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White markings |
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White markings are, accordingly to the standard, allowed on the neck as either partially or full collar, chest, legs, in the head, belly and tip of the tail. The markings must never exceed the shoulders, white body splashes is not allowed, white must not predominate in the head and the eyes must be surrounded by pigment. These typically Lassie-markings are called Irish Spotting. The degree of the white markings is highly individual and can (with in the frame of the standard) range from almost no markings to beautiful collars, blazes and white legs. The pictures below should show some of this variation in Irish Spotting. The first dog shows white markings limited to only its hind paws and a little spot on the chest. Despite lack of resembles to the typical Lassie-markings, is the pup genetically in possession of this gene and can transmit it to its puppies. The dog on the right shows white markings on the chest and paws at the hind legs.
The dog below on the left shows white markings on the head, chest and legs. She does furthermore have a big white spot in the neck. The other dog are an example of an Aussies with collar and does clearly show Irish Spotting with a beautiful white collar, white forehead and white legs. Even though he is in possession of a lot white is all markings fully acceptable accordingly to the standard. If you suspect that the white markings exceed the shoulders, you can lift up the hair and take a look at the skin. It is the white-pigmentation on the skin that mustn't exceed the shoulders.
The pictures below shows two Aussies with white markings not allowed by the standard. The red puppy clearly shows predominating white in the head, like the eyes aren’t surround by pigmentation. This is accordingly to the standard not a disqualification fault, but it should be regarded as a severe fault. The Aussie in the middle is clearly in possession of white body splashes. It should be disqualified on a show. The last Aussie is homozygous merle (you can read more under genetic). Dogs with non-acceptable white markings should never be use in a breeding program.
The standard may seem pretty strict when it comes to white markings, but it is that for a reason. First of all is it due to the homozygous merles, meaning dogs that have got the merle gen from both parents. The presents of two merle alleles cause great areas of white and unfortunately also often blindness and/or deafness (example of homozygous merle in Genetics and Merle). Another reasons to the restriction in the standard are that a lot of white on an otherwise colored dog increases the risk of non-pigmentation of the cells in the inner ear. The ability to hear is caused by small hairs in the inner ear. When a pressure from a sound wave hits these hairs they will start moving accordingly to the pressure. This movement are then registered by nerve cells, which transform these impulses to hearing. If the skin in the inner ear isn't pigmented these nerve cells will die and the dog will thereby be deaf (deaffness in homozygous merles is caused by the same). It is unfortunately not a guarantee that the outer ear is colored, just like dogs with white ears can have a normal hearing. Breeding has shown that dogs with a lot of white trim offen will pass it on to their ofspring. One should therefore be careful when breeding to dogs with heavely white trim; it will increase the risk of pups with too much white.
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