Merle is a genetic pattern that can be in a dog's coat. In addition to altering base coat color, merle also modifies eye color and coloring on the nose and paw pads. The merle gene occasionally changes dark eyes to blue, or part of the eye to be colored blue.
Responsible breeders who want to produce merle puppies mate a merle with a non-merle dog; and none will have the vision or hearing defects associated with double merle dogs.
AVAILABILITY?
Some of our dogs are available world-wide, and some are only available within the USA or only available outside of the USA. This can change at any time, so please check back at any time to see the current status.
WHAT IS A TRI CARRIER?
A tri carrier dog is a dog that doesn't show tan points, but can produce dogs that do. A great example of a tri-carrier dog is Triple Champion King Louii. King Louii is a lilac colored dog, and does not show any tri colors at all. But if King Louii is bred to a female that is tri, they can produce full tri-colored puppies.
Tri Carrier means a dog has a single copy of the Tan Point trait (heterozygous).
MBK GENETICS 101:
All MBK dogs are DNA tested. We are looking for genetic defects within our dogs that could be passed down to their puppies. Within our program, you will see 2 different results. Either the dog will be 100% clear of any and all defects, or it may have something called "CRD4". CRD4 is an eye condition that originated with long-haired Dachshunds, and is very common within our breed. It is estimated that over half of our breed has at least 1 trait. Some researches believe that this condition DOES NOT affect our breed at all. We wrote up an article on it, so please click below to learn more!
Coefficient of Inbreeding
COI measures the common ancestors of dam and sire, and indicates the probability of how genetically similar they are.
According to the Dog Aging Project, the average COI for purebred dogs is ~20%.
COIs also track how related dogs are further back in the pedigree. Look back 10 generations in our own family trees and you are very unlikely to see the same name twice. This is not true for dogs, though. The same names can appear many, many times. Traditionally, breeders have very commonly inbred to ‘fix’ certain traits.
