The Shetland Sheepdog comes in several colors with varying amounts of white and/or tan.
SABLE - Sable is probably what most people think about when they think of Shelties. Sable ranges in hue from light
golden sable to a deep mahogany (that can be almost black it is such a dark brown) with various shades in between.
Sable is the dominant color.
TRI COLOR - A tri color Sheltie is a black dog with varying amounts of white and tan.
BLUE MERLE - The Blue Merle is a dilution of the Tri Color. The black is diluted out to grey with varying amounts of
black mottling or merling. The grey can range in shade from an icy gray to dark grey. The Blue Merle has varying
amounts of white and tan.
BI BLACK - This is basically a black and white Sheltie
BI BLUE - This is a Blue Merle and White dog without any tan points (what you get if a Bi Black has the dilution gene).
SABLE MERLE - This is a Sable dog with a dilution gene. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell a Sable from a Sable
Merle. (see photos at bottom of page)
COLOR HEADED WHITE - This is a dog with a primarily white body with some colored spots and color on the head. This
happens when the white factoring (what helps determine the amount of white on the dogs) gets a little "out of control."
CHWs (color headed white) are not AKC showable in Conformation but they are in UKC.
DOUBLE MERLE (. Double Dilute White) - This is what happens when two merles (either blue or sable) are bred
together. The doubling of the dilution gene causes almost totally white dogs. Double Merles are also prone to hearing
and vision problems so breeding two merles should be avoided. However, Double Merles can be very valuable in a
breeding program. Breeding a Double Merle to a tri or bi black will almost always produce 100% blue pups.
Sable Tri Merle
Bi Black (no tan) Bi Blue (no tan) Double Merle Colored Headed White
Elementary merle genetics for newcomers
This is and is intended to be a very basic explanation of the workings of the merle gene. If you already know about
double merles and sable merles and such, you may not find anything new here, but you're welcome to stick around and
comment. If you're not sure why people get upset about sable merles and double merles, stick around and learn.
There is no such thing as a sable merle gene or blue merle gene. There is only a merle gene. Merle is a dilution gene,
that is, it lightens whatever the coat color would otherwise have been. The lightening is not spread evenly over the coat,
but leaves patches of undiluted color scattered over the dog's body. Also, the lightening seems to work primarily on the
black pigment in the coat, so any tan on the face stays even. Note that "black" as used here includes liver or chocolate.
These colors are rare color faults in Shelties, but everything written here applies also to other breeds with the merle
gene, including Australian Shepherds. A red merle in that breed is produced by the merle gene acting on a liver (solid
red-brown, not the same as sable) coat.
One dose of the merle gene on an otherwise black dog produces a blue merle - a more or less bluish gray dog dappled
with black spots. Tan points - the tan spots over the eyes, on the sides of the muzzle, on the legs and under the tail of a
tricolor dog - will still be there in the merled tricolor. If the tan spots would not be present in a black dog, giving what is
usually called a bi-black in Shelties, tan will not be present in the merled black either, and the dog will blue merle and
white without tan: a bi-blue. One dose of the merle gene on an otherwise sable dog produces a sable merle. Sable
merles are less predictable in color than blue merles, and may range anywhere from an apparent sable, often with a
pinkish or orange cast to its coat, to something that looks like a very rusty blue merle. White markings remain on the
merled dog, and may even be slightly more prominent.
Merle acts on the black pigment in the iris of the eye just as it does on the coat, so merle dogs often have part or all of
the eye blue. (This does not affect their vision, though since it happens to some extent in the retina as well it may make
it harder to diagnose certain eye problems.) The Sheltie breed standard allows blue or merle eyes in blue merles, but
not in sables. Thus a sable merle with blue or merle eyes will not do well in the show ring.
Notice that I said a single dose of the merle gene. There are always two copies of a gene, alike or different, in any dog.
If we call the merle gene M and the non-merle gene m, any given dog can be mm, Mm or MM. The mm dog is the
normal, full-colored tri, bi-black, or sable in Shelties, or liver (red) in Australian Shepherds. The Mm Sheltie is a blue
merle or sable merle, depending on what color it would have been without the merling gene. An MM dog, often called a
double merle or a homozygous merle, will be mostly white and usually deaf or blind and often with other physical
problems. Some MM puppies are born completely without eyes.
On average over a large number of litters, breeding merle to merle will produce one fourth full colored dogs, one half
merles and one fourth defective whites. Breeding merle to full color will produce one half full color and one half merles,
but no defective whites. The merle to full color breeding, then, produces just as many merles as does the merle to merle
breeding, and without the danger of defective puppies. The safe breeding for a merle, then, is to a non-merle mate. This
breeding should produce all healthy puppies, and about half will be merles.
