Looking for breeders of Blue merle collies

brembo26

Hi I was wondering if someone could put me in the direction of Blue merle collie pups. Hopefully fully registered. I would be prepare to travel to the UK if the price is right.

Thanks in advance!

DamagedTrax

i dont know much about collies but the blue merle is a genetic defect. i cant see anyone purposely breeding in a genetic defect.. although i could be wrong.

brembo26

Well I like the look of them Also there is one on done deal in Kilkenny for €850 :eek: so I am assuming they are sought after?

Dunny

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merle_%28dog_coat%29

ShaShaBear

brembo26 wrote: »

Well I like the look of them Also there is one on done deal in Kilkenny for €850 :eek: so I am assuming they are sought after?

As the wiki link suggests, they are prone to deafness with sight problems also. Cant imagine why anyone would do that to a dog on purpose

kylith

They do look great, which is why the price is probably so high. As said above it is a genetic defect which can lead to blindness and deafness, so I definitely wouldn't trust any breeder purposefully breeding them; breeding dogs you know are likely to be deaf or blind is unconscionable, imo.

You'd be better off getting in contact with a few reputable breeders and letting them know that if one of their litters happened to have a merle you'd be interested. You could keep an eye on what's in your local shelters too.

brembo26

Will do! Cheers for the help! If any of ye happen to come across something though let me know

Thanks!

Cherry Blossom

http://www.allirelandcollie.com/breedstandard.htm

Blue merle is an accepted colour as per the Border Collie breed standard. Your best bet is to contact the breed club and ask about breeders with merle dogs, you may be on a waiting list for years and there is no guarantee that there will be any blue merle pups in any given litter. They are highly sought after so I imagine most will stay within the 'breed circles'.

Just to clear up any confusion, the wiki link posted doesn't refer to blue merle colouring, it refers to merle or 'double merle' which is when a dog has two copies of the merle gene, two blue merle dogs need to be bred together for this to happen, this is against all breed clubs code of ethics. All collies regardless of colour need to be eye tested as they are prone to eye problems in any case. Any dogs with eye abnormalities should not be bred from.

Latatian

Just to clarify, don't all merle dogs have a higher risk of those defects? Though of course homozygous merle dogs' risk (double merle) is higher than other merle dogs'.

http://www.mendeley.com/research/prevalence-deafness-dogs-heterozygous-homozygous-merle-allele/

brembo26

The money is too much for them as far as I can make out so I might be collecting a normal rough collie this evening. Thanks all for your help

Cherry Blossom

Latatian wrote: »

Just to clarify, don't all merle dogs have a higher risk of those defects? Though of course homozygous merle dogs' risk (double merle) is higher than other merle dogs'.

http://www.mendeley.com/research/prevalence-deafness-dogs-heterozygous-homozygous-merle-allele/

A dog that does not carry the gene cannot pass it on, there is an association with the merle gene but not all dogs have it. If the breeder has a proper history of their dogs ancestry, an understanding of how genetics works and has all necessary tests done there should be no additional risk than if the dog was any other colour. The risk comes from idiots dabbling in stuff they know nothing about.