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Roans & Merles Differences
EYES: Blue or specks of blue
COLORING: Comes in all colors
PATTERN: Is lighter shade than it should be. Nose
has areas of pink.
AT
BIRTH: The merle gene is expressed at birth, merles
are born merle and don't change.
BREEDING: Merle is an autosomal dominant gene. If one parent carries the merle gene, you may have a litter of all, none
or 50% of the puppies being merle. There is no guarantee.
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EYES: Brown
COLORING:
Roans are classified as partis and come in all color
PATTERN:
The roan only appears in the white areas of the dog
AT BIRTH: Some
Roans are born Roan and some are not. Pups with no or little roaning can seem
to change before your eyes coming into their color as they mature. The first places to look for roaning are the muzzle and the pads.
BREEDING:
Roan is an autosomal polygenic dominant, a simple dominant gene
and requires white to be visibly expressed. Assuming
one parent is the carrier of the roan gene, does not guarantee an entire litter of roan puppies. The odds of a roan puppy coming from a roan breeding is still 50/50.
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The roan cocker goes back to a time when the English
Cockers and American Cockers were basically one and the same. In the 40's when the American Cockers broke away
from one another the English Cockers, many American Cocker Breeders opted not to breed roans because they were reminded
of the English cocker. However, Philsworth Kennel continued to breed roans. Many of todays can be traced to these lines.
The color Roan has been a part of the American Cocker Spaniel since the beginning, and can be traced to all true roans
back Philsworth. Campbell Kennels bred roans from the Fourwinds Kennels, which came directly from the Philsworth.
Those who breed roans, can trace back to these earlier kennels.
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Information courtesy of www.cockerspanielinformation.com
please refer to the above link for a more detailed explanation
of roans and merles
they have been a wealth of information.
Thank you - Oak Ridge Cockers
Here's the Merle history as far as I can trace, as there are many sources and much controversy.
In 1981, a merle dog bred to a female cocker and produced "merle" cockers. The owner registered the pups to male
cocker. In the 80's DNA testing was still new and it was not commonly done on dogs to test for the merle
gene. These pups were later bred and sold throughout the U.S. Merles have come from champion lines and like
any other, can be a wonderful dog. At this time American Kennel Club has not listed this color/pattern
as a recognized color. AKC doesn't allow merle breeders/owners to register merle cockers as such and
are encouraged by AKC to register them as roans even though they are not the same.
In my opinion, because of my experience with genetics, I believe the merle gene has always
been in existence and has been masked or not recognized and often confused with roans. Because we are unable to do genetic
testing on this "male" dog who supposedly introduced the "merle" gene, we may never know the truth.
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