A colour seen in of a dog's coat - Bluish gray colouring with flecks of black, as in a "blue-merle" Collie
pattern of coloring observed in the coat of the domestic dog and is characterized by patches of diluted pigment. Dogs inherit trait in an autosomal, incompletely dominant fashion and heterozygous or homozygous for the merle locus exhibit a wide range of auditory and ophthalmologic abnormalities, similar to those in human Waardenburg syndrome. (More? Animal Embryos | PNAS Article 2006)
Dark patches overlaid on a lighter background of the same pigment type; also called dapple.
Marbling of colors (can be a blue or red merle) (see Genetics - pattern)
a pattern which reminds one of marble in which the melanin pigment is swirled and patchy amongst many white areas
Blue grey with black flecks.
An incompletely dominant dilution gene that lightens the base color in random, irregularly shaped areas.
color pattern; dark patching upon a lighter background, as seen in some breeds like Australian Shepherds
Merle is a colour combination in dogs’ coats. It is a solid base color (usually red/brown or black) with lighter blue/gray or reddish patches, which gives a mottled or uneven speckled effect. Although most breeds that can have merle coats also typically have white markings (such as around the neck, under the belly, and so on), and often tan points (typically between the white and the darker parts of the coat), these are separate colors from the merle; some dogs do appear completely merled with no white or tan markings.