To breed in this way, it is important to know which dogs are merles. This is one of the reasons experienced breeders
rarely breed blue merles to sables, as this mating may produce sable merles.
Sable merles are no more likely to have health problems than any other color, and they are equally good companions.
Many do have colors that are not accepted in the show ring, either because they have blue or merle eyes or because
the mottling produced by the merle gene is too obvious. The real argument against sable merles is that they may be
mistaken for normal sables. If two such sable merles were mated together, the resulting litter could contain defective
whites. What a shock for the breeder expecting normal, healthy puppies!
There is one kind of breeding that can produce all or almost all merles, and that is the breeding of a tricolor or a bi-black
to a double merle - but remember that the double merle has a high probability of being blind or deaf. A very few
breeders have been lucky enough to get high quality homozygous merles that are not too severely affected to breed -
but it definitely takes a lot of luck and really top quality blue merles to start with. Merle to merle breeding are only for the
very experienced breeder who knows her lines and what they will produce - and it has probably produced more
heartbreaks than good homozygous merles, even for them. A blue merle from black to homozygous merle breeding is
just as healthy as one from a more normal black to blue merle breeding. There are now three homozygous merles on
the Register of Merit list: Merri Lon the Blue Tail Fly ROM, Shamont Ghost of a Chance ROM and Shadow Hill's Double
Trouble ROM. Note that not one of these dogs is a Champion - double merles cannot be shown. Not only are Shelties
more than 50% white severely penalized in the breed ring, most double merles have severely defective hearing, and a
deaf dog cannot be shown at all.
Unless you have done a lot of merle breeding and really know what you are getting into, the safe rule is still that a blue
merle should be bred only to a black (tri or bi).
Note that in Shelties, all blue merles imported to this country can be traced in direct merle-to-merle line to crosses
involving blue merle Collies.
Sable Merle photographs
The sable merle color is subject to a great deal of controversy. On the one hand, it is a predictable color in the breed,
given that both blue merle and sable are acceptable colors in the breed, and it is a natural result of crossing these two
colors. On the other hand, it is not addressed at all in the breed Standard, which lists only sable (including sable and
white), black with tan and/or white, and blue merle with tan and/or white.
This failure of the breed standard to address sable merle can be considered the root of the problem. On the one hand,
It has been traditional in Shelties not to breed sable to blue, and not to show any sable merle offspring if such a mating
is made. People who feel this way generally argue that the Standard does not address sable merle because those who
wrote the Standard never considered the possibility that they would be deliberately bred, let alone shown. At the other
extreme, both merle and sable genes exist in the breed, so they will occasionally come together in the same animal.
Some people argue that the Standard does not say that a sable has to be all the same shade of sable, and even argue
for accepting blue eyes (a normal effect of the merle gene) in sable merles.
There is occasional talk about changing the Standard to address the problem of sable merles. However, the two
extremes are not at all in agreement as to what changes should be made. The "conservatives" would probably opt for
making sable merle a faulty color, possibly by severely penalizing blotchy shading on a sable or by explicitly recognizing
sable merle as a fault. The "liberals" would probably want sable merle recognized as a fourth color division, with blue
eyes acceptable in sable merles. Obviously both sides could not be accommodated in a Standard revision, so the
Standard remains unclear.
My own concern is primarily with the identification of sable merles. While sable merles are normally recognizable as
puppies by the appearance of a merling pattern, this is not necessarily true in adults, especially pure for sable merles
(two genes for sable and one for merle). A/C Ch Laureate Santana is a pure for sable merle, though in his case the
merling can be seen on the tips of his ears. If such a dog is registered as a sable, which might be done through
ignorance or in order to be sure it could be shown as a sable, there is a real possibility that a person unaware of merle
genetics could mate two sable merles thinking that both parents were ordinary sables, and get a litter with one or more
defective whites - a normal occurrence when two merles are mated (which is why the recommended mate for a blue
merle is a tri or bi) but not expected in a sable to sable mating.
I refuse to argue either side on a web page. However, any controversy is the better for knowledge of what you're talking
about! So here are some photographs of sable merle dogs, including some who have done well in the conformation ring
in spite of their color.
