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Need Help Evaluating Aussie Pup With Half White Face

by Virginia Hoffman
(Sarasota , Fl)

White face pup.

Hello, I have a new Aussie pup coming to me. I put in a reservation for a female merle. The attached photo is of a pup being offered to me.

She is very cute but after reading about the health problems with overly white merles I am getting concerned about the lack of pigmentation in her face & nose.

Her father is a black tri and the mother is a merle.

I am not interested in showing the dog, so the white is fine with me, but do not wish to start off with a dog that will have built in health issues.

Please take a look and let me know what you think. Do I have anything to be concerned about with this pup.

Respectfully,
Virginia Hoffman

Comments for Need Help Evaluating Aussie Pup With Half White Face

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Merle Pup
by: Nonnie

Google Southern Star Aussies. The breeder there has some good experience with blue merles. I have one of her female blue-eyed blue merles. Her name is Bailee Joy and she is the joy of our life.

Double merle
by: AlinIA

The problem usually occurs when two merle's are bred together. This can produce puppies that are born permanently deaf or blind. Your puppy should be alright, she doesn't have a disproportional amount of white.

White Merle
by: Sheryl Wiser

Hi - I have what's known as a White Australian Shepherd or "Lethal White" - for the past 7 years. He is about 85% white - I've had him since he was 3 months old and he has multiple ocular abnormalities and is deaf in one ear. He's an amazing dog, I have no regrets about him in my life - if there was a way to have the pup evaluated by an animal eye doctor, that would be good. As far as "additional health issues" - Blue is really healthy; active, smart and funny. But there are some subtle things I need to do to work with him - being an Aussie, I never quite know if he can't really hear me (and he does hear a lot of things quite well) or ignoring me. But I would talk with your vet and also an animal eye doctor.

Happy ending to my story.
by: Virginia Hoffman

Good news I took the puppy her name is Bindi , she is a wonderful pet , no health problems, She is magnificent, healthy and a bundle of joyful energy. I am very pleased with her and she is also extremely cute.

Not Lethal White
by: Anonymous

Lethal white is a term used for horses and not correctly used when talking about dogs. Double Merle can cause deafness and/or blindness when two merles are bred together, no reputable breeder will breed two merles.

Merle puppy
by: Anonymous

My friend bought my dog s sister , a blue Merle with totally blue eyes and a completely pink nose. She has no issue whatsoever. I see your puppy has a bit of black in her nose, like mine had, at 7 months his nose is almost black except for a little pink corner. Enjoy your puppy!!

Ours too!
by: Bob

I am not sure how old this is.. not sure why they don;t have dates shown. Anyways, I recently got a young female blue merle aussie pup and her face is half white, but I think it's nice that she's more unique! Do you have a pic of yours now?

We had a mismarked aussie for 10 years
by: Snorty

We had a blue merle aussie with a half white face that did have some health problems. Her vision and hearing were good and she was a very healthy puppy. But, around the age of 3, she developed very bad food allergies and had IBD (inflammatory bowel disease). Additionally, she had two hysterical pregnancies so we had to spay her. (I would automatically recommend spaying your new puppy because she is mismarked and breeding her could be very dangerous for a litter. Had we spayed our puppy to start with, it would have been easier to have treated her IBD). Once our dog was treated, she remained on many daily medications until she passed away this October from a sudden, very aggressive metastatic cancer. While our pup did have IBD issues that meant I had to be very vigilante with her diet and medications, she was one of the best tempered aussies we have ever owned. She was sweet and affectionate, and very very smart. My recommendation would be to purchase pet insurance AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE. (we could not because by the time pet insurance was reasonably priced, she already had a "pre-existing condition") That way, if some health condition does arise, you are covered and will incur far less expenses than we did. Our dog was very expensive, but worth every penny. We miss her dearly. And, if we had to do it over again, we would.

It's in the genes, not the color.
by: Anonymous

It's not whether the Aussie has a lot of white that will indicate whether there are health problems, but whether their parents are both merles or not. If they are both mearls, there will almost certainly be health problems. Yours has only have one merle parent (like mine). Probably no health problems and a beautiful dog with all that white!

white face
by: Anonymous

My concern would be the pink pigmentation on his nose blue merles should be black and the pigment around his eyes should also be black. It may change as he gets older though.

White Face
by: Anonymous

I think this pup will be fine and healthy (I see in subsequent comments she is). She looks like she is a 'pattern white', with too much white, but not caused by being a homozygous merle (as confirmed in later comment, she is from a tri/merle breeding so heterozygous merle.) The problem with a pattern white like this pup, and why they should never be bred, is the confusion with homozygous merles. On top of that, excess white on the head/around the ears is associated with partial or total deafness, whatever the body color or breed. These are why white faces/up into the body are forbidden by the breed standards and frowned upon by 'in the know' fanciers. But this pup and most excess white Aussies should be fine.

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