Grandfathered in markings & pups

So what's the dealio with those of us who have chars that have grandfathered in markings that now would be disallowed on a full wolf?

Like for future puppies is it they are still allowed to be merle -- using Mal as an example for obvious reasons -- because dad is or do they have to be totally plain with not a hint of it if I keep him as merle?

Or is it better to edit chars to fit in reqs so they're merely unusually patterned and not officially merle/whatever, toned down a little from true merle,  and then patterns can thus be passed on in lesser ways? I mean I still need to do a new ref of him from this decade so at least not a big jump there, haha.

I would assume the more iffy option is add a percentage of dog to said char, but I know that editing those things is generally most sketchy. And I'm not planning on doing it for Mal anyway, but I'm sure other peeps might wanna know. :P
Someone in Discord said that 50% dog is required to have dog markings any less and they gotta be wolf. Is that actually a thing or was that just their opinion? (I honestly don't remember who said it and chat b flyin' right now)

To summarize WHAT HAPPENING WITH SPOTTY BOYS

Isn’t Mal part dog? When Queenie was accepted she was a Wolfdog mix.

Isn’t Mal part dog? When Queenie was accepted she was a Wolfdog mix.

When I adopted Mal, both parents had Eastern Timber Wolf as their species so that's what I put on Mal's profile and I was stoked about him being born in game as 100% one subspecies since that's rare, and thus 100% wolf, just goofy-colored. If she was accepted as wolfdog, then that definitely changed sometime between her being accepted and Mal being born.

And even then, since adopting him both parents have changed what species they were. I don't think Queenie's profile at the time had anything about dog background, and even right now Queenie's profile basically says that her dog heritage is basically negligible and only related to color, so... Shrug emoji? IDK, I don't edit that field aside from formatting, I went by what was in the subspecies fields at time of adoption.

Edit: And both Solomon and Brillo, Mal's sisters also just say Eastern Timber Wolf, so I'm not crazy. I think :P

Now I'm confused, because Delight has always been a coywolf (mixed wolf + coyote) as far as I know. That means if both parents were half wolf and half something else, that Mal would be 50% Timber, 25% coyote, and 25% dog.

Mal does have dog in him if we're going by what Queenie was approved as (which we should) - so I'd say the merle spots would be fair game?

Maybe reach out to the parents' players for clarity?

I've already talked to Jennifer about this OOC but Queenie was originally submitted as an ETW. She wasn't canonically wolf-dog until a few months ago when the discussion about semi-realism and coat patterns started, since that's when I edited the bloodline's lore to justify their appearance. 

TL;DR — yes, the St. Clairs are mixed breed.