* Ch Laureate Santana (1998 Award of Merit, pure for sable) * Ch Bronwyn Rockefeller (off site - pointed, tri-factored)
Here is another Sable Merle Photo of Sable Merle at birth
notice the darker spots
SABLE - Sable is probably what most people think about when they think of Shelties. Sable ranges in hue from light
golden sable to a deep mahogany (that can be almost black it is such a dark brown) with various shades in between.
Sable is the dominant color.
TRI COLOR - A tri color Sheltie is a black dog with varying amounts of white and tan.
BLUE MERLE - The Blue Merle is a dilution of the Tri Color. The black is diluted out to grey with varying amounts of
black mottling or merling. The grey can range in shade from an icy gray to dark grey. The Blue Merle has varying
amounts of white and tan.
BI BLACK - This is basically a black and white Sheltie
BI BLUE - This is a Blue Merle and White dog without any tan points (what you get if a Bi Black has the dilution gene).
SABLE MERLE - This is a Sable dog with a dilution gene. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell a Sable from a Sable
Merle. (see photos at bottom of page)
COLOR HEADED WHITE - This is a dog with a primarily white body with some colored spots and color on the head. This
happens when the white factoring (what helps determine the amount of white on the dogs) gets a little "out of control."
CHWs (color headed white) are not AKC showable in Conformation but they are in UKC.
DOUBLE MERLE (. Double Dilute White) - This is what happens when two merles (either blue or sable) are bred
together. The doubling of the dilution gene causes almost totally white dogs. Double Merles are also prone to hearing
and vision problems so breeding two merles should be avoided. However, Double Merles can be very valuable in a
breeding program. Breeding a Double Merle to a tri or bi black will almost always produce 100% blue pups.
Sable Tri Merle
Bi Black (no tan) Bi Blue (no tan) Double Merle Colored Headed White
Elementary merle genetics for newcomers
This is and is intended to be a very basic explanation of the workings of the merle gene. If you already know about
double merles and sable merles and such, you may not find anything new here, but you're welcome to stick around and
comment. If you're not sure why people get upset about sable merles and double merles, stick around and learn.
There is no such thing as a sable merle gene or blue merle gene. There is only a merle gene. Merle is a dilution gene,
that is, it lightens whatever the coat color would otherwise have been. The lightening is not spread evenly over the coat,
but leaves patches of undiluted color scattered over the dog's body. Also, the lightening seems to work primarily on the
black pigment in the coat, so any tan on the face stays even. Note that "black" as used here includes liver or chocolate.
These colors are rare color faults in Shelties, but everything written here applies also to other breeds with the merle
gene, including Australian Shepherds. A red merle in that breed is produced by the merle gene acting on a liver (solid
red-brown, not the same as sable) coat.
One dose of the merle gene on an otherwise black dog produces a blue merle - a more or less bluish gray dog dappled
with black spots. Tan points - the tan spots over the eyes, on the sides of the muzzle, on the legs and under the tail of a
tricolor dog - will still be there in the merled tricolor. If the tan spots would not be present in a black dog, giving what is
usually called a bi-black in Shelties, tan will not be present in the merled black either, and the dog will blue merle and
white without tan: a bi-blue. One dose of the merle gene on an otherwise sable dog produces a sable merle. Sable
merles are less predictable in color than blue merles, and may range anywhere from an apparent sable, often with a
pinkish or orange cast to its coat, to something that looks like a very rusty blue merle. White markings remain on the
merled dog, and may even be slightly more prominent.
Merle acts on the black pigment in the iris of the eye just as it does on the coat, so merle dogs often have part or all of
the eye blue. (This does not affect their vision, though since it happens to some extent in the retina as well it may make
it harder to diagnose certain eye problems.) The Sheltie breed standard allows blue or merle eyes in blue merles, but
not in sables. Thus a sable merle with blue or merle eyes will not do well in the show ring.
Notice that I said a single dose of the merle gene. There are always two copies of a gene, alike or different, in any dog.
If we call the merle gene M and the non-merle gene m, any given dog can be mm, Mm or MM. The mm dog is the
normal, full-colored tri, bi-black, or sable in Shelties, or liver (red) in Australian Shepherds. The Mm Sheltie is a blue
merle or sable merle, depending on what color it would have been without the merling gene. An MM dog, often called a
double merle or a homozygous merle, will be mostly white and usually deaf or blind and often with other physical
problems. Some MM puppies are born completely without eyes.
On average over a large number of litters, breeding merle to merle will produce one fourth full colored dogs, one half
merles and one fourth defective whites. Breeding merle to full color will produce one half full color and one half merles,
but no defective whites. The merle to full color breeding, then, produces just as many merles as does the merle to merle
breeding, and without the danger of defective puppies. The safe breeding for a merle, then, is to a non-merle mate. This
breeding should produce all healthy puppies, and about half will be merles.
