Just out of curiousity, are smooth or feathered salukis dominant when it comes to distribution in a litter? This supposed litter would have a smooth sire and a feathered dam.

I was just wondering since there seem to be so much variety among the pictures presented in this forum.

Two feathereds can only get smooths through mutation, which is incredibly rare.

Two smooths can get both feathered and smooth, UNLESS one or both smooths are homozygots for the smooth gene, in which case they can have only smooths.

A smooth and a feathered can get both smooth and feathered, UNLESS the smooth is a homozygot for smoothness, in which case all its offspring will be smooth, regardless of its mate.

The rest is up to chance. Sometimes two smooths or a feathered and a smooth get only smooth pups even if none of the smooths are homozygots for the trait - the feathereds just haven't gotten through. Or vice versa - the pups are all feathered beacause the smooths have not gotten through. There are mathematical probabilities for how much of each variety can be found in a mating between a heterozygot smooth and a feathered or two heterozygot smooths can have, but ultimately it's down to chance.

As for whether a Saluki is a homozygot smooth, there's no way to tell without breeding it, and even then you can't be sure unless it has several litters with no smooths.

In case someone is wondering - a heterzygot (not sure if you spell it like that in English) smooth carries both the smooth and the feathered factor, and so can sire/give birth to both varieties, while a homozygot smooth only carries the smooth factor and can thus only have smooth offspring, regardless of its mate.

Plus, feathereds of course can vary drastically in the amount of feathering they grow - some grow very little, some grow a lot of feathering but short, others grow profuse and very long feathering.

In the litters I've bred thus far I've gotten the following:

Safi (smooth) x Farha (smooth) - 3 feathered pupus, 6 smooth
Rafiq (smooth) x Lublub (smooth) - 6 smooth pups
Baba (feathered) x Basma (feathered) - 5 feathered pups, very little feathering on all but one (Basma is very lightly feathered)
Khattaf (smooth) x Lublub (smooth) - 3 smooth pups, 3 feathered

Rafiq has also sired a litter for another breeder, with a feathered bitch - all 5 pups were smooth, leading me to think, since Rafiq has had only smooth pups in two litters, that he may be a homozygot smooth since his first mate Lublub has now had some feathereds in her other litter, and therefore is a heterozygot smooth.

In other words, two feathereds can only have feathereds (unless throughmutation) because it is a recessive trait. And the only way to get smooths is to use at least one smooth, as it is a dominant trait. But smooths can also carry the recessive feathered trait and can therefore also have feathered pups, unless they are homozygots for smooth.

That would be 'homozygous' and 'heterozygous' in English :) Close enough.

Happy, dogs carry two genes for coat. Smooth is always dominant over long, which is a recessive. A homozygous dog would be carrying two smooth genes and produce only smooth puppies. A heterozygous dog would have one smooth and one feathered gene, so if it is bred with another dog that carries the feathered gene, it would produce both smooth and feathered puppies. A feathered dog is homozygous for long coat and will produce only feathered pups unless it is bred to a smooth.

The occasional mutants that occur where a smooth pup is produced from two feathered parents, are, AFAIK, heterozygous and would produce feathered pups if bred to a dog carrying the feathered gene, because only one of the coat genes mutates back to the dominant smooth form.

Thank you all for the excellent explanation. I was just curious as to what were the causes of all the varieties seen not only in this forum but others as well.

I will officially become a saluki owner sometime in mid-January when the pup is around 10 weeks of age and so far he is showing signs of being a smooth (only 6 weeks old). Here's a link showing how he looks like at the breeders:

http://www.classicsaluki.com/future.htm (the cream smooth male)

We are excited about his arrival and will try to do his heritage proud by raising him with the intent of coursing him (mostly lure but if the opportunity arises some open field as well).

Thanks again,
Dan

Thanks Devoid, I thought the spelling looked a bit off :Good:

Congrats on the baby Happy! If it looks smooth at 6 weeks then it is smooth :)