Posted: 16.12.08 21:35. Title: Blue merle vs tricolour vs sable

I know some of the forum-users have different colour-type smoothies in their homes. I was just wondering is there any differents between of the dogs ? In character, activeness or in other sides, etc?

 Posted: 17.12.08 08:34. Title: I have Sables and T..

I have Sables and Tricolours(for many years), there is no difference that I can tell. Have heard people suggest their may be differences from colour to colour however I haven't seen the same. I have also never owed a Blue Merle (hopefully this will change eventually!)

Jenny

 Posted: 20.12.08 00:54. Title: :sm44: I have bre..

I have bred Roughs by the past and now Smooths (this litter is my very first), I noticed that the colour has nothing to do with the character, I think it is rather an inheritance matter. In the same litter, we can retrieve some traits of character from each parents, grand-parents, etc. Also physically. For instance, my smooth litter is totally sable then the mother is tricolour. I kept one girl (Damona) who took a certain finess trait from her mother but she resemble her father grand-mother (Dandinas Graceful Gift, "Nina") in many points, both in character and physic. I still have a boy (Dagda) who is quite his mother in most traits, physic and character; he only inherited a certain "Bilbo's type" from Nina.
As for the Roughs, the only puppy I kept (from the 1990 litter) was a blue merle bitch who revealed to have a terrific character then the mother (Bélize, tricolour) was a real cream. I learned much later than other blue merle bitches had the same character, coming from the same sire (blue merle). And I learned recently that some descendants of this sire has the same character even in tricolours.
*Of course*, I don't mean that all Blue Merles has a bad character, I just mean that we can find any characters in any litters, whatever the colours.
Curiously, I observed that Collies of each colour tend to play together, sables with sables, tric with tric.... Even Collies prefer to play with other Collies, Roughs prefer Roughs, Smooths prefer Smooths....
All that only reflects my own expérience and can not be taken for Truth
Best regards and Merry Christmas,
Françoise

 Posted: 28.12.08 17:01. Title: Thank you for the in..

Thank you for the information. One day I dream to have a blue merle smoothy aside my sable smoothy in my family as well, so that's why I'm curious

 Posted: 06.01.09 14:04. Title: i love tricolours in..

i love tricolours in both variety rough and smooth, but when i see a bluemerle with small spots and dark eyes,..i can't resist!

i trained a lot of roughs and some smooths and i don't find deep differences. maybe blues are a little bit craziest than others

 Posted: 30.01.09 18:02. Title: Tri Colors

Tri colors is one of the best because they have the mask look on their faces

 Posted: 08.04.09 15:15. Title: "Curiously, I ob..

"Curiously, I observed that Collies of each colour tend to play together, sables with sables, tric with tric.... Even Collies prefer to play with other Collies, Roughs prefer Roughs, Smooths prefer Smooths.... "

I can absolutely not agree with that
When Skip and i attended the Smoothie meeting in Czech republik, there were about 60 Smooth Collies togather... but my silly boy played the whole two days only with one of the two dalmatians over there :-(

So maybe it's just him, but he never plays with collies if other breeds are available, except from his smoothie friend Lenny.

 Posted: 09.04.09 17:36. Title: I love my tri's ..

I love my tri's ... we have had sables and we do have a blue but I think its the breeding of each that make s them who they are , not the colour I would have a tri , then a blue or a sable but thats just personal preferance . People keep telling me to look beyond the colour ... but tri's I cant resist

 Posted: 10.04.09 07:07. Title: Glenmorangie wrote: ..

Glenmorangie wrote:

quote:

Curiously, I observed that Collies of each colour tend to play together, sables with sables, tric with tric.... Even Collies prefer to play with other Collies, Roughs prefer Roughs, Smooths prefer Smooths....

My Smooths do the same.
Some days ago we were walking with Natalain and her 5 puppies. One of the puppies was a tricolour smooth girl, other puppies were sable and white, and there were two my older tricolours. So that tricolour little female (called Sheila) played mostly with my dogs and her face was like "Wow! I'm not the only Tricolour on the Earth!"
Then Natalain get puppies into the car to go home Sheila was sitting behind my tricolours with face like It looked like she was trying to stay with dog with the same colour as she has.

