Looking for a good family dog? (breeding, skin, rescue, adopt)

[Dashdog]

So often I see people post asking what dogs make great family dogs and today As I scrolled through Facebook and saw more photos from Amazing Aussies Rescue site of one of the dogs cuddled with a child I thought I would share.

The rescue takes in Homozygous Merle Aussies and even some other breeds that suffer from that condition. They are also called double merles or Lethal whites. Homozygous means they got identical genes from each parent so in these cases two merle coated dogs were bred together. The merle gene is a recessive gene and 1 in 4 puppies from such breeding will be homozygous ( but those are odds as it does not mean you have 4 puppies only one will be as all could be as it is a 4 in 1 chance)

They usually have way too much white in their coats sometimes are even solid white and often deaf or blind or have some vision issues or even both hearing and vision issues. They often are very loving very sweet dogs and make great pets.

As I was looking at yet more photos of them with kids I thought what great parents to adopt a dog such as this as not only do kids get a loving best friend but it teaches kids it is OK to be different.

My late Phoenix was homozygous and while her coat did not have as much white as most do she was born deaf with limited vision and was by far the sweetest dog I have ever met . I know when people met her and learned she had these handicaps and would say I did not know there was anything wrong with her as she seems like a normal dog there was a certain pride I felt for her. SO I could see a child telling some one about their special dog and the pride it could give them.

So I am posting this in hopes that some parent looking for a great family dog will take a look at these great dogs as they often show up in shelters or rescues.What would be better then a loving best friends that also teaches your kids that it is OK to be different and that even if you are you can live a normal life.