Suwannee Cockers
The Place for Natural Merles and Sables
ABOUT MERLES
The most important thing that we can say about Merle Cockers is that they make wonderful house dogs and pets, and that we breed them primarily because we want to live with these dogs. We also really like that they tend to run smaller than the average Cocker, although not quite as small as a toy dog, and that they therefore fit into today's smaller homes and yards better than larger dogs. We also feel that as a group they are quite smart and easily trained, and that they are especially loving. We also feel that they exhibit less "hunting dog" qualities than the average Cocker, perhaps due to their smaller size. So no matter what their origins we feel that Merle Cockers are the dogs that we want to spend our lives with, and we want to promote them to other folks to consider as their pet companions also.
However, the Merle marking is very controversial in American Cocker Spaniel circles, because it is not believed to be a traditional Spaniel marking. Some breeders believe that the marking was introduced from another breed, and other breeders believe that it is a mutation within the American Cocker breed. But whatever the origin of the Merle marking in Cockers, Merle is a very ancient marking in dogs, most often found in the herding dogs. And we have recently learned that some English Cocker breeders did breed to Border Collies--as crossbreeding was allowed in England until 1969--and this may be the source of the Merle gene in Cockers, as we have noticed a distinct English Cocker "look" to some of our Merle Cockers. For a fuller explanation of the Merle gene you may go to our color genetics page about Merles.
Because all Cocker Merle dogs whose pedigrees have been researched, so far, can be traced back to only one American Cocker Spaniel from the early 1980's--a male named "Rusty Butch" who is listed on his pedigree as a Buff--we will probably never know how the Merle gene became activated in American Cockers. This "Rusty Butch" dog could have been a Merle of another breed, meaning that the breeder totally falsified his pedigree, OR Rusty Butch could have been a Merle mutation within the American Cockber breed, with the Merle gene becoming activated somehow. OR Rusty Butch could have even been a light red Sable dog who was also a hidden or Cryptic Merle--just like our male named Max--consider the name "Rusty"--who was registered as a Buff, as Sables are not well known in Cockers, and many a red Sable has been registered as a Buff, as red Cockers are considered to be the dark end of the color continium of Buff Cockers.
We know for a fact that Sable can hide Merle, as our own Sable-Merle and white dog named Max simply looks like a red mahogany Sable and white Cocker Spaniel, with absolutely no Merle markings on him at all. But Max has blue eyes and throws about half Merles in his litters--so we certainly know for a fact that Sable can hide Merle. And our Winter litters of 2005-06 proved without a doubt that buff can certainly hide Merle, as we had no Merles in several of our Merle bred litters, but had buff and whites with one blue eye each. And we have had black and whites with one blue eye, so we now believe that Merle can travel undected under any color--black, buff or sable--unnoticed, unless the dog happens to have a blue eye or two. This has nothing to do with whether Merle is dominant--actually co-dominant--on the Merle gene, as one color gene hiding another color gene is called epistasis, and has nothing to do with dominance within one particular color or marking gene. And Cockers have a lot more colors and markings than the traditional herding breeds, so Merle acts differently in Cockers than in the more traditional Merle breeds.
Hidden" Merles are called "Cryptic" Merles. The picture to the left shows one of Max's black and white pups, with one blue eye and one brown eye, and a partially pink nose, so this pup is also a hidden or Cryptic Merle, as this pup has absolutely no Merle markings in his beautifully white coat, with a few black spots. It is often difficult to tell if a pup is a hidden Merle, because all pups have blue eyes when they first open their eyes at about two weeks old, and some pups retain their light eyes for quite some time. But not all light or blue eyes in dogs are necessarily a sign of Merle, as there are dogs with light and blue eyes that are definitely not Merles. We have a Chocolate Tri Roan girl here with very light tan, or hazel eyes, and we are pretty sure that there are no Merles in her lines, although there are some Roans listed in her lines, of course. However, with Merles being listed as Roans one can never be sure! But our Blue Merle and white boy named ZuZu had tan eyes also, with some silvery spots on the edges of his iris. So to say, as many do, that Merle is a "dominant gene," and thus cannot be carried for generations undetected, is simply not true in Cockers, as this does not take into account epistasis. And we now have the pictures to prove that Merle can be hidden under any color and/or marking.
