What detail should an observer look for on the guard hairs along the back ridge to distinguish a black sable?
Answer
Bands of lighter color interspersed with dominant black tipping.
To visually confirm if a dark dog is a true black sable rather than a solid black, the focus should be placed on the individual guard hairs, especially along the back ridge. A solid black dog will show complete uniformity, meaning the hair is black all the way from the skin to the tip. In contrast, a genuine black sable, even if appearing nearly all black, will display evidence of the underlying genetic programming—bands of lighter color, such as gray or brown, interspersed within the dominant black tipping on that same hair shaft. This banding is the phenotypic manifestation of the active Agouti gene.
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