Some breeds have a solid color(s) and brindle, like Mastiffs. Some have a couple colors and dilute forms of those colors, like Dobermans. Labradors have three accepted colors, yellow, black, and chocolate. We'll get into crappy color breeding of dogs like Labs and Dobes in another post.
There are breeds that are bred for color that have merle coloration. Border Collies, Collies, Shetland Sheepdogs, both sizes of Daschunds, Catahoula Leopard Dogs, Australian Shepherds, Great Danes, Chihuahuas, Pomeranians, Cardigan Welsh Corgis, even freaking Poodles now are the ones that first come to mind. Merle is an awesome color, and that's why it's so popular. In Doxies they call it dapple, but it looks nothing like dapple on horses.
You can have blue merle, which is the merle gene acting on a black coat:
Responsible breeders breed only merle to solid. That means some pups are solid, some are merle. That's just how it goes.
Then you have what the crappy BYBs do to get more merles, which is breed merle to merle. the problem with that is twofold. A bunch of pups die in the embryo stage (thankfully), and 25% of those that are born have the chance of being double merle. That 25% is just an average for a litter, and it's a 25% chance of each pup being born that way. That's why you can have a litter full of double merles, and have another litter of none. Some breeders feel the 25% chance is worth it to breed more moneymaking merles. And this is what you get when it happens:
Looks just fine, right? Wrong. This dog is deaf and blind. It gets prettier, too.
Doesn't she look gorgeous, with her bright red tiny pig eyes? Some of these dogs are born without eyes period. Want a closer look? http://lethalwhites.com/eyes.html
Note that some homozygous merles (double merles) do have normal hearing and site, if there is enough color around the eyes and in the inner ear. and some heterozygous merles and solids can be deaf, if their white coloration doesn't cover those important areas. Also, there can be pigment, but not enough to prevent the nerve endings from dying off and atrophying in the first few weeks of the puppy's life, causing deafness.
So, why aren't White Shepherds (aka white German Shepherd Dogs) deaf? Or Samoyeds, or West Highland White Terriers? Well, they aren't actually white. Their noses are black, the skin around the eyes is black. They are actually extremely pale buff colored. Same with Bichon Frise, and that's why you sometimes get an "apricot" Bichon. It's also how the fad of white Golden Retrievers (thanks Oprah!) happens, and how you can get "white" yellow Labs, and the opposite of the spectrum, "fox" or "foxy" Labs, which are yellow labs that are red colored. The yellow gene in dogs is quite versatile, and that's for another post, maybe.
Anyway, Puppy millers and BYBs are the real source of double merles. While looking for photos, I found merle APBTs, merle Cockers, merle everything. Merle is hot shit, apparently. Me? I've always been fond of a black or black bi smooth Collie.
15 comments:
Those poor dogs!
I don't know what to say:(
Good job Moontoad....keep it up! Eventually, you might have as many readers/posters as FHotD, which would be awesome :-)
Along with breeding fugly horses, this is the other issue I really care about. I used to rescue Rhodesian Ridgebacks, but that is a story for another day.....
I happen to like the merle colour in aussies, but I think that this double merle/lethal white breeding is completely irresponsible, cruel, and should be breed rules agaisnt registration and breeding of these poor animals.
I have a friend that adopted a blind, deaf merle Aussie. He is a lovely sweet dog that was left (read dumped) in an outside after hours cage at a rescue. The staff didn't even know he was deaf. Fortunately for him, my friend didn't care and he has a great forever home. But how many of these poor dogs are left at shelters, or for that matter on the side of the road, or shot, or whatever method of disposal can be thought of. Since greed is the driving factor, it is doubtful it can be stopped. Makes me cry.
I had no idea that breeding a merle to a merle could produce a blind or deaf dog. Which is why I am not a breeder. I am a rescuer. There are many cattle dogs in our area and our shelters are full of aussies, catahoulas and heelers. It is really sad.
I have a normal hearing/seeing cardigan welsh corgi that I acquired from an awesome show breeder. I was told that the puppy resulted from an accidental breeding that happened when the breeder had a house sitter looking after things when she was away. She sold the pup to me for very little ($100) with a binding neuter contract
(which I did). My understanding was the pup would have no problems, but any offspring might. He is a brindle (mom was a blue merle), but i guess the genetics are similar to what you describe. He is just the greatest dog!
My other dog is a resue pit/lab pup...No couth at all!! : )
oh my tapdancing christ. i admit i know jack squat about dogs, but uh... gee, youd think being born WITHOUT EYES might be a BIT of a problem??
hint to world: when the breed youve named 'aussie' isnt from or known of in australia, dont you think the bullshit has gone a liiiittle far? that were talking 'genetic mutant' over 'imported breed'?
im just saying!
