Quote Originally Posted by Wenisrubber
While I am quite familiar with what the merle genes are, what causes them, and what breed gets them, I am a little bit weirded out that rough and smooth collies do not get the red merle. In The Complete Encyclopedia of Dogs, Esther Verhoef-Verhallen wrote the book to FCI standards and says that sable merle includes a wide range of colours including red. Argh! So confused! XD
If you look thru the internet you can find pictures of Sable Collies in all differnet shades. From a very light golden straw color, to a rich red/orange color to a dark mahogany color that almost looks black. These are all different shades of SABLE. This is not Red, like Red Tri or red merle assues or BC's.

Have you ever seen pics of the Lassie that played in the 1994 movie? That dog would be considered a red or orange sable.

Collies do not geneticly come in Red Tri-color or Red Merles. They come in Black Tri-Colors, Blue Merles, Sables, Sable Merles and color headed whites.

Sable has a wide range of colors, but no matter the shade it is sable. Sable and Red are geneticly not the same. Sable is a dominate gene. Tri-color is recessive. Merle is an incomplete dominate.

Also, atleast from the pictures I have seen, red merle and red tri aussies have red/liver pigment on their nose, where Sable and Sable Merle Collies have black pigment on their nose.

Here are a few pictures of some sables I have had, in different shades:


This is Dodger - sold as a pet, he is a sable merle. Dam is a blue merle, sire is as sable. When he was a puppy he had merling down his back and on his tail, but that is gone now.... he also has a blue eye, dead give away of a sable merle. Notice the black nose.


This is a litter I had in 2004. Left to Right: Rough Blue bitch, Rough Tri Bitch, Rough Sable Merle Dog (Dodger) and Smooth Sable bitch. Notice the merling on the sable merle puppy, down his back and on his tail.. his tail even has a blue shade to is. Of course now his whole body is just a golden straw color.



A puppy picture of Eli, at 7 wks. He is a darker/red sable.



And the last picture is Pennie, a Mahogany Sable I used to have. She is pictured here at roughly 18 months of age... by 2 1/2 yrs s he had even more dark sable/mahogany thru her coat and was very dark. Her sire, Buster was a mahogany sable and from a distance looked almost black.