silver labradors

[fluffydinosaur]

hello, we've been looking at getting a chocolate labrador puppy and while so far I haven't been able to find a breeder that I am happy with we've come across some silver labs breeders - they are absolutely stunning and the breeders seem to be responsible and very nice. they will be having puppies later on in the year which is ideal for us as hopefully things will be more normal by then and it will be easier to socialise etc. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with silver labs as I haven't seen them before? they are also very expensive at 3.5k, which is a bit more than I'd been hoping to pay but would be interested if others think this is normal for the silver colour? thanks

So merle dogs are quite likely to be deaf and to have eyesight problems. As a one-off this might not be a problem. But if you purposefully breed two merle dogs in order to get a cute litter of merle pups, there's an increased likelihood that those puppies will have health problems. Continue the breeding down the line (with weak pups being bred together to guarantee coat colour) and the likelihood and severity of health problems is just going to get worse

No one who knows anything about genetics and/or actually cares for their dogs would ever breed Merle x Merle.
Merle is always bred to non Merle.
Always.

As far as I know, grey x grey produces 100% grey puppies who are generally healthy if the parents are, as far I know, the skin problems mentioned are inherited so if the parents are clear the puppies should be too.
Unless the parents are ‘carriers’, then you’d get some or maybe all who would inherit the same skin condition.
I don’t know if there’s a DNA test available to check now, there is for a huge percentage of genetic problems in dogs though frustratingly, most breeders don’t utilise them all.

A Merle x Merle breeding however does not result in puppies that are healthy if the parents are and it doesn’t produce 100% Merle either.
A Merle x Merle results in a 25% chance of each puppy being born ‘double Merle’, that is, inheriting two copies of the merle gene, these puppies don’t look like normal Merle, they are almost entirely white in colour, usually both deaf and blind with abnormally small, or sometimes entirely missing eyeballs.
I do believe some other health issues have been linked to the Merle gene too.
Merle is a dreadful gene and just isn’t comparable with dilute colours imo.

Merle seems to be becoming increasingly common - I suppose because it produces unusual markings and looks more "interesting" than black and white (or whatever).

I don't know whether that's just because I'm noticing more dogs now I have my own or not, though. I walk a lovely merle collie but he certainly has issues with both his eyes and ears, poor thing. Though they haven't affected him as badly as they could have done, at least.