Talk:Merle (dog coat)

message: About the  introduction of the article: I thought the Led Zeppelin lyrics of  Bron-Y-Aur Stomp refered to Robert Plant's  (the vocalist) dog "Stryder" (not Jimmy Page, as stated). --83.226.121.54 (talk) 15:41, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Lyrics

message: Can Shih-tzu have merle coats? My friend's Shih-tzu Puffy has what looks to be blue merle. --173.184.141.237 (talk) 00:09, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Though this is old I thought I would still respond. Its possible, but most likely they are not purebreds and the color was introduced. I have more commonly seen white Shih Tzu's with blue eyes or just the Shih Tzu's who have blue eyes that are unrelated to coat color, possibly due to extreme piebaldism but I'm not certain. Albinism has been seen in the asian breeds, but no one knows why, and it is not true albinism because it lacks the albino gene, it just mimics the gene. See here and here. Update 2018: Now that I'm aware that this is a thing, it's most likely the dog was actually mixed with another breed who has merle in their breed standard. ItsWolfeh (talk) 20:09, 5 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Blue merle Shih-Tzu?

message: Where does the word come from? —Tamfang (talk) 19:57, 27 March 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: According to Merriam Webster, the origin is unknown, but it was first used in 1911. Collins English Dictionary says that it comes from mirlet or mirly, meaning speckled. — anndelion (talk) 20:16, 27 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  etymology 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 4 external links on Merle (dog coat). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20111121225810/http://www.gis.net/~shepdog/BC_Museum/Permanent/BCColors_Merle/BC_ColorBlueMerle.html to http://www.gis.net/~shepdog/BC_Museum/Permanent/BCColors_Merle/BC_ColorBlueMerle.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20111007114652/http://www.ashgi.org/color/aussie_eye_color.htm to http://www.ashgi.org/color/aussie_eye_color.htm
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110303120251/http://perfectpekskennel.com/MerleCoat.aspx to http://perfectpekskennel.com/MerleCoat.aspx
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120701125634/http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/4303 to http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/4303
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Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 06:16, 12 January 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: There were many redundant statements made that I have removed. There was also an incorrect comparison with merle and dilute, while I can see the confusion and thinking they are similar, they are quite different, in fact a merle can also be a dilute, but merle itself is not similar to a dilute. Blue is often used to refer to a dog who is the color black and also merle, but it is not the same as a blue dilute. This is even addressed in "Description". A dilute merle is still typically called "blue" or "red" registration wise, and it is up to the owner whether or not they want to label them correctly as being dilute blue merle or dilute lilac merle. Merle is a pattern, not a color, the color prefaces the pattern, "blue" merle, the color is "blue"/black, the pattern is merle. Red is genetically different to merle- all colors are different from merle because of it being a pattern and not a color, this may have been a typo meaning red is different from chocolate and this is what my edit reflects. Pea scheme image was lacking neutrality so the description was edited (see: Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view), I also made it the forefront of the genetics portion. Moved second Australian Shepherd homozygous eyes to health issues, fits quite nicely with the other picture. I also added a bit more information on cryptic merles, including a new identifier "atypical merle" or "Ma", whose polytail A is longer than cryptic merle "Mc" but shorter than true merle "M". I have heard of some very interesting things going on with the merle gene in the Australian Shepherd breed, but most of it has no reputable sources and is anecdotal. Removed Boston Terrier merle comment and replaced it with a neutral blanket statement that it is being introduced to many purebred dog breeds. Someone may want to make a separate list later of breeds where it has been introduced but it is not recognized. I could not verify the statement about some breeders thinking merle Pomeranians and Chihuahuas are mixed breeds, I have seen similar sentiments personally myself but do not have a verifiable source to back this up, so it has been removed. The blanket statement mentioned above may still suffice for that though. Removed breed specific references and tried to make a blanket statement for them. If we go through how each and every breed treats merle differently (American Cocker, Pomeranian, Chihuahua, etc), it's going to be a massive cluttered article... Best to link references to the blanket statement I added ("may or may not be recognized depending on breed, may have more requirements in standard"), and/or add the article as an external link at the bottom, for those to do further reading.
Thanks for reading and improving this page!
--ItsWolfeh (talk) 10:27, 20 April 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cleanup