just a quick question i have a border collie bitch who is all white apart from a black platch on her backside and black spots on her ears i was asked if i would be wiling to breed her when she is old enough but i have been told that if you breed from a white dog then the pups will turn out blind and/or deaf  codeys parents were both black and white so i was wondering if there would be problems breeding from her i know that if you breed two blue merle dogs together then the pups will turn out white deaf or blind but does this relate to  my dog aswell?

Border collies are are breed that have quite a high incidence of hereditary deafness, so before you breed from her you should have her BAER tested to ensure that her hearing is fine. The stud dog should also be tested of course.

I would think that you could be looking for trouble...... in our breed (Australian shepherd) which shares certain characteristics with the border collie, we talk about "fatal whites" which have all the problems that come down from merle to merle breeding.    I would think that your girl woudl be referred to as a merle.

As well as the BAER testing referred to by Jeangenie, you should also test eyes and hips - stud should also have these checks. 

But personally, I would just enjoy her as she is - you could well have serious problems if you breed from her.

Margot

hi i have a white border collie bitch and the problem we have with her is that everytime she sees another dog she strains on the lead to try and get to it sometimes if another dog comes to her she will sniff it then when i try to pull her away she will snap at it

Is this the same bitch ? If so breeding from her with a behavioural problem is a big No No there are literally hundreds of BCs in rescue that have no behavioural problems

Firstly she needs to be at least 2 years old & until then you need to have her BAER hearing tested & hip scored then after  years of ahe she needs to be eye tested for PRA & the DNA test for CEA needs to be considered. Was she screened for CEA before she was 8 weeks of age ? if not she could have CEA & it could have "gone right"

Why are you thinking of breeding from her ? Being mainly white it can't be for the breed ring, so is she a good obedience, HTM, agility, flyball. WT or sheep worker ? If not is this a way of getting another dog ? I am a tad comfused as to the apparently sudden decison to consider breeding from your bitch

hey no im not goin to breed from her firsty i know nothing of breeding dogs i think it should be left to people who know what they doing and second yes she has behavioural problems so i think the pups will turn out like the mother god help us lol i was asked by a friend of my mum if i would want to breed her but i said no as i was told that there would be major problems with the puppies and i wanted to see if this was true by asking you guys :0) i have read that were too many ill bred BC's and im not about to add to that problem so dont panic lol i just wanted to be double sure

Glad to hear that you've no plans to breed from her Kerrie - but you've got something to print out to tell people exactly WHY you're not doing it!!!

Margot

Well done Kerrie!!
Archer

Same here Kerrie

Even if she is fine re hearing and other tests, because she has a lot of white she is more likely to produce pups which also havea high proprtion of white, even if you use a heavily coloured dog.  These pups will have ahigh chance of being deaf.  You could of course have them hearing tested, but would you be able to have any totally de3af pups put to sleep???  Any partially deaf would also need to be homed very carefully with as much certainty as possible that they wouldn't be bred from.

Of course you could equally wel produce defective hearing pups from two well marked parents, but the chances are much higer with a mismark, and as a friend of mine found who has a bitch with half qhite face, the best pup in the litter was invariably mismarked like it's mother.