Thus there could have been other Merle Cocker dogs--perhaps even some Cryptic Merles--many decades back that we know nothing about, as they weren't registered "correctly." But however the Merle marking became active within the American Cocker breed, the Merle marking is truly beautiful in the long haired American Cocker coat, and after five geneations of registered breeding the American Kennel Club considers dogs to be pure bred anyway, so the question of whether the marking is traditional to the American Cocker is now a moot point. And in the pedigrees of our first generation of Merle pups, Rusty Butch is now only one of 64 dogs in their 6th generation back--and this 6th generation contains many AKC champion dogs and some very well known Cocker show kennel names. So to describe Merle American Cockers as "mutts," as some members of the national breed club have announced, is certainly not true.
But the Merle marking has become increasingly popular over the past few years despite heavy disapproval from the national breed club, which maintains that Merle is not a traditional Cocker marking. But the practice by breeders of registering the Merles with the AKC as "Roans"--which they are not--is very confusing to many other breeders, and has led to some breeders unknowingly breeding Merles when they thought that they were breeding Roans, and for this reason alone the breed club should allow the Merles to be registered as to their correct markings. The problem with the Merles not being marked correctly on their registration papers is that a breeder could unknowingly breed two Merles together, which is too much dilution, and can lead to ear and eye problems in puppies.
The AKC simply says to name the color and markings that most closely resembles the dog on its AKC registration papers--thus staying clearly out of this Cocker color controversy--and if Merle is not allowed to be put on the dog's registration papers, then Roan is the logical next choice, if the ASC will not allow the Merles to be marked correctly on their registration papers. But we simply do not understand this Merle ban on AKC dogs, due only to the color and/or marking of a Cocker, as the writer's Mother was an American Cocker breeder for almost 20 years, back in the 1940's and 1950's, and during all of that time this writer never, EVER, saw a chocolate American Cocker Spaniel, and yet the chocolate color is now totally accepted in the American Cocker AKC ring today. So the ASC Cocker Merle ban seems totally illogical to us.
We have read that the chocolate color "spontaneously" appeared in a Cocker parti pup born to a show breeder in Ohio in the 1970's, and I have since seen black and white pictures of supposedly chocolate dogs out in a Califorina Cocker kennel during the 1930's. But I'm sure that my Mother would have stoutly disputed that chocolate was a "traditional" American Cocker Spaniel color! Yet the chocolates are "in" and the Sables are "out," and the Merles have never been given any recognition at all. This all smacks of "doggie politics" to us, rather than anything sensible or logical, especially as the Merle marking has become one of the most popular colors and/or markings in American Cockers, and it is NOT going away.
In fact the writer's Mother actually became very upset whenever she had parti marked pups in her litters, as she only considered solid Blacks, Reds and Buffs as acceptable American Cocker Spaniel colors, and she was very surprised when the partis--which are a very traditional Spaniel marking--became so popular in American Cockers during the 1970's. But during the early 1950's we had a neighbor down the street from us that had a perfectly beautiful mahogany red Sable and white American Cocker, so I know that the Sable dilute marking existed in Cockers at least that far back.
But some American Cockers breeders think that the Sable dilution in Cockers came from another breed, and after a very acrimonious and controversial vote within the national breed club, Sable Cockers were banned from the American show ring in 1997, despite there already being 35 or so AKC Sable American Cocker Spaniel champions. But at least Sable Cockers can still be labeled their correct marking on their AKC papers. But all of this proves that there has been a history of color controversies within the American Cocker AKC breed club ever since the breed was created and/or separated from English Cockers in the United States in 1946.
