I don’t think Paisley’s epilepsy is related to his coloring, but I do think it can be a trait of the more energetic breeds . . . my vet sees a lot of border collies, rough collies, and Aussies with siezure disorders (also a lot of Springer Spaniels and hunting dogs) and he attributes it to their higher level of mental activity. All that lovely neurological functioning . . . gone haywire! He’s not a well-bred dog, though he’s beautiful and good. He weighs 70 pounds on a skinny day and he looks more like a golden retriever than a proper Aussie.
Thanks everyone! Definitely no double merles coming from our ranch. It’s a shame because when breeding two merles, statistically, you will still only get a healthy merle 50% of the time, which is the same and only breeding a merle and a solid. The difference is that 25% of the puppies will be double merle and 25% solid, so you lessen the amount of solids you will have.
Question, slightly off topic, but merle related: a friend bred his heeler bitch to another heeler (I have no idea if these dogs are registered, pure bred, etc…don’t even get me started) and got a litter full of white puppies.
The internet tells me that heelers are born white and color up as they age. I don’t think, from what he’s saying, that they have colored up at all. They’re ready to go to new homes, so are 8 weeks or so.
I now this is a tough call, as there are lots of unknowns, but could this guy have a litter full of homozygous merles? :-/
[QUOTE=OveroHunter;5792610]
Thanks everyone! Definitely no double merles coming from our ranch. It’s a shame because when breeding two merles, statistically, you will still only get a healthy merle 50% of the time, which is the same and only breeding a merle and a solid. The difference is that 25% of the puppies will be double merle and 25% solid, so you lessen the amount of solids you will have.[/QUOTE]
That makes it just insane to breed two merles. I was thinking about when we got my mine. It occurred to me that the one they kept was solid red, and I was curious about that. This thread clears it up - that union gets solids too.
BTW, my rancher friend has two aussies and they are both solid - one red and one black. When my brother and sil got two Aussies last year, they chose a tri femaile. Then, they decided to buy another and got a blue merle. Their first choice was the tri. I know the merles are somewhat more popular, but maybe not as much so as you think.
[QUOTE=didgery;5792389]
I don’t think Paisley’s epilepsy is related to his coloring, but I do think it can be a trait of the more energetic breeds . . . my vet sees a lot of border collies, rough collies, and Aussies with siezure disorders (also a lot of Springer Spaniels and hunting dogs) and he attributes it to their higher level of mental activity. All that lovely neurological functioning . . . gone haywire! He’s not a well-bred dog, though he’s beautiful and good. He weighs 70 pounds on a skinny day and he looks more like a golden retriever than a proper Aussie.[/QUOTE]
That’s interesting. I noticed that Paisley was lean looking - like you said sort of like a golden retriever, with the longer look and the beautiful wavy hair. I think he’s beautiful. I have no idea about my dog’s breeding. Her parents were very sweet and pretty - but that’s from a lay person’s perspective. Mine was a lot smaller than her parents. I thought she was very pretty, actually. Her eyes being small didn’t look quite right, but not too bad.
[QUOTE=Simkie;5792628]
Question, slightly off topic, but merle related: a friend bred his heeler bitch to another heeler (I have no idea if these dogs are registered, pure bred, etc…don’t even get me started) and got a litter full of white puppies.
The internet tells me that heelers are born white and color up as they age. I don’t think, from what he’s saying, that they have colored up at all. They’re ready to go to new homes, so are 8 weeks or so.
I now this is a tough call, as there are lots of unknowns, but could this guy have a litter full of homozygous merles? :-/[/QUOTE]
Heelers are born white and color up, but by 8 weeks I am pretty sure they should color out. A litter of homozygous merles is really improbable though so I don’t know what to tell you 
Australian cattle dogs (heelers) can have hearing impairments, and breeders should test for this in their breeding stock, but as far as I know the double recessive merle gene does not exist. The genetics of heeler color and Aussie color are very different, since all heelers are the red or blue speckle type, and I don’t think white dogs exist in the breed. Give them time—they may just be pale-colored dogs with late color development.
