A genotype is the genetic make-up of an individual. On Ala we can carry a genotype in a modified alphabetical representation easily. Doing this, a player would be able to find an accurate genetic make-up, or all the inner science that makes your dog look the way it does. It could provide information on your dog's coat, nose, and eye colour, as well as physical or personality traits and give a better representation on the possible appearance of future litters.

Genotyping your dog could be done at the bottom of the dog's page next to the other vaccination/breed/spay tags. It would cost a reasonable amount (possibly bones) but be accessible to upgraded and non upgraded accounts alike. It could give access to genotype one dog or an entire litter, and once genotyped, your dog's results will be displayed on its profile page.

Genotyping would be a great way to give those color orientated breeders a more In-depth look into their dog and make it easily accessible to breed out certain secondary's. With genotyping, we would be also able to narrow down our choices for dogs to potentially breed with as well as cut down on the amount of pups shipped off to the pound because they carried marks we didn't want.

Base Color Genes-
First we will look at the base color brown because it would be the easiest. (B) would be brown gene, which turns all black pigment brown/liver. This is a recessive gene so the dog would need (bb) gene in order to be brown. This would keep along the guidelines that if you breed two same colored dogs(bb)-(bb), you get (bb). But on the other hand, if you bred a black based dog with (Bb carrying brown) and a brown based dog (bb) you would only have a 50% chance of getting a brown dog using the Punnett Square.

Now lets look at a red based dog using (E), an extension gene. To achieve a red-based dog, they would have to have the recessive (ee).

To get a white base we will be using (S), the white markings gene. White as a base would occur if the dog had (ss) but if he were to have (Ss), then the dog would carry no white markings.

Blue bases are another thing and slightly more complicated. Blue(recessive dd) is actually a Dilution in the black hair. (D) actually works with (B) and would determine the base color for the dog. A dog with (BB) and (DD) will be black because you don't have the recessive gene. With (BB)-(dd) he will now have a blue base and with (bb)-(DD) he will have a brown base when we go back to the recessive (bb) brown. (bb)-(dd) would actually be Isabella, a lighter blue, but that could be modified to blue base as well.

(X) is the urajiro gene which would basically determine if the dog has tan marking or not with a recessive (xx).

This is just the base and white/tan marking genes but I want to know if anyone would support this before I take the time to modify the secondary genes, which is a little bit more difficult to rearrange and fit into Ala's markings standards.

I understand that this may be a difficult and long process but not only would it open up an opportunity for more bones to be bought from Ala itself but it would also provide new challenges for those interested. Plus, the percentage of unwanted puppies would reduce due to the fact that breeders where able to achieve markings and bases that they wanted.

Questions, suggestions and constructive criticism is greatly encouraged.