are they rare??  any info on them  .  i saw an add recently  for some.

The breed standard says:

Colour
Any colour or mixture of colours - but never merle (dapple).

I found an article by M. Willis that says it would be impossible unless it was a cross. This part is particularly interesting in case everyone starts thinking color shouldn't matter.
"...In case some of you feel that another colour would be fine it is crucial to point out that merle is a dangerous gene. The homozygous merle MM is usually white and has very often impaired hearing and sight...."

seen some advertised last year they were stunning! they were american imports though I dont think you would get a merle chi in this country unless it had been crossed with a collie or daschund? can you message me with where you saw the advert cos I wouldnt mind a look? thanks :)

i think it is dangerous like mating 2 harle danes together- pups can be born blind/deaf. however, they do look really cute! i can see some dacshund in the colour

its only dangerous if you mate 2 merles together, mating a merle to a non merle doesnt produce any health defects.

If you read the whole article he quotes references that show even heterozygous merles had some problems.

I'd be wary of any chi's that are merle.  Especially if they are from America!  There was a breeder a while back claiming to breed merle poodles.  Well she was found out that they weren't full poodles ;)  Poodles don't carry the merle gene. I would say that there is dachsi in the lineage.  I've never heard of a merle chi.  I don't believe chi's even carry the gene, and a massive mutation like that is unlikely.

The Chihuahua breed standard now excludes merle colouring and the Kennel Club no longer registers merle Chihuahuas.  They are actually cross breeds and SUCH a lot of misery and suffering is caused that many countries have agreed to ban the registration by their clubs of these poor little souls.  There are, sadly, people that won't believe the effects that this pigmentation disorder causes and are prepared to risk breeding for this colour as they can advertise using the rarity factor to make more money. The puppy farmers are complaining of the verbal abuse they receive but continue to chase the extra dollar.

Hi they are not rare, but they are not KC reg, hence you dont see them at shows.
I know about this as I have spent a lot of time researching dapple/merle colours in dachshunds and have look at a few other breeds as well.

In chi's the merle colour is not a standard colour and has been suggested that it is not a true/original chi colour.  The colour has been linked to the fact that somewhere down the line a cross to most probably a dachshund has occured to introduce the merle colour as it is one of the colours that has appeared for the whole of dachshund history.

This is why the KC no longer recognise it as a registered colour as most probably the chi is actually part cross breed in its history.

My advice is to buy a good quality normal chi, personally think the black and tan version you get is a lot prettier.

Emma

how comes they command a high  price?

http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=1305

See the above link on the KC website.  Merle's are certainly NOT desirable in this breed.  A small number were imported from America fairly recently and there was a period where people were breeding them for the unusual coat (and charging ridiculous over inflated prices) without the full knowledge of the merle gene and its disadvantages to the breed, hence why it has been decided not to register them.  Personally, I would avoid them like the plague, but that is my own opinion.

they are on a free add site about 1500 a pup i think! just seen another 1900!

That's absolutely disgusting.  Even more sad is that some deluded people will think that because the price is so, it must be a very sought after type, and they'll pay it only to encounter many problems down the line.  Healthy dogs from responsible and reputable breeders cost less than half that.  All they are seeing is £££££££££

> how comes they command a high  price?

Because people don't understand the difference between rare and being rare for a reason.

they are on a free add site about 1500 a pup i think! just seen another 1900!

OMG, you wouldnt pay more than 1200 for a brilliant pup with health tests and champion bloodlines.  That price is ridiculous and you can tell they are tapping into the handbag dog that people with more money than sense buy because its a pretty colour.  Another thing I forgot to mention about the merle/dapple is if they contain a lot of white, known as a double dapple where both parents were dapple (the easiest way to keep the colouration otherwise it can disappear for a generation or two) has a higher rate of blindness and deafness.  Why anyone in their right mind would double dapple is beyond me.  As you can see from my photo I own single dapple dogs but I have spent years tracing lines with the gene to produce healthy ones.

Can you imagine the money from that litter saying the average chi litter is around 4 i think, thats between £6000 - £7600!!!  Hence why puppy farmers do it.

Emma

i saw a recent ad  for a litter that earned the breeder  £9500.

All the chihuahua clubs in Britain came together and finally made merle chihuahuas unregisterable in the UK. The kennel club then changed the breed standard. Merles are popular in america but in britain we feel it is in the best interest of the dogs if merle was not to be bred because of the illnesses associated with the merle gene.

It won't stop a  breeder  who doesn't register  cashing  in with   "its a rarity" if they breed one.

thanks for the link sal. luvchi, the ad says these pups are kc registered so how did they manage that ? do the kc allow merle chis to be registered now?

bb no probs  and accredited breeder too

I suppose the breeders could get round the merle ban with the KC as registering them as blue or grey?

I suppose they will find a way around it. I dont have a problem with the merle chis themselves, but if they cant be kc reg in this country but people obviously are either importing them and reg them, or crossbreeding and reg them you would think the kc would take a stance against it because basically it is a form of fraud. but perhaps they turn a blind eye as long as they are getting the registration fees they dont do anything :(

> perhaps they turn a blind eye as long as they are getting the registration fees they dont do anything :-(

You can hardly blame the KC for this one - they won't register merle chihuahuas ;)

they obviously have though! if you look at the advert it says they are kc registered, so unless the advertiser is lying? they have allowed this breeder to register merle pups.

Unless it's the parents that are registered, not the pups.

> I suppose the breeders could get round the merle ban with the KC as registering them as blue or grey?

This is what happens with "rare" black boxers,the breeder advertises them as black then registers them as Brindle as black doesn't exist.People are unaware of this until they see the registration then feel they've been duped(they have)

Yes JG you could well be right there. I feel that is false advertising but im not sure how it would be in the eyes of the law?

Charlie72 I read somewhere that "black" boxers are actually a reverse brindle where the black dominates the stripes, so they are technically a brindle albeit a very dark one, similar to black in staffordshire bull terriers, the solid colour itself doesnt really exist because most blacks are actually very dark black brindles. At lease thats how I understood it.

Yes the black is in fact a reverse brindle as you described but byb's advertise them as "black" and "rare" when in fact they aren't at all ,especialy in the States where this practice is common.The buyer believes they are getting something they are not ;)

I thought they were rare, Ive only ever seen pics of them on the net, never seen one in the flesh so that just goes to show what I know lol.
Was it this forum there was a pic of a tri colour boxer? it was lovely!

They are more common in the States as their standard is not as strict with the spacing between the stripes,ours says they need to be more defined.Going a bit off topic now(my original point was that people advertise them as one thing and register them as another) but what do you mean by tri colour? Most boxers are red/white/black(mask and/or brindling) which would be 3 colours?

it was an odd colour it was like a black brindle and white with tan rottweiler type markins if i rememeber correctly?

Sounds like it could have been some kind of mix ;)