There are two basic coat colors
of the Australian Shepherd - red & black. The base color of
the Blue Merle is black and the base color of the Red Merle is red.
Genetically
speaking, the blue merle is a black dog with a merle gene and the red
merle is a red dog with a merle gene. The two coat patterns of the Australian Shepherd
are merle & solid.
Black is the Dominant color gene; Red is the Recessive color
gene. This means that if both the recessive gene and the dominant
gene is present, the color Black will dominate - the red will be hidden.
The genes of the RED dog are denoted as rr
The genes of
the BLACK dog are denoted as BB
The genes of a Black red factored dog
are Br
r = a recessive gene
B = a dominant gene
For an Aussie to be Red, it must carry two red genes
because the color is recessive.
The following charts (Mendel's Charts) are representations
of the color possibilities of breeding the various color
combinations. When you bred two animals, the resulting baby
will inherit one gene from each parent for each characteristic involved.