Seeing Spots on Chihuahuas!!

Many people are fascinated by the wide range of coat colors that chihuahuas come it. For this reason I made this page that explains a little bit about some of the spotted patterns that appear in chihuahuas.

This is spotting at it's simplist in chihuahuas. It is a white body with sploches of color over it. The splashed color can either be black, blue, chocolate, fawn or any other color that the chi can be, even merled!**See below**

Ticked Chihuahuas

*Note the last two photos show heavy ticking and multi-color ticking*

Some people have theorized that the merle pattern has evolved from some sort of ticking. This is not true! There are two main differences in the two patterns. First, ticking is not present at birth, it develops as the pups grow(think dalmations!), where merling is visible at birth, however it does darken as the pup ages. The second big difference is that merle affects the colored areas of the dog where the ticking affects the white trim that a pup has. Another difference is that ticked dogs are only the white trim and the ticking color**. Merles can have many varations in the colors of the merle pattern. Another difference is that a solid colored chi could have the ticking gene, but you would not be able to see it as it only affects the white trim area. If a chi has the merle gene, you are going to see it unless it is a cryptic merle(more on this further down.). Ticking can occur in any color such as black, blue, chocolate, fawn, etc.

**Note**Dogs can have multi-color ticking under one condition. The dog has tan markings on the face and legs. If the dog is a black and tan, a chocolate and tan, a blue and tan or a lilac and tan and also has the irish or parti marking, the dog will have black, chocolate, blue or lilac ticking on the face, neck, tail and upper legs, but will have tan ticking on the lower legs. THEY WILL NOT HAVE THE TWO COLORS TICKED OVER THE ENTIRE BODY!! See Puppy 010606 for an example of this.

We have produced several ticked dogs:
Sugarbear Little on Right front paw
TJ On face, collar and legs
Lacy On chest area
Oliver On face and feet
Taquito This puppy has chocolate and tan ticking! How pretty, look on the legs and feet! Also ticked on the tail, neck and face.

All these pups are from Bambia, who also has the ticking and also Polly, Bambia's mother.

Merling

The merle gene is a gene that causes inconsistant dilution of the coat. This results in a coat that has a light undercoat and random spots of a darker color over it. Merling can come in a rainbow of colors from almost black to a pale silver, and from dark chocolate to fawn. Sable dogs can be affected, but only on the tips of the hairs, and because of this these are harder to identify. Learn more about merle.

Spotted Merle

Spotted merle can happen for two reasons. One way, as demonstrated to the right, is a merle that had one parent that was a spotted chi. This causes the spotted pattern to appear in the pup, and since the merle gene only affects the colored spots of the dog, you end up with spots of merling, that creates a beautiful afftect. The other way that this can happen is if both parents are merles. These double merle pups can have eye and ear problems, see Merles for more info on this. Be sure to talk with your breeder to be sure that your beautiful spotted merle is not a double merle! Another good clue is to look at the ears, normally dogs that have problems hearing have white ears.

This beautiful pup is from Robin Beaty of Indiana.

Blue Merles

Blue Merles are really black dogs that have the dilution gene acting upon making the colored areas gray/blue with black spots on them. The nose and paw pads are black. This is really a black merle.

Diluted Blue Merles

Diluted blues are a blue dog that has blue merling over and even lighter background. There will not be any black hairs on the body. The nose leather will be slate blue, as will the paw pads. This is a true Blue Merle

This beautiful pup is from Tina Burney of Colorado.

Chocolate Merles

Chocolate merles are chocolate dogs with dark chocolate merling over a lighten brown background. The nose leather is liver, as are the paw pads.

Dilute Chocolate Merles

The biggest difference in dilute chocolate merles is that nose leather and paw pads will be a very light liver color. The merling and backgound color will have reds, to oranges to pinks.

This beautiful is from Connie.

Lilac Merle

Lilac merles are probably the prettiest out there. It results when both the chocolate and blue genes are present resulting in a very light blue/chocolate merling over an even lighter background. It creates a breath taking combination.

Tweed merle

This is the result of a genetic mutation that only effects genes that have the merle dominant (M). It results in merle spots in a varitity of shades (example: in a blue merle spots can range from slate to almsot black to even spots with a chocolate sheen). This is a pup from a lilac mother bred to a blue merle father that does not carry blue or chocolate. While the magority of her body is black spots, on her front and back legs you can see fur with a chocolate sheen to it.

Ticked Merle

Ticked merles can occer in any merle color, here we have a blue merle that has ticking in the white area of her face and chest. It my get darker and more intense as she ages.

Sable Merle

Sable merles have a fawn body and black spots over the coat, that may or may not fade as the dog ages. If the dog is a fawn blue sable with blue nose leather the merle spots will be blue, as if the dog is a fawn chocolate sable with liver nose leather the spots will be chocolate. If the dog has a mask (black, blue or chocolate) the merling will also show up in the mask.

Trindled Merles

Since merling and brindle are both pattern modifers, they can be seen together. In a trindle merle, the brindling is only seen on the tan areas of the dog, if a black merle, dilute blue merle, chocolate merle, dilute chocolate merle or lilac merle and has the tan trim and the brindle gene, the brindle will be seen in the tan trim.
**I am not sure what would happen if the dog was a full bodied brindle with the merle modifier. If anyone knows the result please email me. I would guess that the merle modifer would act on the brindle stripes and make them lighter in places, but I dont know for sure.** I may have had one, Pixie, we are going to test breeding to see if any merles are thrown, if not we will have a genetic test done to determine if she is a full bodied brindle merle.

Fawn Merle

Fawn merles have a white or cream body with darker fawn or apricot spots over the coat, that may or may not fade as the dog ages.

This photo is of LeStat for Jason at CuddleBug Chihuahuas.

This slot is saved
for a photo of a
cryptic merle

Cyptic Merles

Cyptic merles are dogs that are merles but for what ever reason don't show the pigmentation. This could be a soild black (or blue, fawn, chocolate, lilac, etc) dog (keep in mind that this is rare as the spots would have to randomly appear over the entire lighter coat underneath) or a dog that is white at the s locus and there for has no color to express the merling on.

Double Merle

Double merles are dogs that have gotten a double dose of merle from both parents. This can only happen if two merle dogs are bred together. It does not matter that one is a cryptic merle and the other is a blue merle. It doesn't even matter if the male is a blue merle chihuahua and the female is a red merle collie. They will still have the double merle pups. These pups are mostly white, and usually have white on their ears and small eyes. A spotted merles ears is usually colored. Double merles often have hearing and vision problems. See the Merles page for more info.

This is a representation of what a double merle could look like.

Other Merle breeds

This is just a list that shows other breeds that have the merle gene.
Alapaha Blue Blood Bulldogs
American Cocker Spaniels
American Pit Bull Terriers **no longer registered merles after Feb 2005**
American Staffordshire Terriers
Australian Shepherds
Beauceron *harlequin*
Bergers des Pyrenees (Pyrenean Shepherds)
Border Collies
Cardigan Welsh Corgis
Catahoula Leopard Dogs
Collies
Dachshunds *dapple*
Great Danes
Hungarian Mudi
Norwegian Hounds or Norvegian Hound
Old English Sheepdogs
Pomeranians
Rat Terrier
Shetland Sheepdogs