that had the black and tan coloration… and the mom was, to all appearances, a normal golden retriever. (Albeit a rescue, so who knows.)
Goldens are actually really interesting because they are all e/e, which means they cannot form black pigment in the hair. A Golden could actually be almost any color, black and tan, brindle, sable, etc. and you wouldn’t know unless you crossed it with another breed. Golden retriever crosses are often black, with the black coming from the Golden. Neat!
Wait, are you serious? Golden retrievers are all recessive red? How did I not know this? That would explain why the only color variation I’ve ever seen in a (pure) golden was a white spot.
I learned about the recessive red genotype when I was researching Melvin, but I had no idea that it was a characteristic of golden retrievers.