I’ve always been drawn to different colored animals. My first equine was a black and white spotted pony (otherwise known as a pinto). My second equine was an POA (an Appaloosa colored pony).

When I bought my first dog (we had family dogs, but this one was “mine”) it was a spotted/merled Aussie mix. I was introduced to the world of dog obedience and then purebred dog shows because of her. I found my next “love” at that class. It was a blue merle Sheltie. And so began about fifteen years of living with, raising, showing and rescuing Shelties. But I didn’t go for the plain brown package aka sable (think Lassie) I dove into the AOAC (any other allowed color) Sheltie world. This is the category that the tricolors, bi-black, bi-blue and blue merles fell into.  We raised a few litters over the years and each one was waited upon with anticipation. When we breed a black based dog (bi-black or tricolor) to a merle dog (bi-blue or blue merle) you always get a little bit of both worlds. (You NEVER breed merle to merle as these produce possibly blind and deaf pups).

When each puppy was born it was always a surprise! Will it be blue or black? Will it have white on the face and how much? Will it have a big, full white collar or just a partial one? What will the merles look like? Will they have lots of merling or just a little? Will there be big splotches of black or lots of little speckles? You just never know what you were going to get!

The Aussies are very much like the Shelties in their coloring (although Aussies also come in a red merle and red tri). So now with Oakley and hopefully someday with Quinn, we get some pretty unusual and uniquely marked puppies. Even the tricolors have have their own varied pattern of white mixed in with the black coat, highlighted with the brown.

Today Oakley’s pups turned one week.

I hope you enjoyed these colorful pups! I can’t wait to see them grow up!