In the following text I am trying to explain the M-Locus, the E-Locus and the risk of breeding this. I will try to keep it as simple as possible so that even the last person is able to UNDERSTAND it. I am not writing this to have a a go at somebody, but rather to educate.
I do not breed my dogs so that other breeders can buy the Puppies and „just“ carry on the breeding! I breed for my self and for PETHOMES and therefore I am doing the best I can to ensure to breed EALTHY PUPPIES!I am not AGAINST breeders! BUT I do want you to know that I expect from other breeders – and to me it does not matter whether you are a small Hobby Breeder, a comercial Breeder or just have one pet litter – that you are doing your HOMEWORK. That you do the relevant tests for a breeding and that you know what you are actually doing! It surly takes more then just putting a Bitch and a Stud together.
By looking through the adverts on the internet and seeing all this Puppies from untested parents, one really has to ask why it is so complicated to get the simple health tests for the Breed done???!!! But I also wonder, why there are still so many Petfamilies who are actually buying THIS PUPPIES! … But this is a different story and if you are interested in HEALTH TESTS, then please visit my health test page.
The dog has to be recessive in the E-Locus. "ee" is the genetic colour code for white, cream, apricot and red. So any dog in such colours has the genetic colour code "ee" There are no health problems linked to this colours and the breeding between Jasper and Zaphira will be fine BUT if people who buy my Puppies are not honest with me and they just keep breeding without being a responsible breeder, then health problems could come up in the next generations due to the merle and "ee" genetic combination. This does not matter to any true pethomes, but as soon as the new families decide to just breed, then things can take a turn for the worst - I will try to explain it :-)
1. "ee" is not really a colour like black or brown, but its a gene which enables the melanin which is responsible to give the hair its colour to settle into the hair. It is very important that breeders know this, as this is the reason why things can get complicated if the merle colour is introduced! So a black dog has black melanin and a brown dog has brown melanin and an "ee" dog has no melanin and therefore his hair looks white, cream, apricot a red (there are a few other modifications responsible to what shade the dog will be, but that is not important in this matter) The gene "e" is recessive to the gene "E"
a. An "EE" dog would be black or brown and he would not recessively carry the "e" (apricot colours)
b. An "Ee" dog would be black or brown but he does carry the recessive gene "e" and could produce apricot colours in his offspring. He will pass on this „e“ to about 50% of his ofsprings.
c. An "ee" dog IS apricot (or white, cream, red) and he will always pass the "e" on to his offspring!
2. All merle dogs should be "Mm" - "m" is the non-merle gen and "M" is the merle gen. A Merle dog who is „mm“ - homozygouse for the merle colour – will have HEALTH PROBLEMS!!! He will be disabled, blind and/or deaf!
So a healthy Merle dog has to be heterozygous for this colour!
a. An "mm" dog is a non-merle dog. He does not carry the dominant merle colour
and will not express this colour.
b. An "Mm" dog is a merle coloured dog. He has one dominant Merle gene but he will not be unhealthy. He will pass the dominant merle gen on to about 50% of his offspring.
c. An "MM" dog is an homozygous Merle dog. He is very likely to be unhealthy - as mild like half blind and/or half deaf or as bad that the Puppy needs to be put down! He will always pass the dominant "M" gene onto his offspring. It should ALWAYS be avoided to breed such dogs!
Hope this explained the colours ;-)
So, now to the genetic colour combination from Zaphira and Jasper.
Jasper is - "ee mm" AND Zaphira is - "EE Mm"
She could also be "Ee Mm", this would still be fine, and we will know for sure once the Puppies have arrived. But for the moment I would guess that she is „EE“ due to her pedigree.
So we now know that ALL Puppies will have at least one "e" gene which will be responsible for the melanin. But we also know that the dog needs both copies of the recessive "e" gene to express this. So this Puppies will still be able to let the melanin settle into his hair and therefore the dog will be able to show his brown or black colour. (The Puppies will all have brown Melanin as Jasper and Zapgira are both „bb“ in the B-Locus which is respondible for the Black or the Brown colour.)
We also know, that about 50% of the Puppies will be "Mm" - Merle coloured. All this merle coloured Puppies will be able to express the pattern due to the dominant "E" gen which they have inherited from Zaphira.
So now we know that ALL Merle coloured Puppies are "Mm" and Ee" - They are able to express the Merle colour.
All will be fit and healthy as can be (Unless there are some other disease which run in the lines and have not shown up yet and which are not testable yet. But this health problems would not be related to the disases which are caused by the homozygouse "M" gene!)
But we also know that this Merle dogs are able to produce apricot Puppies if bred to the right partner due to the recessive "e" which they all have inherited from Jasper.
Now – if we take this further and further and we say that one of this merle puppies ends up in the wrong hands. With a person who is not a responsible breeder and just breeds because of the rare colour, for the money or for any other stupid reasons, then there is a possibility, that one of this dogs - or one of this dogs offspring - will sooner or later be breed to another dog with the genetic colour code "Ee mm".
This offspring will all be health - looking at the point of the merle-linked diseases!. BUT as we know, we have "Ee Mm" on one side of the parents and "Ee mm" on the other side of the parents. We are now running the possibility of getting a Puppy who is "ee Mm" !!! He would be an apricot and we know that this dogs do not have melanin to express the colour of the dog and as there is no colour on the dog this dog will not be able to SHOW that he is actually a MERLE dog - he himself will be all fine looking at the point of the diseases which are linked to the double merle gene as he only has one dominant merle gene!
This dog will then be sold as a solid coloured dog and IF this dog again would be breed to a Merle coloured dog then we are running the chance of getting unhealthy puppies.
"Mm" X "Mm" = "mm", "MM" and "Mm"
"MM" dogs !!! This dogs will be unhealthy :-( - They can be deaf, blind and/or disabled!!!
And this is where things go very bad but you see, it can take quite a few generation until we get there! AND due to the availavle DNA tests it is surly possible to keep breeding from this line !!! People just have to understand and know what they are doing and they have to carry out the relevant DNA tests – for the Health Tests AND the COLOURS!
I am not saying that this might ever happen but what is if!
But then, it can go on and on like this for many generation, so even if I do not introduce the "e" from Jasper into this line, then irresponsible breeders could introduce the "e" into the line them self´s due to wrong breeding partners :-/
In theory, all solid colourd dogs who are used in the merle breeding should be DNA tested for the E-Locus! Just because he/she is Black or Brown it does not guarantee that he/she does not at least CARRY the „e“ gene! And if he/she does carry the gene, then you are running the SAME RISK!!!
So if you are not 100% sure what´s in your Merle colourd dog, then I strongly recoment to get both parents of the breeding DNA tested for the E-Locus! Breeding will be very easy and SAFE once you know what´s in your dog :-)
I have spend a lot of money on testing my dogs and I just can´t find a Studdog who is health tested to the standard I want him to be... and there is surly no other Miniature Poodle here in the UK with the same Tests as Jasper has! Using Jasper gives me the best option for healthy Puppies which then hopefully live a grea, healthy and happy life in a true pethome ....
You can hate me or love me for doing this, but just because others do not know what they are doing, and just because others are not taking the responsibility for their breeding and just because others just DON`T CARE that does not mean that EVERYONE is like that!
I know what I am doing.
I know what tests needs to be done.
I know how to carry on with this line
AND I am happy to educate everyone who is interested BUT it is your job to LEARN! I can only give you the information and try to explain, but you have to do your homework and LEARN xxx