Aussiedoodle
Aussiedoodles are a popular Doodle cross – they are the result of pairing Poodles with Australian Shepherds. The resulting dogs can come in a range of colors and sizes. If a Mini Aussie and a Toy Poodle are crossed, the offspring are Mini Aussiedoodles and can be as small as just 10 inches tall, Crossing a Standard Poodle with a large Australian Shepherds produces tall and strong offspring that can be as heavy as 55 pounds.
Because crossing these two breeds combines the color and pattern variations of both the Poodle and the Australian Shepherd, the possible color combinations of the puppies are endless.
From all-white over cream and apricot-colored to tri black, grey, parti-colored and of course merle, you can pick your favorite color among many choices! The merle gene is introduced into this cross from the Australian Shepherd parent. If one parent is merle-patterned, statistically 50% of the offspring will carry the merle gene and show this coloring. In reality, statistics do not always play out perfectly of course – you could have an entire litter of merle-patterned puppies, or none at all.
If a parent carries merle, he will look merle. This also means that if you cross a solid colored Poodle and a non-merle Aussie, it is guaranteed that none of the offspring will have the merle coloring.