Suwannee Cockers
The Place for Natural Merles and Sables
ZACK
Zack is a very special dog, in that we have never seen another Cocker Merle marked quite like him. He has a very light silver Merle dilution on a solid black coat--some of the lightest Merle dilution that we have ever seen, as it is almost white--which combined with his almost terrier tan markings, make him a very distinctive looking Cocker Spaniel. Zack is from our Sable-Merle and white male named Max, and our now retired solid red girl named Sparkle.
When Zack's coat is grown out it is very thick, and really beautiful, with its mottled Merle markings all mixed together in his longer coat.
This picture of Zack as a newborn shows that there was no doubt from the minute that he was born that he was a Merle dog.
At three days old Zack's unique coloring was already quite outstanding looking.
And here is a full body picture taken at three days old, and his Merle spots were even more distinctive than as a newborn.
And here is a picture taken at six days old. The tips of the feet, the chest and the muzzle are the last places on the body of unborn pups to fill in with color from the melanocytes, and often pups are born before these areas are completely filled in with color, leaving white spots in these peripheral areas. These types of white spots have nothing to do with color genetics as such, and they will often fill in with color within a few days after birth. But sometimes not, leaving white areas on the dog.
And this is a picture of Zack at two weeks old, before his eyes had opened.
But by three weeks old Zack had fully opened, bright blue eyes.
We really thought that Zack would keep both of his blue eyes, but they both eventually turned brown.
By four weeks old Zack had a lot of hair for such a young pup, with a beautiful silvery sheen.
And by four weeks old Zack and his littermates were scarfing up their dry food. There were six puppies in his litter, including a Merle tri girl, a solid Merle girl with white markings, a blue sable and white girl, a black and white boy, and a black and tan boy.
By eight weeks old Zack's eyes had almost turned to brown, but he was still absolutely adorable.
And by eight weeks his silvery Merle coloring was really starting to show.
And here is another picture taken at eight weeks old, out in our puppy kennel.
We kept Zack here at our kennel until he was about five months old, trying to decide whether to keep him as a breeding dog or not. We finally decided not too, mostly due to the fact that we already had two of his parti brothers here already as breeding dogs, and if we were going to keep any more males they needed to be unrelated to this line of Merle dogs. But as Zack is so handsome, it was a very difficult decision to make.
But once we made that decision, it was not difficult to decide where Zack should go, as a family in Titusville, Florida, that already had his black and tan littermate named Pippin, wanted Zack, so at five months old these two brothers were reunited.
And it didn't take Zack very long to make himself right at home. Like his littermate Pippin, Zack is also a black and tan, but his black areas have been diluted by the Merle effect, so he is called a Merle and tan. And like Pippin, Zack has two colors of tan points--an orangy darker color, and a paler tan color.
Here Zack is being held by Kaley.
And here Zack is resting with Jordan.
And here the boys are out plaing.
Whose got the ball?
It looks as if Zack wound up with the ball. And this picture shows the extent of Zack's tan markings.
There are several cats in this household, and Cockers generally get along pretty well with cats. But we've never seen a cat try to take over a dog's crate before!
Several months after Zack arrived, Chloe the red Dachshund joined the family, and we are told that Pippin especially is very protective of little Chloe. Cockers come from hunting dogs, and they like to live in groups, or packs, of dogs.
And here's another picture of the three dogs in the household.
But Zack and Pippin will always be a duo.
And these two boys do make a good contrast with each other and look great together.
And last but not least another beautiful picture of Zack. We'd like to thank Zack's family in Titusville, Florida for letting us use these pictures of Zack and their family in their home.
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