# Poodle coloring question !!



## Raindrops (Mar 24, 2019)

Welcome to the forum!

Firstly I would like to state that merle is not a naturally occurring poodle color. Any merle "poodle" is not a full breed poodle and has mix breed genes from an Australian shepherd or other breed that naturally carries the merle gene.

But to answer your question, merle is a dominant gene. A merle dog has one copy of the merle gene and one normal copy. All offspring of a merle dog and a normal dog will have a 50% chance of being merle or being normal.

A non merle pup has no copy of the merle gene, regardless of whether or not it had a merle parent. So if it is bred with another non merle dog, none of the offspring would be merle.

Side note: Two merle dogs bred together will produce 25% normal pups, 50% merle pups, and 25% double merles which have are typically deaf and often also blind. This is why it is considered abusive to breed two merle dogs together, and no responsible breeder would ever consider it.


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## peeps (Apr 5, 2020)

Raindrops said:


> Welcome to the forum!
> 
> Firstly I would like to state that merle is not a naturally occurring poodle color. Any merle "poodle" is not a full breed poodle and has mix breed genes from an Australian shepherd or other breed that naturally carries the merle gene.
> 
> ...



thanks for your answer


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