I would like to breed my Blue Merle but I have heard that if she has any blue merles they could have some genetic diseases or their offspring will. Is this True? The breeder we bought her of off said she would be a good dog to breed and the best kind of dog to breed her with would be a hariquin or a black mantle. Is she breedable?

Is she a Dane? You should never mate a merle to another merle as it is the puppies that recieve a double dose of merling can suffer from sight and hearing difficulties. Merle is not a recognised colour in Danes but is a 'by product' of the harlequin breeding. A black mantle (also known as Boston) is also not a recognised colour but another result of harlequin breeding. I think your best bet is to make sure your bitch is a good representative of her breed, has passed whatever health screening is required for Danes and then consider mating her to a good quality Harlequin dog rather than a Boston, that way should hopefully ensure that some harlequins are produced, but as we all know nothing is guaranteed.
However, please consider the cost implications of rearing a litter of Danes properly. Due to their size they will need careful supervision when the pups are first born to ensure they don't stomp on the pups accidentally!
Speak to Harlequin Dane breeders and ask their advice.
All the best
Bec

You should not breed merle Danes as they tend not to be good examples of the breed. Although the Boston is not recognised by the Kennel Club,it is due to be soon (hopefully in a year or so) as it considered very important to harlequin breeding. As Bec said the merle is an unfortunate (although pretty) resultant of harli breeding and can make very good pets, but it is not a good idea to set out to breed them. I have a merle myself and while she is a lovely girl, even if she were a different colour she would be no good to take in the show ring as she does not conform to the breed standard as she should, and at the end of the day that is what you should be breeding to achieve.
Breeding a Dane is not something to venture into lightly. They can have very large litters, upward of 12, and would you be willing to keep any pups you didn't home?
HTH

Grace :)

Hi Grace I didn't know that the Boston is hopefully a colour pattern soon to be recognised. That'll be great, that and the Harlequin are my fav colours in Danes!
Bec

I don't know if the guest is from UK or USA, but I know Boston great Danes are recognised in USA. Don't know about merles.

Exactly what is a merle in dame terms, and how are they different from a Harlequin?

Bec, the Boston standard is supposedly being finalised by our Breed Club and this will be given to the KC to implement. Is is a bit of a contested subject within the Dane folk, but only from all-rounder judging point of view (another colour to deal with, and all that)

Barbara,If you look on my site, link in my details, you can see my Inca, she is a true merle. The full merle is a blue/grey base colour with the black harli markings. There are some that have white on. They can be quite a stunning dog to see, it has to be said! Like Bec said the danger comes when people breed two merles together and double up on the merle gene as this can produce deafness/blindness :(

Grace :D

Hi Grace,
Some years ago I saw a dane that I thought was stunning! The base colour was white, with blue/grey and black harli markings. What I thought was glorious was that the black markings looked like shadows of the blue ones - same shape but slightly to one side, and it gave a real 3-D effect. I thought it was probably a wrong colour, but I thought it was irrestistible!

Hi Janet,
Sounds like a harli mis mark to me! The Harlis are " pure white underground with preferably all black patches or all blue patches, having the appearance of being torn". They are allowed to have a small amount of the other colour they are not (blue/black) but it's only supposed to be a small amount. I don't really get involved with the Harlequin Danes as it is a real minefield, and there are marked dogs in the ring that shouldn't be there according to the breed standard! It has got to be one of the most difficult colours to breed. Think I'll stick to my fawns and brindles :D
As I said before some of the mismarks are really pretty, and their colour makes no difference as to how good a pet they are of course :)

Grace

Not entirely true to say that a merle is likely to be a poor example of its breed - mating the best quality harlequin to a top quality harlie or black could produce you an excellent dog, bar its colour, as merle is a given by-product of harlequin breeding.

However, as most responsible breeders would endorse the paperwork of a merle so that it's progeny could not be registered - and certainly wouldn't encourage breeding from it - it would seem more likely that this guest's bitch may not be top notch. (As you refer to Mantle rather than Boston, assume you may be in the US - not sure whether endorsing is an option?)

Genetic probabilities from mating merle to harlequin give AT BEST a 25% likelihood of producing harlie pups, and of course that's not to say they'll be good ones as this is the hardest of colours to breed. Add to this the risk of producing deaf whites - a huge responsibility to either cull, keep or rehome with the utmost care - plus an additional 75% of expected pups which are mismarked and may be very difficult to rehome and may be with you for many months eating you out of house and home, and this seems a venture best avoided.

Better spend the very substantial amount of money taken to correctly breed a litter on buying another pup if that's what you require, or leave it to the experts.