Blue Merle Dog Lookalike: Mottled Coat, Real Face

A blue merle dog's lookalike is the real dog whose face sits closest to yours, not another dog that merely shares the mottled coat. Upload one clear photo and PetMatch compares that face with the dogs already in the pool. The same marbled pattern is a recognized color on the Collie, the Shetland Sheepdog, the Cardigan Welsh Corgi, and the Old English Sheepdog. Those breed pools hold 239 Collies, 177 Shetland Sheepdogs, 139 Cardigan Welsh Corgis, and 121 Old English Sheepdogs.

A mottled coat, not a breed

Blue merle is a pattern laid over a breed's own head. The Collie standard approved May 10, 1977, lists four colors with no preference: sable and white, tri-color, blue merle, and white. Blue merle is a mottled or marbled color, predominantly blue-grey and black, with white markings as on a sable and white, and usually tan shading as on a tri-color. The head is still a lean, blunted wedge. In profile the skull and the muzzle lie in two roughly parallel planes of equal length, divided by a very slight stop. The eyes are almond-shaped and medium. Except on blue merles they must match. On a blue merle, dark brown is preferable, but either eye or both may be merle or china without a specific penalty. The Smooth Collie uses the same standard except for coat: short, hard, dense, and flat, with no rough mane.

The Shetland Sheepdog standard, reformatted July 18, 1990, names black, blue merle, and sable from golden through mahogany, with varying white and tan. Eyes must be dark, and blue or merle eyes are allowed in blue merles only. A faded blue is a fault, and so is a blue merle with no mottling, which the standard says generally looks like a faded tri-color. The head is a long blunt wedge, skull and muzzle equal, with a slight but definite stop. Ears are small and carried three-fourths erect. Height is 13 to 16 inches. A Collie stands 24 to 26 inches for dogs and 22 to 24 for bitches, so a photo with no size cue can put a Sheltie beside a Rough Collie.

Cardigan merle, and the corgi that is not

The Cardigan Welsh Corgi standard, approved December 13, 1994 and effective January 31, 1995, calls blue merle black and gray, marbled, with or without tan or brindle points. There is no color preference. Blue eyes, including a partially blue eye or one dark and one blue, are allowed only on blue merle and are a disqualification in any other color. The nose is black. On a blue merle a butterfly nose is tolerated. On any other color a nose that is not solid black is a disqualification. The ears are large, erect, and slightly rounded, and the muzzle is about three parts to five against the skull, with a definite but moderate stop.

The Pembroke Welsh Corgi standard, approved June 13, 1972 and reformatted January 28, 1993, limits the coat to red, sable, fawn, and black and tan, with or without white. A bluish or smoky cast, which the standard calls bluies, is a very serious fault, associated with extremely light or blue eyes and with liver or gray pigment on the eye rims, nose, and lips. The Pembroke pool holds 273 dogs. A marbled coat with large erect ears belongs with the 139 Cardigans.

Gray, grizzle, blue, or blue merle

The Old English Sheepdog standard, approved February 10, 1990 and effective March 28, 1990, allows any shade of gray, grizzle, blue, or blue merle, with or without white, or the reverse. Brown and fawn are distinctly objectionable. The eyes may be brown, blue, or one of each. A blue eye as a pearl, china, or wall eye is typical. An amber or yellow eye is most objectionable. The skull is square and capacious, the stop well defined, and the whole skull covered with hair. That fall can hide the mottling and one eye. The ears lie flat to the side. The Old English Sheepdog lookalike finder covers the head under that coat.

What the matcher can use

Merle breaks pigment into irregular patches, and where those patches land is set as the coat develops, so the map is a poor copy target. PetMatch scores eye spacing, the stop, muzzle length against the skull, and ear set. A brown eye beside a blue eye is part of that read, and a photo that loses one eye in shadow can rank away from dogs that share the skull.

A mixed-breed dog that kept a merle coat and one of these heads can place ahead of the purebreds. The model is matching the face in the photo, not guessing at a pedigree. Mixed Breed is the largest group in the pool, at 10,187 of the 53,123 pets across 70 breeds.

A photo that shows the marble and both eyes

Shoot head-on at eye level in open shade, mouth closed, so both eyes, the stop, and the base of each ear stay in the frame. Open shade keeps blue-grey from flattening and keeps a blue eye distinct from a brown one. Leave the ears as the dog carries them, and on an Old English Sheepdog part the fall just enough that each eye shows.