Blue Harlequin

Question
We recently received an 18 month old female great dane. she looks like a leopard seal pup with a few white patches on her chest and toes. (Dark grayish blue with black spots). Her previous care giver told us that she was a blue harlequin. Does this exist? I'm assuming she meant Merle would this be right? She also said that she is registered with the AKC and that she is waiting for the AKC to transfer the papers from her brother. She has also told us that she was bred to a harlequin on Feb 28th and is about 3 weeks along. I'm worried about this since so many websites recommend that you should not breed Merle's. She also stated that she has been shown and that she is now disqualified because of a small piece missing from her ear. I have also read that there are not shows for Merle's, is this all true? At any rate whether any of this is true or not. She is in a home she will stay in she is the most sweet and loveable dog and fits right in with our English Mastiffs. Thanks for your time in answering these questions!

Answer
It certainly sounds as though you have a merle.  Blue harlequins are pure white with large smoke-grey patches.

Merles are not showable.

A small piece missing from her ear would not disqualify her from being shown.

She will probably have the sweetest pemporament you could wish for, just make shure none of the resident dominant mastiffs bully her as she will be too soft to stand up for herself.

Ken