Quote:
Originally Posted by pstinard The merle trait in "Yorkies" (as far as I'm concerned, a Merle "Yorkie" is no longer a Yorkshire Terrier) was bred in from some other breed of dog. The lady who said that so long as you breed it into Yorkshire Terriers for at least 3 generations, it can't be detected by a MARS test and doesn't matter any more, is saying something highly irresponsible. Those "Yorkies" are no longer purebred and certainly don't comply to breed standards and they are NOT Yorkshire Terriers. Hellooooo!!! Don't get me started, now!
About the health problems, even single Merles (one copy of the Merle gene) are more susceptible to deafness and blindness than normal dogs, and a double Merle (two copies of the Merle gene) is asking for trouble. |

Wow, are we lucky to have a real live geneticist in our forum!