There’s a white pattern found in Great Danes called,”Harlequin.”

From here on out,  we wade into the tall grass because we’re about to talk about the “g” word (genetics, said with a respectful whisper). On the subject of genetics, we absolutely welcome input from those of you who love this stuff and are, therefore, “genetic geeks.”

Every single dog with the harlequin gene and the merle gene will display harlequin. Non-merle dogs can carry harlequin, but they won’t appear as a harlequin.Put another way, the harlequin gene won’t work on its own, it has to have that merle gene. The only thing that would stop a harlequin from being an obvious harlequin would be genes that turn the dog completely or almost completely white, and they’re not present in Great Danes unless they’re a double merle.

Photo by Melissa Pevy

Clemson University has a dandy chart that “gene geeks” will recognize as Punnett Squares. These squares show the predicted outcomes for harlequin breedings. There is also a genetic test of the PSMB7 gene that is said to reliably determine whether a dog is a genetic carrier of the harlequin coat color.

Image: Photo by Olga Maderych and Gadabout Photography appears with consent