The photo is not a Merle this is brindle

The Merle gene is a much 

 debated topic among poodle Breeders. This is my opinion and not a debate. To start of here is a little about the Merle gene, The Merle gene is an incomplete Domimant gene, this means it only reguires one copy to reproduce it, so only one parent has to carry for Merle to show up, I believe it can be handed down from grandparents too. but this theorey is not proven yet. t is highly recommended against to breed Merle to Merle. as if both parents carry one copy of Merle gene you will end up with 25% of the puppies being Double- merles, which having a chance of being blind/and or deaf. as a breeder no matter what the percentage. I would never risk even one puppy being blind or deaf or both. so we never breed Merle in our lines intentionally. as well there are other color genes that can cover the Merle gene, so you will not visibly see it but it is still present genetically and can be passed down to offspring these colours include white,cream,apricot,red, and heavily marked parti along with Phantoms.as many that are not trained to merles,merles can mistake a brindle as Merle or Merle as brindle. These are called cryptic Merles, as they are genetically Merle, but visibly don't look like Merle , At this point any poodle being breed should be color tested to ensure they don't carry for Merle and therefore, you wont have Double- merles or Merle puppies. As I believe and many other people out there that insist that Merle is not a naturally existing color in Poodles.

 many of these people will claim that itis naturally accuring in many other breeds such austrailan shepherds . So we have a problem as nobody knows for 100% sure where the merle gene comes from in Poodles, we know for sure there is no early poodle books that decuss the color as they do parti and phantoms, and brindles. we do know with 100% certainty that there are AKC registered merle poodles. there are several AKC breeders that register them. we also know there is no color listed for the merle so many other variations are used which makes it harder to prevent Merle to show up in your lines. so now let me give you a few ideas of where the genre comes from . again these are only opinions that will give you something to think about. the Merle gene was introduced using another breed many generations ago, this would have taken 3-4 generations to get poodle looking coats constitley. second option is that it has always occurred in the breed,the color had been phase out. with lines breeding and selective breeding the color was recovered. the last option is that the Merle gene was a natural mutations in Poodles, which is how it is believed to have accured in other breeds that it is present in. regardless of which opions you care to believe there is one thing I know to be true merle poodles are register daily and some merles DNA test a 100% poodle.Merle is a problem gene in Poodles. I really feel we should breed away from any Merle do to the genetic health Risk. we should focused on breeding healther, better temperament and the most structurally sound poodles possible. includetion the drama and conflicts over a color that we can not prove one way or another how it comes to be in poodles is less important than the health of that puppy. and last thing I will do every 

thing in my power to keep Merle out of my lines. Please join me in my fight to make the best poodle ever and converter moving away from Merle.  thank you 

.