Although Mara’s unique expression of the Merle gene (or a heretofore unidentified modification gene) is still making exact classification of the pups a challenge, the one thing that’s for certain is that they are all homozygous for CUTE.
* * *
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.
* * *
The gray one looks blue in this picture but in my experience blues get darker as they get older. My blues have always been a very light grey when they were born. Once they get their adult coats they become a dark brownish gray. But the change is gradual. I don’t know how to explain the discrepancy since your gray puppy started out almost black. Your gray puppy also has patches of tan on his or her back. That is not something I have every seen in a blue puppy.
The grey one was pretty easy to differentiate as not black. It might be the photo or the luminosity of your screen (I notice that the photos look different on my different computers) or the angle. If you look at the 4 week update, he’s light grey with a white undercoat. Dare I say another possible merle sable. The early pictures were also only a few minutes after birth, so he could be wet or have blood darkening his coat.
One of the chocolate pups actually looked seal, like the link you posted, but it washed off.
The “blue” puppy from the last litter darkened up quite a bit. I don’t think you’d notice he wasn’t black unless he was right next to a glossy black dog. I’d like to see what his undercoat looks like now to get a better idea, but that requires a really upclose photo or seeing the dog in person, which might happen when the frisbee competitions pick back up here in a few months.
Chris: I awoke this morning and realized Mercury is not a collie but a Border Collie.
Border Collies still have phenotype black and white collie. It would seem all a breeder needs to remember OLD Scottish rule: Never bred a red to a red. Likewise, review updates on eye color. So sorry one of those 16 hour days.
I love all the shades of chocolate. Will the chocolate coats get lighter or darker as the puppies age?
I see the dewclaws haven’t been removed.
Did you decide not to do it with this litter?
.-= retrieverman´s last blog ..; =-.
Hahaha, I just provided the stud dog, so I don’t have to sweat the hard stuff. Although most of the new comments on that youtube video are supportive, surprisingly enough.
I’m part of a growing minority who look at human circumcision as a ridiculous fad that raises nasty questions about parental rights vs. a child’s rights, mutilation, and sexuality…. so I’m not insensitive to the issue of “prophylactic” and unnecessary medical procedures that can not be reversed.
The factor that lead me to de-dewclaw my own dogs is that the dogs are unable to maintain those nails themselves and I find the totality of harm done when a human has to trim those nails much greater than the harm done of the dewclaw procedure. Both of my two oldest have their dewclaws, as I didn’t breed them, and they have caused problems.
One of Dublin’s doesn’t have a nice round edge, rather the top layer creates almost an ingrown nail by cutting into the cuticle bed. It traps dirt and on occasion will bleed a bit. One time this happened was during a flyball tournament at the stock show and given the level of feces on the floor I had to carry him nearly a mile to clean floors lest he get an infection. Not fun.
Celeste hates getting hers clipped so much that the sound of scissors or human nail clippers is enough to drive her out of the room. Even the sheers in the kitchen or the sound of a good veggie chop (which sounds enough like a nail getting clipped) makes her leave as well. She isn’t explosively reactive to it, but I hate alienating my dog or causing anxiety.
Just a note on the circumcision thing (I’m with you, by the way, and my 3-yr-old son is in fact intact). We’re only in the “minority” within US borders. Worldwide, circumcision has never been the norm.
Anyhow…cute puppies!
Ruth Crisler recently posted..After
“I’m part of a growing minority who look at human circumcision as a ridiculous fad that raises nasty questions about parental rights vs. a child’s rights, mutilation, and sexuality….”
Maybe in the USA. In Alberta,Canada here and my sons are young adults now. In hospitals, when they were born, circumcision was heavily discouraged, to the point that if you wanted a boy circumcised you had to sort through for the Dr.s who would do it. Many won’t. We didn’t pursue it – too much hassle for unnecessary surgery.
Kary I do agree that due to Dr. Spock children can get away with Murder. Just like an undiscipline puppy you can have children who are real home wreckers. Both can destroy the peace,harmony and safety of your home. However, circumcision is a personal choice based on old customs of cleanliness.
Modern circumcision is to ancient circumcision what the Pharaoh Hound is to Ancient Egyptian dogs. It might seem to be the same thing at first glance, but it’s a totally modern recreation.
The popularity in the US of modern circumcision skyocketed during the Progressive movement and their anti-sexuality campaigns. It was removed to prevent little boys from masturbating. It also removes much more skin than the ancient ritual.
It was not brought back into fashion due to a new-found respect for the covenant of Abraham.
Looking at the pictures of the dark gray tri puppy it occurred to me that the dark gray could be the result of her being a cryptic merle. You have written that before but when I read it the first few times I think I dismissed it since I was not aware of cryptic merles and presumed that it was a misdiagnosis.
Another option is that there is a modifying gene on the blue that causes your blue puppy to start out dark while my blue puppies started out a light silver color even as they became a dark grey with a brown tint as they got older.
Yes, I think you’re right. I’ve seen some blue (no merle involved) puppies that were the color of a polished quarter. This puppy isn’t black, but it’s not a light blue like that.
Soon I’ll post some update photos from the two puppies in the previous litter. The one who was “blue tri” looks black now.
The other one has some sable issues going on that are pretty interesting.
I believe to the best of my understanding and knowledge ..guessotyping
It is likely that due to somatic mutation cells the normal pigmentation would
express to the unexperienced eye as a tri bring along the charcoal expression of the recessive “d”. The knowledge of many older breeders would examine a merle to merle breeding within hours of birth for any signs in a tri of merle markings. These phenotype merle markings can disappear within hours and days after birth. There could be just a spot say under the front legs only to disappear in hours or days.