W e became enamored with the Merle marking when we had a Sheltie back in the 1980's, and then we had neighbors who had beautiful Blue Merle Aussies. So when we returned to the breed of our childhood--American Cockers--we were delighted to find that Cockers now came in Merles, as well as the more traditional colors, but we were dismayed at all of the hostility toward the marking by many other Cocker breeders. And this hostility has hindered the development of modern Cocker type in Merle Cockers, as Merle Cockers cannot be shown, so are exclusively bred as pets. And one can see old time Cocker type, or even English Cocker type, in some--but not all--Merle Cockers, with some dogs having less stop between the eyes, and a longer muzzle than the average show American Cocker.
The essential differences between English Cockers and American Cockers are that American Cockers have shorter muzzles, rounder heads, longer coats and more prominent eyes than their English ancestors, and of course American Cockers are smaller. However, all of our Merles meet the standard for an American Cocker as far as body porportions are concerned, but some of them are not as "plush," or wide in the muzzle, nor as "smushie faced"--which refers to a dog that has a very short muzzle--as many show Cockers. But many Cockers that are now being bred for the show ring have much shorter and broader muzzles, often with very high stops, than the standard for American Cockers actually calls for, and of course this is all being determined by which dogs are currently winning in the ring. Also the average person who shows does so for only about five years, so there are always "newbies" in the show world who do not really know much about the history of the breed, and are basically influenced as to type by what they see currently winning out in the show ring.
However, we feel that dogs that far exceed the standard are an example of a "trend" that will ultimately change the look of the breed, but this is nothing new in American Cockers! And we personally feel that a Cocker Spaniel should have a long enough muzzle to actually carry a Woodcock in its mouth--which is what the dog was originally bred for--and if a breeder prefers a "smushie" faced dog, then perhaps they should consider some of the toy Spaniels whose standards call for more pushed-in muzzles, like the Japanese Chins or the King Charles Spaniels.
We really do object to this trend of shortening the muzzle of the American Cocker Spaniel, mainly because it is not healthy, and creates a dog that snores and has breathing problems in the heat of Summer. And a really high and steep stop actually changes the shape of the skull, pushing the eyes more up and forward, creating a "bulging" eye that is more prone to injury, and thus more prone to "cherry eye," which happens when an eye gland bulges out, usually due to an injury. The dog's third eyelid slides up over the surface of the eye for protection, and the third eyelid also has a tear gland located in the inside corner of the eyes called the third eyelid gland or TEG, which produces about 40% of the dog's tears. This tear gland is attached by ligaments which can be damaged, allowing the TEG to pop out of its normal position and look like a pink roundish object in the inside corner of the eye. Once damaged this gland can either be surgically re-attached by a vet, or totally removed, according to the amount of damage involved. Usually the larger and more prominent the eyes, which we all find so adorable in our Cockers, the more prone to "cherry eye" the dog becomes! And usually no breeder will include "cherry eye" in their health guarantee, and neither will we.
English Cockers and American Cockers were once the same breed, coming from the same litters, and differentiated only by size, before the two Cocker "breeds" were split apart in America in 1946, and in England in 1968. Thus we believe that the older type head sometimes found in some American Cocker Merles shows that the Merle gene has been active in Cockers for a much longer time than since the 1980's. And to quote a very well known Cocker breeder, "Genes don't disappear. They hide."--to pop up another day. But like the Chocolates and the Sables--and even the partis--the Merle marking has now become widely recognized as beautiful on Cockers, and many Cocker breeders--even some show breeders--are now actively working with the Merle gene, and Cocker Merles are now rapidly becoming one of the most popular colors and markings in pet Cocker Spaniels. And from our experience, over several years of owning them, we can say that the Merle Cocker Spaniel generally has a wonderfully sweet personality, tends to be smaller than the average Cocker, and makes an absolutely wonderful house pet.
