all-white Shelties

Both of my boys are CHW bi Blues, and well Ash can hear, and we're not completely sure if Luna is completely deaf or just but he's our all white sheltie and even though he's deaf he learns just as fast as Ash does, and he's so sweet. Ash is his hearing ear dog and we wouldn't have it any other way

How can anyone not love this little boy?

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j343/LunaBear879/287024_10150751266980187_530870186_20223841_326618_o.jpg

 

He's adorable.

Are you sure they are CHW? All white and deaf would indicate a double merle. I have one myself and he is mostly white, but has sable mearling on parts of his body. His one ear is colored, just like the guy in your picture.

I'm no expert, trust me. Maybe others will have some input.

Regardless, your dog is precious and deaf or not they aren't any less loveable! I know that for a fact!

 

The breeder told me that he was a CHW bi Blue, and it's listed on their paperwork, but even I'm not really sure.

 

another double merle owner here

We have a double merle also. We got her from a (mixed breed) rescue group that said she was part sheltie part huskie. I believed that until we took her to meet our next sheltie at Mich. Sheltie Rescue. Some time later I emailed a question to our contact there and she mentioned that she strongly thought our other dog was a double merle sheltie. After doing some reading I think she is right, Roxie looks a lot like a double merle. She isn't all white, but has both eyes blue, and def. a sheltie body and coat.

Roxie is a great dog. She did take a lot more work to bond with, but that may have been due to being a rescue. I often feel she's a little...autistic if that makes sense. She was so distant when we first took her home I wondered if we could keep her. I didn't want a dog that unhappy for 10-12 years, and thought it was us she hated. She can seem out of touch and we make a real effort to keep her excited and interested in us. She tends to go off on her own if we let her. But we don't! We keep her loved up and hug her and touch her a lot and it has really helped. She isn't blind and she hears, we think she may have some minor hearing problems but haven't had her tested, she hears when it's walkies and dinner time so that's fine for us.

She's also hypothyroid so that may have been part of her cool attitude, we had her tested soon after we got her and she's been on thyroid medication since (big thank you to Mich. Sheltie Rescue for recommending testing her)

We saw a blind & deaf dog last weekend at a petsmart adoption event, and we both said immediately, how much it reminded us of our Roxie. It wasn't a sheltie, can't recall what breed it was now, dog wasn't marked as double merle, just had a sign on cage saying hearing/vision impaired.

She is our sweetie now and I'm glad we kept her, DH really did all the hard work. He used to lay on the floor with her every day when we first got her. I actually can't wait to see her on my way home every day.

http://i586.photobucket.com/albums/ss304/jomuir/MyPictures016-1.jpg

 

She is beautiful!!

 

To me she perhaps looks more like a sable merle rather than a double merle and I love her blue eyes! Certainly she looks like a sheltie Congratulations for having such a pretty and lovely girl

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of lethal whites. Our Mia came to us at nearly 5 months old.She is now almost 18 months,and is a joy. She is blind & deaf.
Your pup is beautiful,lets stay in touch,as I'm sure we have lots in common.
On a side note,I am pondering the idea of a calender of lethal whites/double merles. Would love to have a photo of your pup to include in the calender.

Here is a picture of our Mia. You can keep up with her also on FaceBook @
Cinco De Maya Mia

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...878340828_1064379855_32069844_982683794_n.jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...696016285_1064379855_32054507_251485713_n.jpg

 

She doesn't look like a double merle to me, either.

 

arrggh the emails we had about her are long lost on a crashed computer. I seem to recall her saying she thought Roxie was a double merle, but it's always possible I'm wrong. I just recall that after hearing what she thought then reading about double merles, Roxie seemed to fit the descriptions.

Either way, she's a much-loved girl, and I'm so glad we have her in our lives.

 

We just think that she has way too much color to be a double merle. The merling gene "lightens" the coat. First to gray (in a black dog), then to white. It's an incomplete dominant (IIRC). Same thing with cream in horses.

You go: chestnut (red) to palomino to cremello as the doses of the gene lightens the coat with each addition of another. For dogs, it's mm (for no merle), Mm (for one dose, which is a regular blue or sable merle) and then MM for a double merle.

In horses, it's crcr (no cream, so a regular chestnut or black), crCr for one copy of cream (palomino, buckskin or smoky black) and then CrCr for two copies of cream (gives you the "white" horses, cremello, perlino and smoky cream).

(The two genes are NOT related. However, the merling gene is on the same allele as the silver gene in horses, which results in the black & bay silvers, but the red gene (ee, chestnut) is unaffected.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2156/7/46