Newfoundland Dog Genetics Simplified
​Everyone that has met a Newfoundland knows that they are big lovable sucks. They love to swim and are great at water rescue. My own Newfies always come try and “save” me when swimming anywhere. Their webbed feet, buoyant body, and water-resistant coat make them the ideal candidate for this type of work. How did they get to be so geared for water and charming to boot?
The Newfoundland Origin
It is believed that when fisherman from Europe came over to North America with their Great Pyrenees dogs, these dogs ended up being bred with mastiffs and black retrievers. Newfoundlands got their size from the Mastiffs, their instincts and their coat type from the Pyrs, and their coat colours, fun-loving personality, and their love of water from the retrievers. This is how dog breeds are formed, by crossing other breeds until you get what you are looking for. Once this happens, you breed them together until you get consistency for generations. Every puppy produced comes out with the characteristics you sought out. Because many of these dogs were created by breeding to their own family members to make the process faster, they develop a laundry list of health problems specific to the new breed. It is a reputable breeder’s responsibility to do their best to eliminate these health problems. Some of them are quite easy to breed out, while others are more complicated or the genetics of it are unknown. Most of these breeds are hundreds of years old and have had this consistency for a long time.
​
Now, let’s look at the Newfoundland in particular. Based on their genetics, and genetics alone, Newfoundlands come in four (yes, FOUR) colours naturally. Black (the most common), Brown, Grey, and Beige (the most uncommon, we will show you why later on). These colours can easily be produced by breeding purebred Newfoundlands together, NOT by introducing something new to the breed in order to get these colourations. An example of this would be some Golden Retriever breeders breeding their dogs to Irish Setters in order to get more of a dark red colour. This then produces mixed breed puppies that they will claim to be purebred Golden Retrievers. As I stated, you do not need to do this in order to get the array of Newfoundland colours, it just depends on their inherent genetics.
But Why Do I Only See Black Newfoundlands?
Many people when they think of a Newfoundland will think of a big black fluffball, and that is the end of it. In Canada, the only qualifying colour in the show ring is black or Landseer (black and white). This is because their system is rather archaic, and they believe that Newfoundlands should only come in black and the other colours should not exist. But if the other colours are naturally occurring in the breed, then does this not sound like discrimination? The AKC (American Kennel Club) is more open minded, allowing black, Landseer, brown, and grey coat colours in the show ring, but not the beige or other colours with white markings. I will explain the genetics of these colourings and markings below to make it abundantly clear why this discrimination is completely illogical, but it should be noted that both of these kennel clubs recognize all of the colours as Newfoundlands that can be registered, and their children registered, but they do not qualify for championships.
The Base Colour
For every Newfoundland born, there is a genetic base colour that represents their coat. It is actually quite simple: there is black, and there is brown. Each parent contributes to the colour, but in simple terms, black is dominant over brown. This is why is a black Newfoundland and a brown Newfoundland have puppies, often they will all be black. If one or both parents contributes a black gene, then the puppy will be black. Both parents have to contribute a brown gene for the puppy to have a brown base colour. For simplifying things, I am going to refer to black genes with a BL or bl, and brown genes as BR or br (we will get into the capital and lowercase later). Typically, it is expressed as “B” for black and “b” for brown, but I will cover that in another article where I go into more detail about the specifics. See the table below.
Colour Modifiers
There is one major colour modifier in Newfoundlands, and this is the dilution gene. Once again, it is a recessive/dominant modifier. It is normally expressed as “D” for not dilute and “d” for dilute, but for simplification we are using the capital and lowercase BL/bl and BR/br. If a dog possesses two dilute genes (one from each parent), then they will have a modified/dilute version of black or brown. Black will be a charcoal grey, which we call grey, and brown will be a champaign kind of grey, which we call beige. These grey and beige Newfoundlands could have the exact same genetics as their black and brown siblings, aside from this one gene locus, and yet they receive extreme discrimination. See the table below for a visual explanation.
Some people will claim that this dilute gene carries health problems. In some breeds this can be true, that a colour or marking gene can be associated with massive health issues, such as sometimes fatal Harlequin-patterned Great Danes. In Newfoundlands, the dilute gene can carry a more wire coat and be accompanied by some mild, localized alopecia, but this is purely cosmetic and can be easily eliminated in a single generation. There is no correlation to increased health problems related to typical Newfoundland issues, such as hips, elbows, heart, lifespan, etc, in the non-black Newfies. What some breeders are seeing is because unethical breeders, such as puppy mills and backyard breeders, sometimes breed for these rare colours for extra money and do not care about or put little thought into the health of their dogs, the rate at which the non-black Newfies have health issues is skewed. If breeding these colours is done correctly, then there is no more risk than with show-ring acceptable colours.