Did you know they make MINI aussies now? Why? whywhywhy? I mean sure they are kinda adorable but WHAT ARE THEY FOR?! If you want a pocket pet, get a rat, don't breed a dog to look like one. No offense to chihuahuas.
On the 'accidental' breeding thing...normally I'd be with FHotD on that and say that there is no such thing as an 'accident' just irresponsibility, except the same thing happened to us. We went on vacation when our Husky bitch was going in to heat, and paid my step-cousin to come and feed the dogs with EXPLICIT instructions NOT to let her out of the yard. Needless to say, some weeks later Sammy had five (Gorgeous!) mutt puppies who looked SUSPICIOUSLY like my cousin's unneutered male mutt. Thankfully we lived not far from a nice little ranching community in AZ, and all the puppies found wonderful homes where they can play outside all day and chase cows.
Mini aussies piss me to fucking hell. Aussies have NO SIZE STANDARD. Small aussies are perfectly accepted as aussies and show well in the ring. Many people breeding "mini aussies" have mixed aussies with shelties. so you get these sheltie bodied creatures with aussie heads on them. They look like crap. There are responsible breeders who breed smaller aussies and they don't jump on the mini aussie bandwagon.
I really don't understand the trend to breeding "pocket" or "mini" versions of existing dogs. In the us, there are 200 breed to choose from in the AKC (approximately, counting the dogs currently entering the AKC from the FSS, foundation stock service). Over 450 internationally. Don't you think with a bit of research someone could find an existing small dog that suits them personality wise, hair wise, behavior wise? But it's easier to go to the net and find a mini creature from hell.
Great site Moontoad. I cant stand puppy farmers. Breeding crap dogs just for the purpose of making money. There is a huge trend here in NZ in the moment with people breeding "designer dogs" , and people are sucked in and pay large amounts. The link t the site on colours was fascinating. I happened to take on a white border collie pup that needed a home without realising how lucky I was that she had no issues with eyes and ears. She is 98% pure white with slight black flecking on her ears and a blue and a brown/blue eye. Looking at the pictures of these other dogs I got off very "lightly" with her just having HD and being a carrier for Von Willebrands.
Just discovered a link to your blog over on FHOTD. Cheers!
As the adoptive parent of a deaf white double merle Aussie, I can say that yes, they can be great, happy pets and no, they should NEVER be bred. This particular dog is the product of a breeder who continues to cross merle to merle and gets a deaf puppy or two every year. Just a "cost of business." He is as sweet as can be but he IS neurotic, epileptic, and oversized compared to the breed standard in addition to being deaf.
There are also other merles, not just blue merles. In Shelties there are sable merles and in aussies, there are red merles. The problem with the sable merle in shelties is that sometimes it is hard to recognize the merle pattern in an adult dog. As a result they can be mistaken for sables, if not identified at birth. By an unexperienced breeder, a sable merle can be mistakenly be breed with another merle (either blue or sable) and resulting breed could produce doulbe merle/lethal white offspring. This is not an excuse. Leave breeding to those with experience.
A double merle in the sheltie breed should not be mistaken for a colour-headed shelite (which is a dog more than 50% white on it's body, but has a normal coloured head). This is the result of two white factored dogs being bred, and is not due to a double merle gene. These dogs are normal in everyway, but due to breed standards are not shown.
Re: color-headed whites, it's pretty darn hard to mistake a color-headed white for a double merle, IMO, considering that most double merles have got solid white heads (which is where the deafness comes from, the lack of pigment on the inner ear) and that's pretty much the only place color-headed whites don't have color. And I've seen quite a few sable merle Shelties; it's not THAT hard to discern that there's merling going on, not when there's a blurring of the black tips. I could see it happening on a very lightly shaded sable.
Interestingly, there has been some research showing that Catahoulas and other merled breeds without Irish spotting can have double merles with no ill effects, especially Catahoulas. Apparantly in Catahoulas there are lots of cryptic merles going around, and half the time double merles out of such cryptics look like heterozygous merles. It's really quite fascinating, and might result from all that work that Catahoula breeders seem to do in clarifying differences between the amounts of merling in various lines. (For instance, in a Catahoula a "blue merle" isn't just any old black dog with a merling gene, it's a black dog with a merling gene that affects most of the dog so the majority of the coat is blue. A "black merle" is the same black dog with a merle gene, only this time the merling affects comparatively little of the coat.)
Personally, my preference is for tris. Mmmm.
Looking at the Aussie eye defects page made me wonder again about a husky down the street from me with funny eyes..anyone have more info than what I found from the Aussie page on starburst pupils? This husky has really fuzzy edged hazy pupils, but she seems to see fine..just wondering if there is anything wrong with her.
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