Acerca de
Merle
What is Merle?
Merle, also known as Dapple, is a pattern in a dogs coat. Merle can come in a variety of colors, but the pattern is typically a darker shade marbled against a lighter coat color. This beautiful feature is passed down from the parents through specific genetics. It is important to note that two parents with the merle genetic should never be bred together as it can cause serious health issues in the pups, so responsible breeding and genetic testing is required when breeding merle dogs. This is why we have taken the extra steps of getting our parents genetic tested to ensure healthy puppies!
Genetics of a Merle
The merle coat pattern is passed through basic genetics; recessive and dominant traits. Each dog has two copies of every gene; one that they inherit from their mother and one they inherit from their father. The merle allele (M) variant is dominant, which means that a dog only needs one copy (inherited from either of their parents) to have a merle coat. Every merle dog has one copy of the merle allele (M) and one copy of the non-merle allele (m). Merle dogs have an (Mm) genotype, and every non-merle dog has an (mm) genotype.
Diego is an AKC registered Merle Pomeranian; genotype is (Mm).
Variations of Merle
Blue Merle - black on grey, sometimes can have tan and white throughout (making it a blue tri-color merle)
Chocolate Merle - brown on beige/cream, sometimes can have grey, white, or tan (making it a chocolate tri-color merle) Diego Our male Pomeranian is a Chocolate tri-colored Merle.
Lilac Merle (also called Lavender) - is a rare coloration in merle and is a light cream base coat which is covered with grey patches of an ashy, almost silver shade. (below is more info on this coloration of merle and how we breed this specific merle)
RARE Colorations:
Lilac Merle & Lavender
To produce Lilac or Lavender coats, both parents must carry the Black dilute Chocolate gene (bb) and the Black dilute Blue gene (dd). In our breeding program both our parents Heidi and Diego are carriers of the genetics needed to produce lilac! Since they are both "carriers" of the gene not all of their puppies will be handed the genetic alleles needed to produce lilac/lavender, resulting in both brown and lilac puppies!
Diego:
B Locus: (bb)
D Locus: (Dd) “carrier”
M Locus: (Mm) - merle
Heidi:
B Locus: (bb)
D Locus: (Dd) “carrier”
M Locus: (mm) - non-merle
B Locus - Dogs with two copies of the (b) allele produce brown
pigment instead of black in both their hair and skin.
D Locus - controls whether your dog will have a diluted coat color,
but color is determined by other genetics; for example B Locus, or other specific DNA.
M Locus - is the Merle genetic: (M) is dominant, (m) is recessive.
A puppy who receives the (M) will be a Merle puppy!
Heidi and Diego are a perfect match for the Lilac, our other females (Kona and Lily) do not carry the D Locus gene required to create the Lilac coloration; Their genetics are (DD). Even if Diego passes his recessive (d) trait onto a puppy when bred with Lily or Kona the coloration will not be seen in the puppy, but puppy could then be considered a carrier; (Dd).
Possibilities of genetic D Locus examples:
Parents (DD + Dd) = Puppies (DD, Dd)
Parents (Dd + Dd) = Puppies (DD, Dd, dd) - (dd) results in lilac/lavender coloration
Solid Lavender coat:
(bb), (dd), (mm)
