Question about Blue Harlequin

Question
I purchased a blue harlequin puppy. She is now 18 weeks old, but I had been to see her at least weekly from the day she was two days old until she was six weeks and I brought her home. She was white with blue patches. The older she has got, most of her white has turned silvery. Not exactly merle, a little lighter. Does this happen with most blue harlequins? Her mother's papers say that she is a harlequin, and she is now merle. Do the merle's not always start out merle?

Answer
I would question first of all the ethics of your breeder...first off, puppies should NEVER leave their litter mates to go home to their families BEFORE 8 weeks, so that is a red flag right there that you were dealing with a person who has no business breeding dogs.

Second, blue harlequin is not a recognized color by any registry, and I am unsure of the sire's color but since the mother is a harlequin I assume that the father must be the carrier of the blue gene. I hope that you were not swindled into believing that this is a rare color.

As far as the color of your puppy is concerned, these colors are not meant to be bred together, therefore I cannot tell you what the outcome out be, and why your puppy is changing colors. They do tend to get a little lighter as they get older, but I do not think that has anything to do with the puppy turning a merle color although merle is carried in the Harlequin gene.

I hope this answers your question, although I cannot say with certainty because like I mentioned before, it is unethical to breed the harlequin and blue colors together.