This term refers to a puppy bred by two
No. Mating two merle dogs together increases the risk of their puppies having health issues and could have a serious impact on their health and welfare. For this reason, we do not register dogs from merle-to-merle mating. Any mating that could produce affected puppies should never knowingly be carried out.
No, Amy it is not safe to breed a merle dog with another merle dog. Especially when one of the merle dogs in question is obviously the result of merle to merle breeding.
What is a double merle? A dog that inherits two dominant versions of M is a double merle. In Australian Shepherds these dogs usually will have excessive amounts of white, be deaf in one or both ears, and have serious and generally blinding eye defects. In a few severe cases the eyes have been missing altogether.
Predominantly white Aussies are almost always the result of merle-to-merle breeding. These homozygous (meaning “two like genes”) merles have inherited the merle color gene from both parents. They are usually, but not always, blind and/or deaf.
Awareness is key to responsible breeding; it is not recommended to breed two merles together. There are several merle dog breeds where the pattern is commonly found and accepted as a breed standard, including: Australian Shepherd. Miniature American Shepherd.
This shows the genetic possibilities of EACH puppy in a litter bred from two merle dogs. As you can see each puppy has a 50% chance of being born merle, a 25% of being solid/non merle, and a 25% chance of being a double merle. As you can see, there is no risk of double merles when breeding a solid dog to a merle.
The merle gene causes pets to have multicolored coats and striking blue eyes. Having the merle gene is great, but becomes problematic when two dogs with that gene are paired. Birth defects in litters can happen when two dogs with this merle gene are bred together, hence double merle breeding.
Dogs with cryptic merle (also called phantom or ghost merle) typically display little to no merle pattern and some may be misclassified as non-merles. The cryptic merle alleles occur in the lower end of the range (typically from 200-255, however, this range and designation varies by study).
Is a blue merle Australian Shepherd rare? While blue merle Australian Shepherds are undoubtedly beautiful, they're not particularly rare. The blue merle color pattern is surprisingly common in this breed, being more frequent than the red merle.
Solid black and red coats are the least common coats among Aussie dogs, with solid red being the absolute rarest. The red-colored gene is recessive in dogs, meaning red fur must be present in both parents to make a red-colored pup.
Double merles have large amounts of white in their coat and deafness and eye abnormalities are common. All merles may have blue or partially blue eyes, and pink or partially pink noses. Merle can be completely hidden by recessive red, as recessive red dogs can't make eumelanin pigment and merle only affects eumelanin.
Merle dogs of any breed are likely to be more expensive than solid-colored dogs, even though a lot of responsible breeders try to change that. Depending on how rare the merle pattern is in the breed and how much the standard price for a puppy is, your merle dog might cost up to $3,000.
Are all Double Merle's Deaf/Blind/Both? No. It is possible for a Double Merle dog to not have hearing or vision issue but it is very uncommon.
A blue merle is a black dog with the merle pattern; a red merle is a liver dog with the merle pattern. All the merle gene does is determine whether or not a dog is merle. This gene is an incomplete dominant. Two dominant copies produce a “double merle” which will most likely have serious eye defects and may be deaf.
Australian Shepherd Health Issues. Australian Shepherds are generally healthy dogs with a life expectancy of 12-15 years.
An autosomal, incompletely dominant trait, merle coat coloring predisposes dogs to inherited deafness. When inherited in the homozygous state, the merle mutation causes dogs to be white and have an even greater incidence of deafness, blindness and sterility.
Harlequin is a pattern seen in Great Danes resulting from the complex interaction of the Merle (PMEL17) and Harlequin (PSMB7) genes on black pigment. The dominant Merle gene by itself produces dark spots on a dilute background on eumelanistic dogs.
A cryptic or phantom merle is a dog which phenotypically appears to be a non-merle (solid-colored) or a dog that has very faint patches of merle that can go unnoticed. Animals that do not present the merle phenotype may possess the merle genotype and subsequently produce merle offspring.
Double merles, despite their deficiencies, are generally quite healthy dogs capable of living long, otherwise normal lives. And they are no more aggressive, unpredictable or untrainable than hearing and sighted dogs.
Results: Deafness prevalence in merles overall was 4.6% unilaterally deaf and 4.6% bilaterally deaf. There was a significant association between hearing status and heterozygous versus homozygous merle genotype. For single merles (Mm), 2.7% were unilaterally deaf and 0.9% were bilaterally deaf.
As stated above, deafness can be associated with the merle (dapple) gene, which produces a mingled or patchwork combination of dark and light areas overlayed on the basic coat color. This gene (M) is dominant so that affected dogs (Mm) show the pigmentation pattern, which is desirable in many breeds.
Merle is sometimes introduced to other purebred dog breeds through crossbreeding, but these dogs are not purebred. In 2020 the UK Kennel Club (the oldest in the World) banned the registration of merle Poodles as it is not and never has been a colour pattern recognised in pure Poodles by the club.
What Is a Double Merle? Double Merle (Homozygous Merle) is the common term for a dog with two copies of the Merle gene. Double Merles are a result of bad breeding practices, most commonly known as spot x spot breeding.
Breeding merle to merle is unacceptable as each puppy has a chance of being born blind & deaf as a result. Breeding tri to tri produces all tri's therefore, the preferred color crosses are blue merle to black tri, blue merle to red tri, red merle to black tri, & red merle to red tri.