Actually Lynn, Marg and I submitted DNA from two litters that had Irish spotted pups in it to try to identify the "irish". They came back with NOTHING. (We were hoping to find something so that you could coat color test for it like we do for Landseer, grey, brown etc.) The study was done by the same woman that identified the other colors, Sheila Schmutz at the University of Saskatchewan. The actual "irish spotted" genetics that exist in other breeds like the border collie etc. does not exist in our breed. There is no queston in my mind that it is separate and distinct, but at this point, she can't identify it and she believes it is most likely something on the black genetics that modifies pigment migration in the very early stages of development...which I suppose makes sense because she said pigment in early stages moves outwards to the extremities....and that's where the white shows up that separates them from just being an ordinary Landseer recessive dog...they ARE recessive Landseer also, but there is something modifying the black. According to her, their DNA at this point is just showing a black/landseer recessive dog. We had two litters and parents that we sent DNA for,both with one Landseer parent and one black carrying irish parent. After two months of waiting, we still don't know anymore than we did when we started lol. She did say if funding comes through eventually that allows she will take another look at it. So I guess technically, all we know at this point is that it's not "the" irish spotting gene that other breeds have, which is separate and distinct and identifiable.