The list of tests for the Great Dane (Deutsche Dogge) is on: Great Dane

Coat colours in Great Dane

EM- locus - melanistic mask

In Great Dane, the presence of so-called melanistic face mask, dark shading on the foreface including the muzzle and the eye area, is found very often. The melanistic mask is expressed, if the dog carries at least one allele Em. The melanistic mask is only visible on fawn dogs. The mask is not visible on Harlequin, Mantle, merle or white Danes and it is indistinguishable from the body colour on black and blue Danes.

E/E - does not carry the melanistic mask

E/Em or Em/Em - carries the melanistic mask

D-locus

The D-locus is responsible for the dilution of the basic colour.  A dog carrying D/D-alleles has undiluted basic colour. A dog carrying D/d will appear undiluted, but when suitably mated its offsprings may have diluted colour.

Two d/d-alleles in black Danes may cause that the black is diluted to silver blue.

Two d/d-alleles in fawn Danes cause that the melanistic mask is diluted to silver blue, if the dog carries at least one allele Em.

Two d/d-alleles in brindle Great Danes result in blue stripes on a pale fawn.

A-locus

All Danes carry the ay/ay-allele. The testing for A-locus is not necessary.

K-locus

The Danes with black and silver blue coat colour carry at least one KB-allele.   The brindle becomes expressed if there is at least one kbr-allele.  Fawn Danes are carrying the ky/ky- allele.

B-Locus

The Danes can very rarely carry the genotype b/b - black colour is changed to chocolate and the silver blue to lilac.

M-locus

The merle colour in Great Danes is caused by the presence of at least one M-allele. Merle is a dominant feature. And therefore, it is not recommended to mate two merle Danes or merle with harlequins (as they often carry hidden merle) because there is a risk that the homozygous merle dogs will have problems with vision and hearing and will suffer from cardiovascular diseases and reproduction system disorders.

S-locus

White spots in Great Danes and the colours Harlequin and Mantle are caused by the S-locus.

The test for S-locus is not offered by Genomia laboratory.