Solid black out of two sables? - Page 3

Just to add to the above......

There is one way a sable can be produced without a sable parent, and that's if one parent is white.  The effect of recessive ee (white) is to disguise the underlying A locus pattern, so a white could be 'carrying' sable, or any A pattern.

Thank you everyone for all of your help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As usual, pod, you make an interesting point.

White (ee) can mask a sable.  So the "recessive" white bred to a recessive black can yield the most dominant color, sable.

That's the extra credit question on the test for those of us going for an A+.

This reminds me of a very old genetics color discussion of what happens when you breed an irish setter (homozygous recessive red) to a chocolate lab (homozygous dilute on a separate locus -- analogous but not identical to your white example).  Voila -- you get all black pups -- the dominant color gene. 

Things aren't always what they appear.