Several breeds were featured in the wonderful movie,  The Secret Life of Pets, but a lot of people missed the Scottie, possibly because it wasn’t what they were expecting.

https://www.facebook.com/SecretLifeofPetsAU/videos/vb.1607959692806041/1693968054205204/?type=2&theater

If you didn’t spot the Scottie, was it because you were expecting a black dog, and what you got was a Wheaten? A Wheaten Scottie is not a white Scottie. In some Wheaten Scotties, the color is so light that it can be mistaken for white, but white markings, says the breed’s official standard, are permissible “only on the chest and chin and that to a slight extent only.” The Wheaten coloring is a recessive gene, which means that in order to get a Wheaten Scottish Terrier, both the sire and dam must have the gene.

Say, for instance, that a male Scottie that’s pure black and lacks the Wheaten color sires puppies that are all black. What’s up with that?  It means that the black pups have the wheaten gene from their mum, but for mom to have wheaten pups,  she would have to mate with a Wheaten male, or a black dog that has the wheaten gene (25% of the litter should then be wheaten). Wheaten to wheaten, and we get 100% wheaten pups.

Conceptual Scottish Terrier by Ludo Gavillet. Details of his work, and cells from The Secret Life of Pets, can be found here.