We are now content to allow Cocker Merle origins to stay shroded in mystery, and to just enjoy our oddly marked Cockers, and to share them with others. And we look forward to the time when Merle Cockers will be fully accepted, not only by the general public, but by all American Cocker Spaniel fanciers. We are also looking forward to showcasing more of our Merle pups in the future, and we invite other owners of Merle Cockers to contribute pictures of their pups and dogs for a section in our photo galleries. We have seen pictures of many differently colored and marked Merle Cockers, and find the marking fascinating, and we would love to showcase a full array of all of the possibilities of the Merle gene in Cockers.
And now on to lots of pictures! Below is a picture of our now retired solid Blue Merle girl named Zadda, at about ten weeks of age. Zadda has a wonderfully Merled black and silver coat, with quite a lot of silver on her ears and on her vent. If Zadda didn't have an active Merle gene, she would be a solid Black Cocker, but the Merle gene is considered "co-dominant," in that neither the dilution of the Merle gene nor her original black base color fully dominates, so the Merle gene acts on Zadda's coat as if bleach has been thrown on the dog, diluting patches in a totally random pattern, and leaving patches of the original black base color. It is not known at the present if this Merle dilution action is the result of one gene, or of the interaction of several genes. But Merle dogs should always be bred to a non-Merle dog to prevent over dilution, which can lead to eye and ear problems in dogs that are called "double-Merles," and for this reason alone it is absolutely essential that Merle Cockers be identified on their kennel club registration papers as to their correct Merle status!
The next two pictures are of our very unusually colored, now retired solid Merle girl named Zelda, who turned out to be an unusually marked black based Sable-Merle. The first picture was taken when Zelda was a four month old puppy, and the second picture of her clipped back was taken when she was over a year old. For a long time we debated as to whether this girl was a dilute chocolate, as she is so brown looking.
The picture below is of our Blue Merle and white, now retired boy named ZuZu, at about eight months old, standing with Zelda. ZuZu is a very gentle soul, and a very nicely put together Cocker, with gorgeous Blue Merle and clear white markings.
The picture below is of our now retired, beautiful solid Blue Merle girl named Zadda at about nine months old. Zadda has a wonderfully silky coat, with black and very silver Merle "tweed" markings. Zadda turned out to be carrying tan points.
These next pictures are of some of our other Merle pups, from several litters. To the right is a very unusually marked Blue Merle and white male who is actually mostly black, with a lot of pretty white markings on his head, and with small amounts of Merle spotting all over his body, especially on his head. This boy also has one blue eye and one dark eye, and we have never had a Merle pup marked exactly like this before. But we have recently read about the W Locus, which supposedly is a color modifying gene that turns gray Merle markings to white markings, so perhaps this is what has happened in this puppy. This individuality of markings really makes Merle Cockers stand out, as they are never the two alike. The picture below is of Izzy all grown up at Christmas time, cleverly holding ribbon for his Christmas present! This boy lives with his family in Leesburg, Florida.
This next very unusual and very open boy, named SunCatcher's Zaffre Zecchino, has two blue eyes, and a few Merle markings on his muzzle and on his tail. He has a partially pink nose--called a "Butterfly Nose," which is a hallmark of dilution--and the rest of his body is marked more like a dilute Calico cat or a "Japanese Brindle" rabbit, rather than a Merle, with some black spots, some dilute shaded Sable spots, some clear Sable spots, and a lot of clear white areas, with no ticking or freckles. Zecchino is a very sweet natured boy, and rather small, at about 17 pounds.
This is a good picture of Zecchino's markings on his back, taken when he was about six months old.
This Blue Merle, white and tan girl is named Zarra.
This Blue Merle, white and tan girl named Zhoe has beautiful silver Merle ears.
This buff and white girl named Buffy is a hidden Merle and has one blue eye and one brown eye. But if she didn't have the one blue eye, no one would be able to tell that she was a Merle, as her nose eventually totally filled in with color.
IN MEMORIUM
We have lost our beautiful Blue Merle, Tan and White girl named Zieara to a deadly coral snake bite. She only weighted 11 pounds, and the brightly colored snake was probably just too enticing for her to play with. In the future we will have a separate memorial page for her, but as she was our pick of her litter, and our little pet, we want to acknowledge her here with her brothers and sisters.
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