 Posted: 13.08.09 15:24. Title: That's a sweet s..

That's a sweet story!!! I had a rough puppy in a litter and he didn't play much with the other puppies. Don't know if that means anything or not.
As to blues, I am a bit worried about health problems - blue merle is a pigment degeneration and is a genetic defect. They can be deaf. My first smooth was a blue and she had allergies and was deaf. That's why I don't believe in breeding blue merle to blue merle. Hope I don't start a storm of protest over this - I'm sure many of you have had perfectly healthy blue merles. Dianne (but I do like it when a discussion starts up over a subject like this as long as it is not used to advertise one's own dogs )

 Posted: 13.08.09 16:49. Title: Hi Dianne, I won'..

Hi Dianne,
I won't burn my fingers again on the blue x blue subject !

About blue-merle smooths I can tell only from my breeding that there is no difference in health subjects to sable or tricolor. Allergies we had in two tricolor males and one tricolor female, we had one tricolor deaf puppy. All of them were not related at all. I think allergies can not only be tied up as hereditary. The deaf puppy had a bacterial infection in the ears when he was 4 weeks old.
Gudrun

 Posted: 13.08.09 18:13. Title: Here is an explanati..

Here is an explanation of pigment-related deafness...

quote:

The inner ear consists of three segments: cochlea, vestibule and semicircular canals. The cochlea is coiled like a snail's shell and is filled with fluid. Within the basilar membrane of the cochlea is the organ of Corti. It contains hair cells which act as receptors. The vibrations pass from the stirrup (stapes) to the cochlea. The vibrations pass through the cochlea, vibrating the membrane. The organ of Corti and hair cells are located on its membrane, causing the hair cells to move. The hair cells convert the mechanical energy to electrical nerve energy which passes along the cochlear nerve and on through the network of nerves to the brain stem. This is where the lack of pigment comes into play in causing deafness. In order for the hair cell to convert the mechanical energy into electrical or nervous energy, the hair cell must contain a pigment cell. If there is not pigment cell, the hair cell cannot convert the mechanical energy and the sound path ends before reaching the brain stem. The degree of conduction deafness depends upon the extent of the lack of pigment in the inner ear. Some pigment would allow partial hearing and total lack of pigment would cause total deafness. This could occur in one or both ears.

I don't think this applies to (heterozygous) blue-merles, because they do have pigment. It's diluted/blue, but it's still there. Only if the merle gene comes in two copies (blue x blue breedings), pigment can be completely destroyed and therefore cause deafness.

There is also a small chance that the spotting gene (responsible for Collie white markings) leaves the white spot in inner ear... but it's very unlikely because of the way that gene works. I won't write the explanation because it's a bit long and a probably offtopic... maybe we should have a color genetics topic?

Anyway, I don't believe deafness in regular blue-merle is color related.

 Posted: 15.08.09 02:13. Title: Collies behaviors

Nina wrote:

quote:

I won't write the explanation because it's a bit long and a probably offtopic...

How much you are right

This topic was open for comparing Collies' behaviors between each others, Rough and Smooth of any colour and for talking about our own experience(s) about this

Blue x Blue Collie's health is part of another topic largely covered elsewhere in this forum...

As interesting as it is (thank you Nina for your extract - I already have read it but I don't remember where....), I think normal coloured Collies health issues should be treated in another "room" than here

Best regards,
Françoise

 Posted: 18.08.09 21:28. Title: Thanks Nina for your..

Thanks Nina for your explanation and sorry to have started another topic, but that seems to happen on forums. My own very simple question about whether the smooth standard was correctly translated in countries other than France and Belgium was completely highjacked, but very interesting subjects arose through this highjacking. I did try to get back on subject, but in the end, went with the swing and enjoyed the ride. Dare I ask if deafness in Dalmations is caused by lack of pigmention or does it have quite another reason? sorry - sorry - Dalmations are not smooth collies.javascript:pst3(' ','','','','')

 Posted: 19.08.09 15:07. Title: Most probably yes. T..

Most probably yes. There can always be other reasons, but I believe lack of pigmentation is the most common.

I opened color genetics topic and wrote a little something on white inheritance... so we can continue there