BC Museum: Blue Merle Border Collies

THE BORDER COLLIE MUSEUM Permanent Collection

BLUE MERLE BORDER COLLIES

An article appeared on Wednesday, March 8, 2006 on the AKC Canine Health Foundation website that the merle patterning gene has been identified by the laboratory of Dr. Keith Murphy, Professor, Department of Pathobiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of Texas A&M University. If this interests you, please click on the link above for the full article.

Note on the Color Pages: --PLEASE READ--

Up till now, I have accepted photos of people's dogs and have put them up on the appropriate pages when I have had the time. However, these pages are getting enormously large, for which there is a cost associated in both time and money (space costs). Furthermore, I have accumulated an enormous backlog of photos that I have not had time to put up, and given the size of the website in general, and the fact that I would like to expand it in other areas, I have not had the time to update the color pages.

So, sadly, I have come to the conclusion that I must cut back the existing pages by removing some photos and leaving only those that best represent particular colors or patterns. I will no longer be accepting photos of other people's dogs for publication on this website except from time to time if a perfect example and a great photo comes along. To those of you who have sent photos that have not yet gone up, I apologize for never having gotten to them.

Still, I have to say that I enjoy getting photos of your dogs and seeing for myself the huge variety there is in the breed. So, if you would like to continue sending me photos, and continue to correspond with me, I would like that very much, and am still available to answer any color questions you may have to the best of my ability.

Thank you for your support on the subject of color genetics in the Border Collie.

-- Carole Presberg, editor and curator, Border Collie Museum

Nizhoni Lucy is a spectacular-looking blue merle tricolored Border Collie belonging to Joyce Fay, a photographer from New Mexico.

This group of blue merle Border Collies all were bred by Jay and Kari Schmidt of Quantum Leap Border Collies near Millville, Minnesota. Above, Quantum Leap's Old Tru Blu To ("Blu").

Bill, left, Buzz, top right, and Boomer, above, are Blu's offspring.
Bill belongs to Julie Bozier of Iowa.

This is BamBam, a blue merle female bred and owned by Anke Gutekunst of France. Anke, a German woman who lives on a farm in Lothringen, France, has been breeding Border Collies for 8 years, and now runs Uisneach Border Collie Rescue with Beatrix Urban, another German national who lives in Ireland. They rescue Border Collies in Ireland and place them with families in Germany and elsewhere on the Continent. BamBam is interesting because she appears to have very little white on her--just her tail tip and chest.

This gorgeous creature is "Teal", who belongs to Bob Adams of Kirkaldy, Fife (Scotland). Teal, who comes from Bannetstane Kennels in Ballingry, Fife, is Bob's hill walking companion.

Look at this handsome father and son. They are Skye (the dad) and Blue, both belonging to Bob Lund of Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland. Skye is the son of Teal, above. He is now (2004) 4 years old, but was about 2 1/2 years old in the photo, and Blue was about 4 months.

Juli Mangham rescued this beautiful blue merle dog off the street. She calls him Blake and says that she's been told many times that he is an Australian Shepherd mix, but she thinks he might be a Border Collie (he does have a tail, but he holds it curled over his back much of the time). She says "Whatever he is, he's beautiful, smart, and has a great sense of humor." Interestingly enough, Blake does not seen to have any white patches, but we think that his white collie markings are hidden by very heavy speckling. Merle affects only the black, but speckling, which is often mistaken for merling, affects the white, and a dog can have both merling and speckling.

This is Kyp, who belongs to Melanie McMurry of Edgewood, New Mexico. Kyp was adopted from a shelter in 2000 and he now lives on a 10 acre farm with a variety of animals.

This lovely girl is Mattie, who belongs to Pat Rathburn, who says "she is 8 years old now [that was 2003] and calming down somewhat; high strung, sensitive to noises, jealous, protective, and has to be in the lead...[a] great agility dog...[and] enthusiastic hiker." Mattie might have overall merling, but from the photo it is hard to tell if she actually has heavily ticked white areas where the white collie markings should be. She is definitely a tricolored dog, and there seems to be ticking in the tan on her legs.

This incredible-looking Border Collie is Diane Aramian's Magic ("Timeless Up My Sleeve"). Diane lives in Keswick, Virginia, and trains in agility with Paulena Renee Hope. She says that Magic's relatives, his grandfather "Fire", his dad "Stalker", and his aunt "Never", are on this site. They are all red merles. Magic's mother is black and white.

This is Meg, belonging to Emma Baker from the UK. Emma says that Meg is actually a mix, having had a purebred blue merle Border Collie dad and a spaniel/lab mix mum. She also says that Meg is forever being called an Australian Shepherd, though "her personality is all collie"--in the UK, Border Collies are called "collies". It's hard to see her patterning in the photo, but she has a lot of tan.

Carron and Jeremy Barron sent this photo of their beautiful show Border Collie. We aren't sure of his name, but we think it's "Gabor" (which was written on the photo--maybe the photographer's name is Gabor!), and we aren't sure where they live, but we think it's the UK. However, despite all the non-information, we wanted to share this photo because he is so handsome and we don't have another blue merle dog with quite the same patterning.

Is it just me, or does this girl have "bedroom eyes"? She is "Sprite", belonging to Jan Laidlaw from Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. Jan adopted Sprite from Border Collie Rescue in Vancouver. Like Kyp, above, Sprite has a lot of black on her, raising the question as to why the merle gene only affects some of the black on some dogs, and not all of it; whereas on other dogs, all of the black seems to be broken up by the merling. Anyone have a guess?

Adorable Cricket belongs to Kim St. Ours of Caldwell, Idaho. Kim, who worked with a rescue group decided to keep Cricket after fostering her in 1995. We'd love to see what a beautiful girl she has grown into.

This blue merle Ski who belongs to Lisa Adamson of the UK. Zak also sports a split face and an almost patterned white body ("white factoring" often shows itself in a white stribe across the shoulders and/or the hips). We love it when a dog illustratse several different patterns.

This cutie is Zoe, belonging to Liz Werner of Nebraska. Zoe came originally from Texas, and Liz wants us to know she has a split face which doesn't show in this photo.

Ann Marie Hill of Canine Athlete Rescue Effort (C.A.R.E.) sent me this photo. It is of Dare (Sagehill's Timezup!), a white factored blue merle with heavy ticking (which can clearly be discerned in this photo) and 2 sky blue eyes. Dare is a son of Stalker (Silvertip's Stalk Ewe) who is on our red merle page (a patterned white red merle). Ann Marie says that Dare's "mom is the phenomenal and extremely accomplished agility dog, Timeflies! (Quicksilver Timeflies!) who is a white factored, black/white smooth coat. Dare is shown here jumping at the USDAA 2004 Nationals where his team came in 4th and also won the team relay event." Dare was bred by Paulena Hope of West Virginia and is owned by Kirsten Anderson of Virginia.

This is Kipper who belongs to Figueroa of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We had to include her photo because she demonstrates the "merle eye". Her left eye is part blue and part brown. As you can see, every merle dog does not have "merle eyes", nor is the "merle eye" limited to merle dogs. Kipper competes in flyball.

Zack is a blue merle with a preponderance of white, and I associate his look with double merle breeding and possible deafness. But Zack's owner, Pete Firth of Manchester, England, says he is not deaf. Zack is a rescue dog.