Markings
Most people that know Newfoundlands know the word “Landseer.” Landseer refers to Newfoundlands that are white with black markings and is named after a painter that had a habit of including them in his artwork. There are two other marking types: solid, and Irish spot. Irish spot is when there is a spot on their chest and sometimes toes, which can vary drastically in size. Solid is the most common marking, which is interesting as it is not the most likely combination when it comes to genetics. For the purposes of this article, we will refer to dogs that are solid have genes SS, Irish spot as SL, and Landseer dogs as LL. The previous two gene markers that determine colour (black/brown and dilution) are dominant and recessive, which means that the dominant gene will always be expressed if present. The genes that decide the markings of a Newfoundland, referred to as the Piebald gene, are co-dominant. This means that if both are present you get something in between the two. Each parent will have two copies of the gene, but only passes one to a particular puppy. If they are solid they will always pass an S. If the are Landseer they will always pass an L. And if they are Irish spot, they can pass on either an S or an L. As an example, let’s consider if an Irish spot Newfie was bred to a Landseer Newfie. Because the Landseer parent cannot pass on an S at all, then half of the puppies will be Landseer and half of them will be Irish Spot. Please see the table below for a visual representation of this.
These marking genetics work the exact same way with every colour, meaning the Landseer and Irish spot markings are produced in this way in the brown, grey, and beige colours as well. Seeing how simple this is emphasizes the irrationality behind not including these non-standard colours in the show ring.
Now that I have explained everything, let’s do a couple of examples.
​
BLBLSS is a solid black Newfoundland.
blblSL is an Irish spot grey Newfoundland.
BRbrLL is a brown Landseer Newfoundland.
brbrSL is a beige Irish Spot Newfoundland.
​
These are just a few examples. Please see below for every combination possible. As you can see, the beige are the most difficult to produce. (I will mention again that this is not the official way to represent these colours from a genetic standpoint, but a simplified one for the sake of explaining it in an understandable manner. I will be writing a more detailed article on the formal way of representing these colours.)
Genetic Testing vs Interpretive Testing
Every reputable breeder does some kind of testing on their breeding dogs to ensure that the puppies they are producing are as healthy as possible. We, as responsible breeders, do genetic testing on all our dogs to ensure they are clear of genetic maladies known to the breed, which for Newfoundlands includes urinary and heart defects. For most of these tests, it is incredibly easy to eliminate them within two generations, sometimes just one. For example, Ichthyosis is a genetic defect in Golden Retrievers. If there are two copies of the gene the dog will be affected, but if there is one copy they will not express the condition but are a “carrier” for the health issue. Quite simply, if you are wanting to eliminate this health problem, you can either not breed the affected dog, or you could breed them to a dog clear of the affected genes, and then breed one of their non-carrier puppies to another dog clear of the genes. After just two generations it would be eliminated from that line of dogs. These tests have hard and fast answers, no interpretation required. Below is a table that explains this inheritance in a visual manner.
There are several tests that are regularly done that are up to the interpretation of a person and are therefore open to human error. X-rays are looked at by a certified veterinarian and they decide what grade to give the dog or puppy. Personally, we prefer the Pennhip test as it is a measurement and therefore less likely to be affected by human error, however an animal must be put under for the xrays and therefore does not come without risk. Let us give you an example of why we have this opinion. There is a breeder that I know that brought in their male to get their hips checked. They did the x-ray and the results led her to believe she needed to get him neutered. She was skeptical of the result because of how healthy and active he seemed, so she investigated further. It turned out the x-ray was a bad angle, and the veterinarian could not tell, so instead of saying they should redo the x-ray he gave them a low grade. This result turned out to be incorrect, and that male went on to produce many litters with not a single case of hip dysplasia.
​
Getting to know a breeder so that you can get to know their dogs is very important. You should love the parents and be impressed with the parents, because your puppy will be just like them. This goes for health but also personality. If you visit a breeder you should want the parents to be your dog before you should want a puppy from them.
Science vs Preservation
As you can see, science supports that all four colours of Newfoundland are naturally occurring in the breed and should therefore not be discriminated against. The only cause for concern would be if there were harmful genetic traits tied to colour, but this is not the case for Newfoundlands. The way to stop this discrimination is to become educated and to increase awareness. There are many people that are close-minded and only concerned about preservation of a certain standard that they decided is correct, but I’m sure you can agree, someone’s hair colour does not make them less of a person.