I kid you not.
Someone has imported one from the USA and it is being used on all sorts including Springers to create the first ever Blue Merle Sproodles.

Nice little earner! :(

Yes, but think of the moneeeey!



Sick of this breed anything for money culture :-(

Merle bloody everythings - when will it end?
Merle Labradors????

>Merle bloody everythings - when will it end?
>Merle Labradors????

pmsl    I have tried to imagine one in my minds eye.  Nothing is coming up at all.  A Lab is a Lab.  :-)  Just wouldn't look normal if it was merle.

>Just wouldn't look normal if it was merle.

I have seen a black lab with random white splotches as if it had got paint splashed on it (I thought that is what it was until I was stroking it).

it seems this can occasionally happen during development where doem areas don't pigment.

This is really interesting, but it's not deliberate (yet)  and it's not merle either.

http://retrieverman.net/2012/06/25/labrador-pictus/

Refreshingly, there seem to be no plans to develop the variety either :-)

Wow its like doggy vitiligo :p
Seriously though I would like to kipper the lot of these greedy morons.

Well it's very striking, but it looks awfully odd on a Labrador!

Looks like an African Hunting Dog!

it wasn't a merle but I saw a picture of a lab apparently that was black and tan the other day so of big patches all over his body. It appeared in the litter that way.
Unfortunately I don't think there is away to stop all this cross breeding for money or the" oh I saw one and it was so lovely now I want one " people

That sounds like a Chimera, naturally occurring half black half yellow lab. Don't think they're designer.

There were some proper black and tan (as in like a Rottweiler) Labradors at Crufts a few years ago. Field trial lines, apparently they had just appeared. Must admit they were stunning.

> Refreshingly, there seem to be no plans to develop the variety either :-)

Because they can't!
It was a one-off genetic freak of nature.

Yes, but when has that ever stopped people from trying though?    ;-)   Don't forget, the first tortoishell cat was once a genetic freak of nature ;-)   (yes, I know it's not the same thing at all)

Personally, I've always thought African Hunting Dogs were really attractive animals.    But it's the whole package, not just the colouration.   Seen on a Labrador it doesn't have the same effect ;-)

Sadly though, there are always people who value novelty above all else.

> Yes, but when has that ever stopped people from trying though? Don't forget, the first tortoishell cat was once a genetic freak of nature

In modern times we understand a great deal more, I think -  we can certainly tell the difference between a new mutation, a mosaic and a chimera :)

Yes, we do.   But not everyone has the same understanding.

Hence the ease with which people are duped over designer dogs.

You have to be pulling my leg??? Why can't people leave the perfect poodle and lovely lab and skexy springers ALOOOOOONE!!!! All this multi gene mixing is going to end in disaster!!!

All this multi gene mixing is going to end in disaster

Going to?   I suggest it's already happening.   And if people think purebred dog breeding is bad, they've not seen anything yet because the people involved, BYBs, are doing it for one thing only - parting the gullible from their MONEY.   People are so easily persuaded 'rare' means good, and far better from all those nasty purebreds.   Unfortunately the GP don't know that the breeds we see today were developed over many many years, by people who knew what they were doing, maybe willing to cull what they didn't want until the breeds bred true.   And the various breeds were produced for a specific reason - and that wasn't MONEY.

But I think I'm preaching to the converted here.   If this has come from the USA - it needs to go back to the USA.   With respect to the many reputable committed American Breeders there are, still.

http://www.globalanimal.org/2010/12/02/man-who-created-labradoodles-regrets-the-cross-breed/

All this multi gene mixing is going to end in disaster

There allready going down hill in health terms, reading in dogs today mag some of cockerpoo breeders have started the cockerpoo club and are trying to get people to start health testing as they have seen a rise in health problems in the cross. I know some of the labradoodle breeders are now testing too but these breeders are in the very minority so It can't be long befor all these fashionable crosses become health wrecks.

The Merle blight is spreading.  The first Merle "Pugs" were born in Eastern Europe last year, waiting to here one has arrived in UK, and now we have 2 Merle "American Cockers" due to arrive in the UK soon.  If one more person promoting silly, impossible colours tries to justify it to my by telling me all dogs are originally results of cross breed and go back to the wolf I will SCREAM!!!!  This is the current justification/excuse about how these colours are being "reinvented" into breeds by these wonderful, talented breeders (NOT) who  are so clever with their colour genetics but can't share them as they have worked so hard themselves to produce the colours.  Of course, anyone pointing out the glaring errors in their psuedo scientific nonsense is accused of jealousy.

I'd suggest that's an 'awfully odd' looking Labrador, merle colouring or not!!!   And as somebody has suggested, perhaps more like a very tall African Hunting dog!!

Where is all this going to end - the vets must be rubbing their hands in glee (those who aren't weeping!).

Merle Bassets .................. ?

That isn't a Merle Labrador, Mosaic is a spontaneous glitch that occurs during gestation and is not inherited, so can't be bred deliberately for.

Of course, anyone pointing out the glaring errors in their psuedo scientific nonsense is accused of jealousy.

So true. Although quite why anyone with wellbred puppies of correct colours bred from show winning, health tested parents, all booked long before birth, should need to be jealous of puppies masquerading as pedigree I don't know.....but oh yes, it happens all the time.

.
All in all, it seems clear that pet owners are, in 'apparent' increasing numbers, are rejecting the idea of buying an established, long standing, breed of KC pedigree show dog 'type' variation of a working breed in favour of new breed 'types'.

I think those who are opposed to this change towards this 'seeming' increasing trend need to spend time on working out why the established KC 'show type' lines are falling out of favour & consequent popularity & then work out what they might be able to change/reverse the changing attitudes. Sitting around winging about this & that new 'Doodle' will change nothing.
.

>Merle Bassets .................. ?

Gulp!  That isn't even funny!

Gulp!  That isn't even funny!

You are NOT kidding!!!