First of all, tan cheek patches on atat tan-pointed dogs are not unusual and can vary in size. Some, like this rottie, are almost nonexistent: http://www.dogfacts.org/Rottweiler-picture.jpg Other dogs, like this collie, have extensive tan on the cheek: http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/images14/collieLUKE012_11a.JPG Most likely, if Mara or her dam didn’t have such extensive white markings, you would observe black surrounding the tan cheek points like you just barely do on her sire.

But to muddy the waters a bit, I’ve met my share of sables who also had the same type of masking on their faces that a tri does. The main difference was the sables’ masks didn’t appear solid black like a tri’s does – they were grizzled like the rest of the sable dog. Often they appear to be patchy spectacles because of the variations in banding on each hair.

My guess is you have a kk atat dog here rather than a kk ayat, mainly because her darker coloration is smooth, rather than grizzled with tan. Looking at a bb sable might help illustrate what I’m saying: http://www.specialtyshepherds.com/images/dogs/cedar02.JPG There is nothing solid about this dog’s coat coloration because he’s sable, not tan pointed.

Anyway, best wishes and luck with your beautiful border collie.

Is there any way I could post her photos to get input from the others who watch this site?

In this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoXbUmXB2O8 you can see just how much lighter Mara and two of the puppies are compared to the chocolates.

She doesn’t quite show the typical bb + dd that one sees in Dobermans, but it’s likely she carries for the dilutes. I think there are times when a heterozygote who should show the dominant color shows at least some of the recessive characteristics as well – I suppose if one had the money, you could do a DNA check thru one of the various centers that do that.

Merle does cause issues because of its physical effects (in other words, they are not inherited or inheritable, but wholly the result of the physical action of the color genes) but there is not a perfect explanation for why. Merle is not a well-studied gene (yet) and we’ll know more in the next ten years.

You should never assume that a dog with lots of color on its head is “safe” or a white-headed dog is not. If that were the case, half the Old English Sheepdogs in the world would be deaf! Same thing with double merles; MANY have color on the head and around the eyes and ears and are affected; many merles and piebalds have little or no color and are fine. Looking at pigment around ears or eyes is something we breeders do and have desperate hopes (or despairs) about, when we’re worried about a puppy, but it’s extremely unreliable. BAER testing is a must.

Ditto with microophthalmia, which is the eye development issue you’re talking about. Some (thankfully very few) double merles are affected by it or by coloboma or some of the other eye issues, most are not, but it’s not linked to more or less white around the eyes.

Oh, and Mara is definitely a tri (atat), NOT a sable (ayat or ayay). Both her parents were atat, which means she must be the same.
.-= Joanna Kimball´s last blog ..First bath =-.

kk ayat – shaded sable coat colour (also carries tanpoint)
kk ayay – clear sable coat colour
kk atat – tanpointed coat colour

I think Mara is most certainly ayat, not atat. We don’t call atat sable at all in Border Collies, it’s called tricolor or tanpoint. To my knowledge the at allele does not create any banding or striping on the cheeks or anywhere else on the body.

This has nothing to do with eeRed that actually hides underlying genetics because it obscures the coloring.