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What's All The Fuss About? I've been reading all about the controversy. Other breeds have had merles for many years such as the Australian Shepherd and a few others. It all boils down to a responsible breeder. If a person is not in this business solely for profit, then that breeder will carefully study the proper way to handle not just this breeding situation but others. I could never breed dogs that I knew would cause their offspring to suffer. I'm all about love of the breed and making people happy with a lifetime companion. AKC has recogized this color in this pint-sized baby. Surely they have been responsible and researched areas of concern. Many attitudes surface regarding this issue, but to maintain brevity, I will summarize just a few: One report indicates that the problem occurs when a dog has more than 50% white it. White patches are scattered over its normal coloration. One can get blue merling, black merling, chocolate merling, red merling, and silver merling. Often they will have two blue eyes or even one brown and one blue--charming--I just saw this combination a few days ago. Breeders should never breed merle to white, cream, or fawn because the white patches on those dogs would be hard to see so one would get what is called a "cryptic" or "hidden merle"...a merle that will pass on the merle gene but doesn't look merle. If two merles are bred and the white patches blend over the eyes and ears, they can be blind, deaf, or missing eyes or a combination of those. Generally if two merles are bred, about 50% will be deformed, 25% will be merle, and 25% will be a homozygous merle. In breeding a merle and a nonmerle one will get about 50% of the litter merle, and 50% nonmerle. Breeding two merles would be totally irresponsible. The key factor again seems to be the responsible, knowledgeable breeder. The breeder must know the blood lines. Not to oversimplify, but I believe those to be the basics--I believe in the merles when responsibly bred. Make sure the breeder knows the blood lines. It is up to me as a breeder to keep the lines straight, and never let a puppy suffer because of irresponsibility. Mine are beautiful and well-adjusted and have no physical abnormalities. They are funny and fun. I could write an epic saga about this issue, but I doubt that is what you came to see on my website. I hope by keeping this brief, buyers will read it and have a basic understanding. To explore more in depth, I offer the following sites: |