More info about cryptic blues?

cryptic just means that there's very little merling in the coat so it can be hard to tell if the dog is a merle. If it really is a merle, then it has the possibility of passing on the merle gene.
People have concerns about cryptics because if you didn't realize that the dog was a merle, then you could accidentally produce double merle puppies if the dog was bred to another merle (obvious or not). double merles have the potential for a long list of health issues so most people try to avoid merle to merle breedings.

 

Cryptic Blue is actually a confusing name. For "lay-people", it does tend to mean dogs with a very small amount of visible merling. It might be a spot under the tail, or on an ear. My girl, Elise, is considered by this definition, to be a cryptic merle. At first glance she appears to be a tri, but she has some merling on her side (just a few hairs!), on her back, on a tiny spot on her back leg, and on her ear.

However, the more scientific definition of Cryptic Blue is a dog that has NO visible merling, but produces like a merle (meaning when bred). So this means that they have the merle gene. Without getting too scientific, it has to do with the length of the gene. So sometimes the gene is SO short that it no longer has the ability to change the phenotype (visual appearance/color of the dog). What we currently consider "cryptic merle" (meaning very little visible merling) is actually called Minimal Merle.

I am NOT a scientist, nor do I truly understand all of this. But, it is fascinating!

The research being done does focus on Catahoulas, but the testing is applicable for shelties as well. More (confusing and scientific, lol) information found here:
https://www.merle-sine-insertion-from-mc-mh.com/storyofmerle/

 

Very cool- will need to read that later......

 

That's really interesting, thanks for that.

So maybe that's what Deska is. He's a smerle for breeding purposes but is all sable with a tiny bit of merling on the back, which you'd never realise was merling unless you knew his pedigree.

 

that was a very interesting read.... explains a lot about merles.
so the only really cryptic dog that I know is Justus- genetically he has to be a merle but no sign of it in his coat but if there are the different lengths which I think I read about somewhere else a while back- the gene expressed to a different degree so you needed to have so much to appear as a merle- the lengths of the Sines make that reasonable.
very very cool. it's good to know that there is now a real test to tell if a dog has enough merle to produce a merle or show/not show the color pattern.

 

I'll be interested to learn the results......