bi-blue Collies---well, they aren't supposed to. Merle is a dilution gene, so a blue merle like Chaos is a tricolor dog with the dilution gene, and a bicolor-blue like Coba is a black and white (called 'bi-black' in Shelties) with the same gene. Bi-black and bi-blue Collies are not recognized or shown; according to this website, http://www.snovali.com/other/colors.htm, "this color is only possible in Shelties and not in Collies. The breed that contributed the bicolor gene to the Sheltie is not in the Collie ancestry."
I find this an interesting bit of information given that many of the original 'toonies,' as the Shetland crofter's dogs were called before Shelties were created by crossing them with Collies, were black or bi-black. Since tricolor is dominant and most of the sables are carrying it as well, bicolor is somewhat rarer than tri even in Shelties.
All this aside, though, the occasional modern bicolor Collie would not surprise me. The original Collies, pre-Victorian fashion, were mostly tricolors and merles; sable came in through a stunningly lovely dog with what was then a rare color who won all the shows in 1880-something and got bred to everyone. At that point, they were closer to what we now call a Border Collie and the Victorians called a farm collie. Those are predominantly bicolor with some tris, some merles and even the rare sable.
Here's a bi-blue Border Collie. :) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Blue_merle_Border_Collie.jpg
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-10-02 05:53 pm (UTC)bi-blue Collies---well, they aren't supposed to. Merle is a dilution gene, so a blue merle like Chaos is a tricolor dog with the dilution gene, and a bicolor-blue like Coba is a black and white (called 'bi-black' in Shelties) with the same gene. Bi-black and bi-blue Collies are not recognized or shown; according to this website, http://www.snovali.com/other/colors.htm, "this color is only possible in Shelties and not in Collies. The breed that contributed the bicolor gene to the Sheltie is not in the Collie ancestry."
I find this an interesting bit of information given that many of the original 'toonies,' as the Shetland crofter's dogs were called before Shelties were created by crossing them with Collies, were black or bi-black. Since tricolor is dominant and most of the sables are carrying it as well, bicolor is somewhat rarer than tri even in Shelties.
All this aside, though, the occasional modern bicolor Collie would not surprise me. The original Collies, pre-Victorian fashion, were mostly tricolors and merles; sable came in through a stunningly lovely dog with what was then a rare color who won all the shows in 1880-something and got bred to everyone. At that point, they were closer to what we now call a Border Collie and the Victorians called a farm collie. Those are predominantly bicolor with some tris, some merles and even the rare sable.
Here's a bi-blue Border Collie. :) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Blue_merle_Border_Collie.jpg