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Breeding Merle Australian Shepherds

by Stephanie
(MO)

We have a male brown and white and a female black red and white. Both dogs had merle mother's. Is it possible to have merle puppies from these two?

Comments for Breeding Merle Australian Shepherds

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Merle/Merle Breeding Can Result In Deaf and/or Blind Puppies
by: Anton

Breeding merle with merle is not recommended as some of the puppies can inherit the merle pattern from both parents and will become a "double merle" or "homozygous merle" (aka "lethal white"). You can find more information here about breeding merle to merle Australian Shepherds and why it's a problem.

Yes
by: Anonymous

Yes. Neither of your dogs are merles, so there is no danger of a double merle. The merle gene is dominant, so in fact none of the offspring will be a merle.

Merle worries
by: Anonymous

But question is...they both have a merle mother, non merle father. One is tan/white, the other tri color...red, black, white...neither has blue or green eyes, both brown. Is the merle gene there and possible because both have merle mother's? I love these dogs and would never want to risk a problem or danger for them.

Aussie genes
by: Anonymous

The gene that makes Aussies tri coloured is recessive. That means that for them to be a tri, they had to inherit a tri gene from both of their parents. The Merle gene is dominant, which means that having just one of these genes will make the dog a Merle, even if the other gene is a tri gene. If your dog is a tri, even if they had a Merle parent they won't carry the Merle gene, because an Aussie needs two tri genes to be a tri. Merle's have one Merle gene and one tri gene, but since Merle is dominant they will still appear Merle. The reason you should only breed Merle's to tri colours is so that they will always have one tri gene because that's all one parent has, making them either a tri or a Merle depending on what gene they receive from the other parent. Merle to Merle, will give puppies a 1/4 chance of receiving Merle genes from both parents, making them a double Merle. Even if one dog isn't exactly a tri, the only way for a puppy to be Merle is to have a Merle parent, so it only matters what the puppies direct parents are, not their grandparents.

No Merles
by: Anonymous

If your dogs are tri coloured, they do not have a Merle gene, so all the puppies will be tri's. It only matters what they have, not what their parents have :)

Blue merle with 1 blue eye
by: Anonymous

Can I breed him to a red merle Aussie without any issues?

Question on breeding
by: Anonymous

We have 2 mini Australian puppies, one is a blue merle and the other one is a tri-color. Our blue merle puppy has a merle parent and the tri-color puppy does also have a merle parent. If we want to breed them, would the double merle happen?

Is red bi-color to blue merle safe?
by: Anonymous

Is it safe to breed a merle Aussie to a red bi-color Aussie?

Solid black Aussie produce Merle?
by: Anonymous

I am looking at breeding my female to a solid black registered Australian shepherd. He does have two blue eyes, will he produce Merle? My female is black with two blue eyes and a white chest and paws

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