Scroll to the bottom of this page to see excerpts from one of the anti-merle gang's brightest shining stars!

What the anti-merle drones continue to fail to recognise is that merle is already in the Pom gene pool.  Disqualifying the colour pattern from the show ring will neither remove it from the show ring nor the gene pool.

More CERF testing completed (October 2008).   Because one of the arguments used by the anti-merle folks is the alleged eye problems, I have just finished having every last merle and merle offspring that I own tested by a board certified veterinary ophthalmologist.  (I wonder how many of the merle bashers have their Poms tested for anything at all???)  Interestingly enough, {correction} all but one of them are or will soon be CERF certified/registered.  Of all those tested, one, who is likely a double-merle, has PPMs.  Usually considered a "breeder option", PPMs are NOT a merle-related trait according to the veterinarian (naturally I asked!).   However, this dog's PPMs are "iris to cornea" which ACVO apparently does not approve.  Either way, the percentage of mine tested is low- 1 out of 7 did not pass due to a non-merle-related issue.  So I am still waiting for the anti-merle gang to show proof of their claims that merle Poms all have eye problems due to being merle.

April 2008: The Chihuahua Club of America's vote to disqualify the merle colour pattern has FAILED. Congratulations!

See what others are saying about this page - scroll to the bottom.

If you don't like the colour/pattern merle, there's a very simple solution:  DON'T OWN ANY!  But please have the decency to not ruin it for those of us who do own and appreciate the colour.  Further, please have enough integrity to share FACTUAL information about the pattern.

Due to the campaign by a few people to attempt to ban the colour/pattern merle, I decided to devote a page on the subject of merle.  For starters, following is a letter I sent to the Board of the American Pomeranian Club:

American Pomeranian Club

APC member since 1987

{as of 2 December 2008, I am still awaiting a response}

Disqualifying one colour is a serious detriment to ALL uncommon colours

Another interesting point, which I touched on in the letter, pertains to the prospect of judges having to disqualify this colour whilst judging.  I spoke to a long-time Chihuahua breeder who is now a judge.  This person was especially disgusted by the push to DQ merle in Chihuahuas as the standard calls for "Any color - Solid, marked, or splashed."  This person told me that they would continue to give the wins to the best specimens, regardless of colour.  If questioned about putting up a merle, they would simply explain that they thought the dog was 'brindle' or 'marked' or 'splashed'.  I believe a lot of judges resent having to (literally) split hairs during the very short time they are allowed for each dog.  Judges who are not as confident in their breed knowledge as the above referenced person are likely to avoid any dog that *might* possibly be merle, regardless of its quality.  In other words, many of the Chihuahua folks would have shot themselves in the foot with this disqualification.  Pom people are apparently following along like good little sheep unless/until they wake up and demand to be shown proof of the allegations made by the anti-merle band.

Ok, show us the data

Regarding these alleged 'health issues', WHERE ARE THEY??   Anti-merle people have this way of spouting off a lot of hogwash in their attempt to sway people.  They speak of 'health issues' of merle Poms, yet they show absolutely zero documentation.  They speak of 'devastating birth defects'.  Can you name a species that does not have the possibility of birth defects?  They speak of other breeds that were allegedly crossed with Poms to create merles.  Ok, show us the PROOF.  They claim that "merle health issues" will make it more difficult to place rescued Poms.  Really?  Let's see the statistics on that.  Please provide us the names and information on all these rescued merle Poms who can't find homes due to their merle-related health problems.  If these claims are legitimate, then we should all take a hard look at them.  But if they're nothing more than opinions, exaggerations, and speculation, then why should anyone lose any sleep over it?  Saying "It's true because I say so" does not go a long way in this day and age.

Sure, there can be risks

Speaking of merle, I believe it's safe to say that most who have studied the merle gene will agree that there is a risk of eye problems in double-merles.  In extreme cases, a double-merle may be blind, or may have small or missing eyes.  However, the fact is that these eye abnormalities may appear in breeds in which no merle is even in the gene pool.  Some double-merles may be deaf.  I have heard of one deaf double-merle Pom.  (Gee, that could almost be a statistic, other than it's hearsay and I can't prove it.  But at least I am willing to be realistic about it, unlike the doom-and-gloomers.  In fact, I have owned a deaf Pom.  She was not merle nor was she related to any merles.  I had a Pom puppy born with no eyes.  She was not merle nor was she related to merles.)  One might argue that people should not breed two merles together.  In Poms, I would not recommend it.  However, we must remember that there are breeds of dogs in existence whose only colour in the gene pool IS merle.  Somehow, they have miraculously stayed in existence.  If the merle gene is so very awful, how could the merle-only breeds continue?  Regardless, people who are breeding merle Poms hopefully have studied the gene enough that they are cautious about breeding merles together.  They don't need a babysitter to remind them of it anymore than breeders need be told not to breed two dogs together who have an increased potential to produce certain issues.

