Do I have a rare ACD...

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Member Since
06/23/2010

Barked: Fri Jun 25, '10 5:38pm PST


	My fiance and I have a blue heeler that is coming up on 9 months old that is still white. When we brought him into the family he was pure white with a half mask and over the months he has had some blue come in in what appear to be spots but he is still very much a white heeler. We got him from our friends who rodeo and are very serious about their heelers. Although we never bothered to pursue getting Slick papered both of his parents are papered purebred blues. I've searched high and low on the internet but have only found a few obscure references to a white heeler and those seem to all have health issues and are blind. I'll post a picture as soon as I can(posting from a droid phone). This is the best dog I've ever had and I wanted to know if he really is as rare as I'm beginning to think he is.

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Slick

1141416

Barked: Sat Jun 26, '10 10:27am PST


	I uploaded a picture. I hope it works so ya'll can see Slick.

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Rio, CGC,- RL1, CL1, TD

You can't say- that i can't- play!

Barked: Sun Jul 4, '10 8:14am PST


	He doesnt' look like a pure acd to me... he might be like a "farm" acd where other things have been thrown int he mix to make a better working dog...but his head doesn't structurally resemble a purebred ACD.... he sure is pretty though. maybe it's the angle or the growth spurt he's in... i just see something other than just ACD... do you have any other photographs of him? Edited by author Sun Jul 4, '10 8:16am PST

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Slick

1141416

Barked: Sat Jul 17, '10 11:47am PST


	Here's a picture of him sleeping on the couch with me. There for a bit he looked a little goofy through a growth spurt. He's started to fill out and really look like an adult dog. http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/urdogsflea/Slick/8911 e0dc.jpg

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Snow Plow

1154038

Barked: Thu Sep 9, '10 6:48pm PST


	Mine is an ACD/Border collie mix, but he looks remarkably similar, albeit a few months younger than your dog. I don't think your friends would lie about giving you a purebred, but it is pretty odd that they wouldn't get their color in. Typically they get it in around 8-12 days. At any rate, I personally like the predominately white ones better anyway!

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Snow Plow

1154038

Barked: Wed Nov 3, '10 7:57pm PST


	I actually just found out that my dog isn't a mix at all-- he's also a white ACD! The breeder couldn't sell a defective dog, so he ended up at the shelter. Snow Plow is still the best dog I've ever had, and to be honest, I like the 'defective' coloring better!

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Lulu

1163892

Barked: Sat Nov 13, '10 4:19am PST


	Hi all! I just joined Dogster, and I'd like to add some info to this thread. We 'accidentally' (long story)got Lulu last September. We were told that she came from a breeder who tries to breed full white ACDs, maybe border collie mixes. These kind of dogs are called double merles. Obviously Lulu is not pure white! Double merles are known to have serious health especially deafness and eye defects. Lulu exhibits neither of these issues. It is my belief that she is a failed attempt at a double merle, and I'm sure glad for it because she is a great crazy addition to our already crazy home!

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Member Since
10/24/2011

Barked: Mon Oct 24, '11 3:09am PST


	I was just wanting to add a little wisdom to the forum. My husband and I have been breeding ACDs fo about 12 years now, and you truely have a jem on your hands. The solid whites are double mereles and very rare. The only time you have to worry about deafness in them is if they have blue eyes. but other than that consider yourself lucky this is a perfect speciman of a true solid white ACD.

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Chase

Life's too short- to be bored

Barked: Fri Dec 23, '11 12:08am PST


	Purebred ACDs are not merles, so you would not get a double merle purebred ACD. The ACD coat pattern is a ticked pattern, which is a different gene from the merle gene. I'm not sure how someone who has bred ACDs for 12 years would not know that. While some ACD bloodlines are prone to deafness, this is not the same genetic defect created by breeding two blue merle dogs. It is a genetic defect specific to ACDs and it is currently unknown whether it is related to a color gene or not. The only way an ACD would have a merle pattern is if it is a cross with another breed, like Australian Shepherd or a Catahoula, that does carry the merle gene. Otherwise, an ACD should have a ticked coat, which can range for very fine ticking (called "speckle") to larger speckling that has a little more white mixed in (called "mottle"). The OP's dog does not appear to be a double merle to me. He looks like what Australian Shepherd breeders call "pattern white." That simply means the dog has inherited a combination of white-causing genes that resulted in a mostly white coat. In purebred ACDs, these white genes are very uncommon--beyond the "Bentley" mark of the head (like Chase has) and occasional white tail tip, ACDs should not have white patches. So an ACD that is dominantly white would have had to gotten those white genes from another breed and thus isn't purebred. I noticed in the pic in the OP's profile that the dog has a Texas shape tag. If this dog is from Texas, or nearby, it is very possible it is a "Texas heeler" which is a nonstandard breed created by crossing ACDs with Aussie Shepherds (and sometimes other breeds). These dogs tend to have either lots of white or lots of black--both traits not found in purebred ACDs. Texas heelers are often called blue heelers, even when they have no blue ticking left in them, so this often confuses people into thinking they are the same breed as ACDs. But at the end of the day, it's not whether your dog's purebred or not, but whether she's a good companion. That's really what matters.