catahoula pups question

[liefalwepon]

I just had a litter of catahoula pups, both parents were black with brindle socks, I thought for sure there would be at least on merle pup in the litter, but there wasnt, theyre all black with brindle socks, some of them almost all black. Is this normal?

[tmatt]

That depends on what you consider normal... The color of the other dogs in that family of dogs will give a decent indication of what you can expect out of a litter but it's not a guarantee. Just my 2 cents, color don't mean much in a hog dog. I've seen some good looking spotted double glass eyed cats that weren't worth feeding and I've seen a few others that were jam up dogs. I personally tend to lean more towards the solid or brindle colored dogs.

[liefalwepon]

I prefer cats that hunt well whatever color they may be, but I was always told that even when you breed two black n tans you still get some merle pups, just wondering if that is usually true?

[bignasty]

could be phantom merle,its there but you cant see it .

[liefalwepon]

I would think your joking but my other male dog has those markings, hes black w brindle socks and an ever so slight merle, you can barely see it. I think I remember reading somewhere that even a black catahoula is merle, its just a single merle, so maybe all these pups are double or triple merle, just no blue or grey...

[tmatt]

I prefer cats that hunt well whatever color they may be, but I was always told that even when you breed two black n tans you still get some merle pups, just wondering if that is usually true?

I've bred my Black and Tan cat to a brindle female and not a single one came out with an obvious merle pattern.

[Reuben]

I think it is possible that a merle can be so faded it is not seen...maybe only at birth...so bred with a black and brindle dog you will get some merles...

merle is the dominant colors according to what I read. So that means that id the dogs bred are not merle you will not have any merle pups...since merle is dominant that means when a pup inherits it from one parent the pup will be merle...about the way I understand it... black with deep red brindle trim usually makes a beautiful dog...

[Reuben]

so breeding a merle dog to a black and brindle...if all the pups are merle then that means more than likely the merle parent inherited both color genes as merle...

the other scenario...

if a merle dog is bred to a black and brindle dog and some of the pups are born black and brindle then that means that the merle parent carries 1 merle gene and a black brindle gene which is hidden because it is a recessive...and the reason some of the pups came out black and brindle is because that recessive gene paired up with the black and brindle gene from the non merle parent...when 2 like recessive pair up, one from each parent, then that trait will be displayed...whether it is color or whatever...because we don't know all there is to know about genetics then a good rule of thumb is breed what you see and like...

the more we know about genetics the better choices we can make...

[liefalwepon]

thanks rueben, I knew someone on here would get scientific. I appreciate it. I really enjoy learning as much as I can about hog hunting and dog breeding. I also remember an old timer saying that if you breed two merle dogs you will get about half black n tan pups, must be because some are ghost merle.....