Just wondering how aware are people who are deliberately breeding lurchers that you should never breed a merle (dapple) to a merle as there is a high likelihood of having blind and/or deaf pups in the litter, sometimes pups are born with one or both eyes missing.
Collie breeders normally breed merles to tricolours rather than to sables as there can be dappled sable pups whose colour becomes less evident as they mature. These sable merles also shouldn't be bred to other merles, so breeders play safe by not breeding sable merles to begin with.
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Another thing to beware of with lurchers who have collie in their background is the prevalence in the collie breeds of the gene for MDR1 (multiple drug resistance). The name is something of a misnomer; mdr1 -/- dogs can be poisoned by certain medications, for instance wormers containing ivermectin, as the drugs more easily pass into their brain than they would in other dogs and also their livers are more sensitive to many drugs. It's something to inform your veterinarian about and also to beware of with nonprescription treatments for mange, fleas, ticks and worms, I did read of one collie who died after eating some horse manure in a field; the horse had been recently wormed with Ivermectin.
Collie breeders normally breed merles to tricolours rather than to sables as there can be dappled sable pups whose colour becomes less evident as they mature. These sable merles also shouldn't be bred to other merles, so breeders play safe by not breeding sable merles to begin with.
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Another thing to beware of with lurchers who have collie in their background is the prevalence in the collie breeds of the gene for MDR1 (multiple drug resistance). The name is something of a misnomer; mdr1 -/- dogs can be poisoned by certain medications, for instance wormers containing ivermectin, as the drugs more easily pass into their brain than they would in other dogs and also their livers are more sensitive to many drugs. It's something to inform your veterinarian about and also to beware of with nonprescription treatments for mange, fleas, ticks and worms, I did read of one collie who died after eating some horse manure in a field; the horse had been recently wormed with Ivermectin.
