Do we produce Merle colored Pembrokes?

Mabel, a red and white Pembroke Welsh Corgi

A question I often get asked in breeding Pembroke Welsh Corgis, is “What colors will the puppies be?” It’s an exciting prospect, speculating what color combinations might come from a pairing. While I totally understand a puppy buyer wanting a specific color puppy, I also like to remind people that it doesn’t work like build-a-bear. Of course, we all have a list of boxes we would like checked off for our “perfect” companion, it’s important to note that the color of a dog does not affect the dog’s personality, despite all the old wives tales. So how do we know what colors may pop up in a certain breeding? The answer lies in genetics.

I’ll spare you the scientific explanations and instead give a very simplistic breakdown: Red is dominant to tricolor. It’s a simple concept, but the modifying genes associated with sable, red-headed tri versus black-headed tri, and all the different white spotting patterns can be a little overwhelming. So, for now we can just focus on red and tricolor. We know that a dog carries two copies of a gene for a specific trait, one from its mother and one from its father. In this way, a red dog can be a carrier of tricolor, but a tri-color dog only carries tricolor. So when we’re looking at what colors could potentially pop up in a breeding pair’s litter, we have to know genetically where the parent dogs’ stand.

For example, in this breeding I have coming up between Mabel and Whiskey, I know by looking at the dogs that they are both phenotype red. The phenotype is the color that is expressed. But thanks to genetic testing, I know that Mabel and Whiskey are both carriers of tri-color. This means there will be a chance that 25% of the puppies they produce will be tri-color. Of course these percentages are not hard and fast, rather implications of probability. In a small sized group of the average seven to eight puppies per litter, it’s possible to see 100% of them come out tri-color. Possible, but not probable.

So where does merle fit into all of this? Simply put, it doesn’t. Merle is not a color that naturally occurs in the Pembroke Welsh Corgi. It only occurs when the Pembroke has been cross bred with another breed that does carry merle, such as the Cardigan Welsh Corgi, or the Australian Shepherd. You may by chance find the odd breeder here or there who claims to produce merle Pembrokes, and they may have papers to “prove” that it’s a purebred dog. I’ll send you with the caution that papers can be forged and even genetic DNA testing is only somewhat accurate for the last three generations. Every well-educated Pembroke breeder knows that merle does not exist in the breed and will intentionally avoid lines that have it. So, do we produce merle colored Pembrokes? No, we don’t.

If the merle coloring is on your absolute must have list, I recommend finding a breed or mix that does carry the gene, to avoid the uncertainty of hung papers (falsified papers) or dishonest breeders. But, as always, think of the lifestyle you want to have with your dog, and the characteristics you’re willing to live with, before considering what color might be most appealing.