This is what happens when people pay you money for your Border Collie to have sex with their Border Collie. Cute as hell, no? The one on the left is Elbert, and the one on the right is Hanz.
It’s true, Dublin is now officially a stud for hire. Other bitches have tried to seduce Dublin away from Celeste, but Mara is the first one that pimp/daddy Christopher has approved of. I really wanted to see how the Dublin x Celeste puppies turned out before I let Dublin and his genes venture out into the wild, and I couldn’t be more pleased with what Dublin produces.
Mara is sweetheart and one of the most unusual Border Collies I have ever seen. She has a great temperament, is impeccably trained, and is quite the athlete. The best part is that her owner is one of the few people doing right by Arabian Horses (i.e. she’s well read and experienced in the issues of breeding performance animals), she has a solid head on her shoulders, and works with dogs professionally nearly every day.
Her pedigree lists her color as “cryptic lilac merle/tri” and you can see how varied her color is depending upon the light. The lilac in her coat has a handful of darker spots and lighter spots, thus the “cryptic” label, and she has solidly brown tri markings. Dublin’s tri markings appear to have a dilute gene attached, as they look like the blond color you see in ‘ee red’ Border Collies.
The puppy on the left (Elbert) appears to hold Mara’s dark brown tri and the puppy on the right (Hanz) has Dublin’s blond tri markings.
Mara’s sire is a blue merle tri and her dam is red and white with a white piebald spot on her back and ear.
While Hanz is clearly a black tri, figuring out what color Elbert really is presents a challenge. Is his mother really a cryptic merle lilac tri? Is that his coat color as well? Is he sable tri? Is he a merle? Here are a few more pictures so you can see what you think.
* * *
Comments and disagreements are welcome, but be sure to read the Comment Policy. If this post made you think and you'd like to read more like it, consider a donation to my 4 Border Collies' Treat and Toy Fund. They'll be glad you did. You can subscribe to the feed or enter your e-mail in the field on the left to receive notice of new content. You can also like BorderWars on Facebook for more frequent musings and curiosities.
* * *
Well, what ever color combination Elbert is…he is simply adorable! 🙂
Don’t get the war/dog theme, but they were cute pics. Love to see more.
I am a science teacher and the pictures of the dogs were so cute. I don’t understand the guns though.
Very sweet puppies!
They are going to be gorgeous when they grow up!
Kisses
Addie
Welcome Dave and Alicia. The title and war theme is a pun on traditional “border wars” and the war over the future of the border collie breed.
There is a very real war between the people who breed border collies for herding work and sheep trials and the people who breed them for conformation shows.
People like me, who don’t fall into either group are caught in the middle.
The “war” theme is prevalent enough in the discussion that Donald McCaig titled his book on the subject “The Dog Wars.”
It’s a tongue in cheek theme and is a nod to the hyperbole that is so often present in debates over dog politics and breeding.
Thanks for stopping bye. If you’re interested in the “border wars” some of my earlier posts on “The Third Estate of the Border Collie” will explain the situation in more detail.
All I can tell is he’s what I would call blue and tan. Is there a genetic test for merle in Borders? I think there is one for Chis. Pretty stunning color, I am a sucker for blue dogs.
NO! He is Tri!
Of course he’s tri, but he’s most certainly not a normal black tri.
I agree with Alicia in that Elbert is blue and tri. I don’t know anything about cryptic merles though.
Do you really think he’s a black base instead of a brown base?
Below I posted some links to the border collie society of america. Here is a better link for lilac puppies since there are more examples here (lilac is a combination of blue and red (brown)). http://www.gis.net/~shepdog/BC_Museum/Permanent/BCColors_Lilac/BC_ColorLilac.html
I don’t think any of these websites are particularly authoritative but but your blue tri puppy is only going to get darker. Blues are often a dark brownish gray. But there is a lot of diversity I suspect.
Lilac should be lighter I think. Here is a picture: http://www.bordercolliesociety.com/BC_Info/color/504_lilac.htm
I have had blue dogs similar to yours. Here is a website with pictures: http://www.bordercolliesociety.com/BC_Info/color/037_blue.htm
Admittedly, I have found a mistake in the website regarding color so there is a chance that the website is wrong.