Recently ran into a chihauhau breeder who had shown interest in bringing in a merled chihauhau from the USA but apparently there has been a lot of discussion by the club here whether they should recognize the colour at all. It appears they are now set to actually ban the merle in chihauhaus. This is a breed that has previously had no stipulation on colour in their standard. (As it should be).

Will this impact on other merled breeds??? Is this type of control by breed clubs appropriate? Are there any implications for the Koolie breed???

So often what is only a small movement such as this is seen as nothing to be concerned about but it can be the start of a small ball rolling.......

The old farmers believe that the only Koolie is a merle so I believe the Koolie is safe from this foolishness, but your point is taken.
Many of those same farmers believe Koolies can't produce solids, there for solid pups are a throw back to the Kelpie and black & white pups throw backs to border collies.
Yet genetics have prooven that all dogs are capable of producing all colors, so if this is the case then shouldn't breeders and their clubs accept all possible colors.
Espesialy in the Koolie which is being bred for its fantastic working ability and personality.
Other than remembering to breed strong color to strong color to control or minimise the effect of the Merle impact which is to produce blind and or deaf pup.
We should be honest and accept all colors, because its all about the abilities and brains not the color.
I personaly love the merle but to insure that I have healthy pups I now am the proud owner of a black male.

What is a concern is that, instead of trying to educate breeders how to manage a problem gene to their advantage, breed clubs, maybe even controlling bodies if the clubs don't do it themselves, may say instead of taking any chance of breeding a blind or deaf pup...just ban the whole damn thing. It is annoying to breeds such as chi's, dacci's and corgi's but manageable as they have a strong representation by other colours. But Koolies are known for their merle colour....IF..eventually we were to seek recognition and received it, would we then be in the position that if eventually the whole controlling body were caught up in this idea of banning merle, of being voted out of existence???

Hi Again,

I don't think that any controlling body can stop the forward progression of the Koolie.
At least here in N.S.W. there are a lot of people that know about these great dogs and some very good breeders who supply numbers of these Koolies to farmers all over the country.
I think that the Koolie breed as such may be brought into disrepute if to many bad Koolies are bred and promoted as Good working dogs.
By bad Koolies I don't mean to say anything about color but Working ability.
I also believe that we should be carefull who we sell Koolies to as most of the dogs I have wouldn't survive in Sydney or Melbourne, they are far to active and will not stop working unless I tie them up.
This would I assume be a hassle in a suburban area where these dogs would probably start chewing things and herding birds etc out of boredom.
I recently sold some pup's to some of the larger farmers in N.S.W and they all want more. These people are also telling friends and the like and orders are comming in from all over the country.

Jack Wilja Koolies

What a scary thought. So what would happen to the blue merles of the ACD which is the figure head of the breed?? It would take a lot more genetic research on behalf of all breeds to be able to lobby against merles in all breeds.

This is what shoud be done and is not that hard as farmers and the ilk have been doing it for years with dogs and stock.

Care when selling any pup in of paramount importance, I know my mother ( who was a breeder) would always met any prospective buyers before the pups were born, if she decided against them, she just would not contact them once the litter was whelped. We are lucky in the fact that despite living in the "suburbs" , the owners of our dogs sire has known us for over a decade and helped us train x2 other working dogs...boredom is not an issue to our dogs. Over exposure to much and many..maybe

So, why would a club with no colour specification want to exclude merles? Is is a totally forgone conclusion that merles always carry the genes to cause some of the problems associated with it? And as Silohouette said,there is a need for breeder education...it is far too easy to match BOB to BIS ( in the realm of the show ring) without looking back too carefully at the pedigree and colours....many breeders do not realise that you look at the coat colour not the ribbon colour. Farmers, based breeding decisions for years on ability, colour, and ;even though it was not on a register, somewhere ,some one always knew the "pedigree" of a a good working dog!!!

Hi All,

I have been on a lot of committees in my life and can tell you that this could have easily come about when a greater number of people in an organization or club have one thing and someone else wants to introduce change. It becomes very political and very nasty and the people with the numbers generally win out in the end.
It could have been caused by 1 or 2 scaremongers preaching what they believe to others with less knowledge for whatever reason.

and the list goes on and on.
the bottom line is for personal gain of a person or group.

Sorry but I am usually fairly up front.

Jack wilja Koolies

Still being on Committee.
I can tell you things haven't changed, but if we look at the 1 or 2 scaremongers, we usually discover they are driven by profit, greed and power and that if we build our community on strong foundations it does with stand the attacks and smear campaigns.
I'm speaking from experience not idealism, I see it happen.
All clubs will have their knockers, some have legitimate issues and need to be address but for the most part it's a small group that choose a different path and are jealous, petty, judgmental and viscously slanderous against those they believe appose them.
It is why this forum is so pleasant to visit and quite unique.
A person is encourage to share their opinions, theories even hopes for the future, and it is all recorded for the history of the Koolie.
Members who join do so because of the descent reputation the forum has earned.
If there are unfair comments, attacks or tantrums, the member is warned and their post is moderated, if it continues the member is blocked, no second chance.
There is a time to post publicly and a time for personal emails, both have their uses and if used correctly can only benefit the over all conversation.
I appreciate you being up front Jack and have enjoyed reading your post and look forward to reading more from you.
I hope that you too are enjoying your time spent here and will always feel welcomed.

Some of you may have heard that the merle gene has been found!!! We are just hoping that Genetic Science Services, the wonderful company helping us with DNA testing are able to access this test. In the meantime if you would like some light reading... Click to view attachment I know their are people on this forum that will understand it better than I can, but it would seem that the finding of this gene is also relevant to human health also.