Hello all. I'm back again. I just haven't found time to be on the boards lately. In fact, I'm supposed to be cleaning the house right now, but I'm not (Shhhhhh!)
baha: No one (that I know of anyway) has done DNA on a mutation merle. There are only 2 I know of, the Boham case & the WYK case.
Boham's Venom, was a blacknosed chocolate merle (which means her base coat was seal). Her parents were both rednosed & the ADBA launched an investigation as a result. They said you can't get a blacknose out of 2 rednoses & wanted Mr. Boham to prove the dog was bred as papered, but he never got back in contact with the ADBA. The ADBA voided the papers on all Venom bred dogs as a result. But b/c of that, that was pretty much got rid of most merles since the man who owned Boham's Venom, H. Madson was pimping the tar out of her & her merle offspring. That man alone was likely responsible for 75% of the merles you see today.
WYK meanwhile was a honest dog man & was as baffled as I was when he came to me with his merle pup. He didn't DNA it, but I highly doubt he'd lie about it. Furthermore the pup died at a young age from unknown causes which further goes to support the idea the pup was the result of a mutation.
As to your question about harlequins, yes, APBTs can come in harlequin. I've had 2. They were littermates. Harlequin & "merlequin" occurs (in our breed anyway) when merle matches up with extreme white piebald, resulting in a dog who has either black & grey (for a harlequin) patches on a white background or any color merle (for a merlequin) patches on a white background instead of on a colored background. Sadly though both of mine died as pups. But you can see a picture of one on my website. It's been added to the "Merle in the APBT" article.
OFK: It depends on which KC you go to as to whether merle is a fault or not. ADBA & UKC, yes. Almost everyone else, no. But that goes for other colors as well. For example there is at least one KC who has made any shade of blue a specific fault.
As for breeding for color, I'm not. If I were breeding for color I wouldn't have a yard that is mostly brindle! I don't even like the color brindle! If I were breeding for color, I'd have a yard full of dogs that were colored I liked!
american_pit: Merles can just "pop up" via mutation or through one parent being a cryptic.
As for why UKC/ADBA chose to make merle a DQ, UKC I do not know. But ADBA I do know. The man mentioned above who owned Venom was selling merles by the basketful. He decided to try to produce more merles per litter by breeding merle x merle, which as most people know is a HUGE no-no. When I advised him against it, he told me he was just going to do it as an "experiment" & keep the resulting pups. Yeah right. He sold those pups like he did everything else.
Soon I began getting calls from disgrundled customers of his saying their dog had this defect or that defect & that HM wouldn't make it right. I told them there was nothing I could do about it & to call the ADBA. After several such calls & e-mails - all of which I directed to the ADBA - it wasn't long before ADBA launched their investigation on the Venom dog & voided the papers on all Venom bred animals.
Shortly thereafter all merles from 2005 forward were banned. I believe this was done to keep the defective Venom bred merles out of the gene pool b/c all HM &/or some of the people he sold to would have done was hung papers from another merle line on their defective Venom dogs & went on their way. But banning merle as a whole solves this problem. Not fair, not right, but effective.
And as a side note, please remember the ADBA hasn't completely disowned merles. Offspring from non-Venom bred merles can still be ADBA registered, so long as the pup itself is not merle.
gxkon: Please read the ADBA's website concerning merle. It not only says merle is possible in our breed, but it says merle has been in our breed since the ADBA's inception (1909!)
Akasha: Yes, I am well aware of what certain people say about the health of merle dogs. I wouldn't own one, let alone breed one without knowing this! The fact is a heterozygous merle is usually as healthy as most other colors.
OK, I have answered question upon question, now I have a question for all of you. Has ANYONE here heard of any other bull breeds used in the creation of the APBT? We all know the imported UK dogs were bred up by some people for use as farm dogs & the like. How were dogs who weighed in the high 20s - low 30s bred up to the standard of 50 lbs? Was it by breeding big dog to big dog or could have another bull breed been introduced? Your opinion & why.