What is there to be gained?

Regarding the merle Poms that may not look merle... Yes, this is entirely possible.  You could have a black dog out of a merle who appears black, but then produces merle pups, thus proving it was merle all along.  Or, you might have the DNA tested to verify the black is actually merle (assuming the testing is accurate). It's really not rocket science.  But, if you'll allow me to speculate a moment - what if merle becomes a disqualification in Poms?  As it is now, for example, someone may be interested in buying a black Pom from me.  As always, I would proudly boast about his/her merle mom or dad and provide a pedigree showing all the wonderful colours.  But what if merles are DQed and some end up going 'underground'?  What if you inquire about a black puppy from Joe Bloe?  Now that Joe Bloe is all upset and scared because merles were arbitrarily banned, Joe doesn't say anything about one of the parents of said puppy being merle.  Oh, whoops.  Or what if said puppy who looks black (or brown or orange or cream) and is actually merle, grows into a fantastically gorgeous show quality Pom?  The judges don't know it's merle so the dog never gets kicked out of the show ring.  For that matter, since double-merles may be all white, and if it happened to have dark eyes (which is actually extremely unlikely as double-merles almost always have one or both blue eyes), it could be shown without incident.  But, for the sake of argument, we must realise that a white or cream merle will go undetected in the show ring.  So what is really accomplished by DQing merle?  Banishing textbook-looking blue merles?  Hmmm, sorry folks, but that ain't gonna keep merles out of the show ring.

Hey look, data IS available

CERF   The Canine Eye Registration Foundation provides a registry of purebred dogs that have been certified free of heritable eye disease.  After the painless examination of the dogs eyes, if the dog is certified to be free of heritable eye disease, the dog will get a certificate with its CERF number.  The data, whether the dog passes or not, is used to form the CERF data base which is useful in researching trends in eye disease and breed susceptibility.  In other words, friends, eye problems or lack thereof CAN be verified.  If you have read this far on my page, I'm sure it's painfully clear to you that I am a person who does not passively believe everything I hear or read.  I want the PROOF.  Therefore, I recently had my merle and merle offspring CERF tested.  Funnily enough each one passed without even the slightest hesitation by the eye specialist, including the one with a blue-specked eye.  As promised, here are their numbers:

In closing, I have just two more things to say....

1.  To those who are actively scurrying about, spreading far-fetched and mis-information about merle Pomeranians, I must ask:  Do you seriously have nothing more productive to do with your time?  Did it occur to you that there are a LOT more important and pressing issues going on in the world than a few merle Poms?  For example, did ya happen to notice the 5-year anniversary of Bush's unprovoked and disastrous war against Iraq?  How about the 4000+ US military personnel deaths in addition to the 30,000+ wounded, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis killed including women and children?  Did ya happen to notice that the US economy and housing market are in the toilet?  Are you aware that people are actually losing their homes thanks to the Fed and the games they play?  Surely a few merle Poms here and there is a vastly more important issue than climate change that's wreaking havoc all over the planet, eh?  Do you know about the erosion of the borders between Canada/US and US/Mexico with the intent of making them into one country: the North American Union?  Have you stopped to consider the epidemic of obesity and the ever-rising rate of cancer & disease (in both humans & animals)?  How about the mandatory spay/neuter ordinances that towns all over the country are trying to push through?  -What have you done about that??  Are you able to step back and really put all this in prospective??  Until you anti-merle folks can show us some hard evidence of real, legitimate problems in merle Pomeranians (not some data from other breeds that was created who-knows-when), then I sincerely wish you would do us all a favour and get a life.  Maybe buy a self-help book on power and control issues... and try to realise that my choice of colours/patterns that I breed and show is, in all reality, none of your business, just as your choice is none of my business, nor would I have the arrogance and audacity to attempt to control yours.

2.  It seems that some of you who are high on your anti-merle soap box actually own non-orange Poms.  Did it ever cross your mind that you could be shooting yourselves in the foot with your self-appointed (and misdirected) heroism?  To put it plainly: If you succeed in the purging of your chosen target and merle is disqualified, WHAT WILL BE NEXT???