I have a b/w collie bitch with ticking around her muzzle - her mother was a red / white and the sire b/w. A lady at obedience show told me that I could not put her to a merle cause she may carry the merle gene way back in her linage? I thought a dominant merle gene would show in either parents? Would a DNA test show if she had merle in her.

Welcome to Champdogs :-) Hopefully somebody will be along to answer your question soon

Dominant genes can never be carried; the dog either shows the gene visibly or does not have it. Ticking around the muzzle can happen in many breeds, including ones where the Merle gene does not exist. I have a Papillon with ticking around her muzzle for instance.

Yes that's what I thought. I contacted the DNA testing centre and they told me that merle was dominant and so it would appear in coat colour and was not a gene " carried" there is also no reliable test for merle. So if she is a standard looking b/w border collie mainly black with white mane white tip to tail and two panda eyes she doesn't have merle genes. So I don't know what that lady was trying to worry me about !

Some people get confused between the gene for ticking and the gene for merle, which is probably the case with that lady.

People do frequently mistake ticking for the merle pattern but as said it doesnt matter if she has any merle in her background as she is not merle herself she will not carry it