To breed in this way, it is important to know which dogs are merles. This is one of the reasons experienced breeders
rarely breed blue merles to sables, as this mating may produce sable merles.
Sable merles are no more likely to have health problems than any other color, and they are equally good companions.
Many do have colors that are not accepted in the show ring, either because they have blue or merle eyes or because
the mottling produced by the merle gene is too obvious. The real argument against sable merles is that they may be
mistaken for normal sables. If two such sable merles were mated together, the resulting litter could contain defective
whites. What a shock for the breeder expecting normal, healthy puppies!
There is one kind of breeding that can produce all or almost all merles, and that is the breeding of a tricolor or a bi-black
to a double merle - but remember that the double merle has a high probability of being blind or deaf. A very few
breeders have been lucky enough to get high quality homozygous merles that are not too severely affected to breed -
but it definitely takes a lot of luck and really top quality blue merles to start with. Merle to merle breeding are only for the
very experienced breeder who knows her lines and what they will produce - and it has probably produced more
heartbreaks than good homozygous merles, even for them. A blue merle from black to homozygous merle breeding is
just as healthy as one from a more normal black to blue merle breeding. There are now three homozygous merles on
the Register of Merit list: Merri Lon the Blue Tail Fly ROM, Shamont Ghost of a Chance ROM and Shadow Hill's Double
Trouble ROM. Note that not one of these dogs is a Champion - double merles cannot be shown. Not only are Shelties
more than 50% white severely penalized in the breed ring, most double merles have severely defective hearing, and a
deaf dog cannot be shown at all.
Unless you have done a lot of merle breeding and really know what you are getting into, the safe rule is still that a blue
merle should be bred only to a black (tri or bi).
Note that in Shelties, all blue merles imported to this country can be traced in direct merle-to-merle line to crosses
involving blue merle Collies.
Sable Merle photographs
The sable merle color is subject to a great deal of controversy. On the one hand, it is a predictable color in the breed,
given that both blue merle and sable are acceptable colors in the breed, and it is a natural result of crossing these two
colors. On the other hand, it is not addressed at all in the breed Standard, which lists only sable (including sable and
white), black with tan and/or white, and blue merle with tan and/or white.
This failure of the breed standard to address sable merle can be considered the root of the problem. On the one hand,
It has been traditional in Shelties not to breed sable to blue, and not to show any sable merle offspring if such a mating
is made. People who feel this way generally argue that the Standard does not address sable merle because those who
wrote the Standard never considered the possibility that they would be deliberately bred, let alone shown. At the other
extreme, both merle and sable genes exist in the breed, so they will occasionally come together in the same animal.
Some people argue that the Standard does not say that a sable has to be all the same shade of sable, and even argue
for accepting blue eyes (a normal effect of the merle gene) in sable merles.
There is occasional talk about changing the Standard to address the problem of sable merles. However, the two
extremes are not at all in agreement as to what changes should be made. The "conservatives" would probably opt for
making sable merle a faulty color, possibly by severely penalizing blotchy shading on a sable or by explicitly recognizing
sable merle as a fault. The "liberals" would probably want sable merle recognized as a fourth color division, with blue
eyes acceptable in sable merles. Obviously both sides could not be accommodated in a Standard revision, so the
Standard remains unclear.
My own concern is primarily with the identification of sable merles. While sable merles are normally recognizable as
puppies by the appearance of a merling pattern, this is not necessarily true in adults, especially pure for sable merles
(two genes for sable and one for merle). A/C Ch Laureate Santana is a pure for sable merle, though in his case the
merling can be seen on the tips of his ears. If such a dog is registered as a sable, which might be done through
ignorance or in order to be sure it could be shown as a sable, there is a real possibility that a person unaware of merle
genetics could mate two sable merles thinking that both parents were ordinary sables, and get a litter with one or more
defective whites - a normal occurrence when two merles are mated (which is why the recommended mate for a blue
merle is a tri or bi) but not expected in a sable to sable mating.
I refuse to argue either side on a web page. However, any controversy is the better for knowledge of what you're talking
about! So here are some photographs of sable merle dogs, including some who have done well in the conformation ring
in spite of their color.
* Ch Laureate Santana (1998 Award of Merit, pure for sable) * Ch Bronwyn Rockefeller (off site - pointed, tri-factored)
Here is another Sable Merle Photo of Sable Merle at birth
notice the darker spots
