NALC Registered Breeder Since 1996

Specializing In Natural Bobtail Catahoulas

Member of the “Natural Rearing Breeders Assoc.”

Color...it’s one off the first features of a dog that our eye notices, it sets many breeds apart from others and in the case of the Catahoula, the coloring can be dramatic. Most often people, who are looking to purchase a Catahoula, whether for a companion or a working/hunting dog, prefer the more colorful dogs.....the leopards with glass eyes, the patched colors, with fancy white spots and trim. This is a basic fact that most breeders encounter.  The solid pups (especially blacks) are usually the last to be sold, are sold for less, or are given away, maybe even culled at birth because the breeder knows that they will be difficult to place.

It is understandable why a person would be more interested in a leopard color then a solid, the reasoning being, that if you're going to be purchasing a Catahoula, for whatever reason,  then you might as well have a fancy colored one.

However there is always a price to be paid when breeding for "fancy"  color....the excessive white pups or the double merles, (the pup has received two merle genes; one from each parent) which are commonly referred to as "white leopards". These pups frequently have many undesirable health issues associated with them. They have a much greater chance of being deaf, in either one (unilateral deafness) or both ears (bilateral deafness); of having eye problems, which may appear as a young pup or later in life and become progressively worse; in severe cases they may be missing an eye all-together. They can often develop internal problems in the stomach and intestines, that can take time to display and worsen with age; skin problems/mange.....all associated with the general lack of pigment that results when the dog has two "doses" of the  merle gene.

Whenever a white pup is whelped, the breeder automatically hopes that the pup will not turn out to be deaf. Some breeders cull their white pups at birth, while others see the pup's coloring as a good selling feature and much easier to place then a solid colored littermate.

When two dogs are bred together the breeder must always keep in mind,  what colored pups they are likely to have in the litter.

Although there can be exceptions to every rule, the following is a quick and basic outline of the breeding of Catahoula colors -

M =  Merle Gene

m = Solid Gene

Every dog has 2 of these color genes. One inherited from each parent.

Mixed together they appear as the following –

mm = Solid colored (ie: black, red with or without varying amounts of tan, brindle, or white trim. Absence of the merle gene)

Mm = Merle or leopard colored (ie: red, blue, black, grey, yellow leopard, with or without varying amounts of tan, brindle, or white trim.)

MM = Excessive white/double merle/white leopard (absence of the solid gene)

Possible breeding color outcomes when the following crosses  are made –

Solid x Solid: mm x mm = mm

No leopard or white pups can be produced by breeding 2 solid colored dogs.

Solid x Leopard: mm x Mm = mm or Mm

No excessive white pups can be produced when one of the parents is a solid color.

Solid x White: mm x MM = Mm

All of the pups produced  will be leopards...no solids and no whites.

White x White: MM x MM = MM

All of the pups will be excessive whites.

White x Leopard:MM x Mm = MM or Mm

No solid colored  pups can be produced if 1 of the parents is an excessive white.

Leopard x Leopard: Mm x Mm = MM or Mm or mm

2 leopards can produce all the color outcomes.

 

Exceptions To The Rules

Many aspects of a dog’s genetic make-up can affect the above guidelines and result in “exception to the rules”:

The dog may not be a true solid color, but a “cryptic merle”, sometimes referred to as “phantom or ghost merles”. This dog appears solid, but still carries the merle gene, ie: a solid black dog with glass eyes.

The dog may not be an excessive white, but rather a “Piebald” (a piebald is not a “double merle”) or just a “high white” in coloring. Or the reservse...thinking the dog is a piebald, but is actually an excessive white.

In 2006 the Texas A&M University discovered a mutation in the dog SILV gene and found it to be responsible for the merle coat colour patterning in dogs. There is now a DNA test that can be performed to verify if a dog is a solid, a single merle, or a double merle. Sometimes the results have been surprising! There seems to be more solid appearing Catahoulas that are actually carrying the merle gene then once was thought. And more dark colored leopards with virtually no white that are actually carrying two merle genes. This would account for “surprises” with resulting pups in litters. More information on the merle gene can be found at the “Vita-Tech” website.

This is a very basic outline and as you can see there can sometimes be variations, pups produced that do not follow the general probability of the outcome.

Other colorations to consider when breeding -

Brindles - black and yellow brindles or a dog that appears to have brindle stripes, but may be a yellow leopard. (The brindle and merle genes are co-dominant.)

Patchworks - Usually having more white then a leopard and producing pups with more white coloring.

Dilute or Washed-out coloring - loss of color.
 

Should a breeder, breed "safely", by staying away from  resulting  white leopard pups and staying away from the health concerns that come with them, but chance getting "stuck" with too many solid colored pups in a litter??

Or do we breed with "fancy" color in mind and hope we don't end  up with too many white or deaf pups??

What kind of coloring and health do we want to pass onto our future generations?

Of course these questions are  up to every individual breeder, but I hope that this information has given a buyer or a new breeder, a better idea of what a breeder must consider, colorwise, when breeding a litter.