Merle breeding????

[ShadyLady]

Question for the genetic nuts out there. The koolie is predominately a merle breed the records go back over 180 yrs .My question is they have been bred merle to merle for generations apart from blind deafness (and the rare kidney disease ) they are a very sound dog is our gene pool totally stuff . Basically if you can find a solid koolie not from merle parents you'd be doing well I've yet to find one .As far as the double merle gene we must be up to the quadruple merle by now anyone ideas would be appreciated (hobbit where are you??) Another point would be they may have been out crossed over time mostlikely the kelpie (this would explain the red and tans and red merles)

[Hobbit]

Koolie --- No matter how many times you breed a merle to a merle --- it's always just a double-merle.

I found this on the web:
GERMAN COOLIES (German Collies, or Coulies)

Coolie's are a very old and rare breed, brought to Australia by german workers it is believed that they were breed from German collies and Highland Collie, pictures of these two breeds look remarkably like the German Coolie, though there is no documentation the Coolie is a purer breed, and breed to type, in other words produce puppies with the character and color as the parent's. In many cases the Coolie is reffered to as the best working dog. This breed is also the ancestor of the Australian German Shepherd, which can look identical but has no tail and is taller.

German Coolie Standard/Type: Color's range from an under coat of white or grey/smoke with splashes of black or red, they have four white socks, a white tip on the top of their tail, a destinct line from their forehead to their nose and a white slash under their neck to their chest.

When breeding German Coolie's it is advised to breed only with strong colored one's, breeding with light or faded colored Coolie's can produce deaf and/or blind puppies, breeding Coolie's of the same color will produce puppie of the same color.

Size: No larger than 550mm for a male, 500mm for a female.

Chacteristics: Gental in nature, cannot take harsh treatment, needs kind patient handling to reach full potential, once confident and sure of it's role excels in all fields from Obedience, Agility, Tracking to working sheep in the paddock or yard. Marvelous family pet, energetic, loyal, responsive, non- aggresive.

I have a registrar which I hope to fill with the name of other owners and breeders in the hope of having them placed upon the Australian national Kennel Control, if you are thinking of breeding or know others who might be interested or wish to be a part of the Coolie club, just Email me information and a picture if you have one of your coolie.

Submitted by:
Kerrie Challenger
[email][email protected][/email]
Tjukurpa Kennels
Victorian Canine Association
Obedience Judge

[ShadyLady]

I'm afraid I dont agree with a lot of this info Hobbit as it comes from the other site regarding the coloring this lady is part of their committee . There is a apparently no sign of coolies ever recorded in Germany so I dont know where she got the facts from .As from it being part of the Australian germen sheperd history I think she meant Aussie sheperd as the Australian german sheperd is identical to the world wide one. So I guess that only 10 yrs down the track will we really know what we can expect genetically , meanwhile Im trying to start the trend of breeding solids to merles seems like the best way to all but eliminate the double merle problem :-?