I too love the blaze on collies, and always thought that it immensely adds
to expression rather than detracting.  One of our pups is white with sable
merle markings and he has a beautiful white blaze running in a slant down
his nose.  When younger it was narrower, but has gotten wider and more
pronounced with age.  He's five months old now.  Without that blaze his
expression would be much more ordinary.  Someday I hope to breed for that
characteristic.

Annie



----- Original Message -----
From: jan <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 1999 9:58 AM
Subject: Re: Blaze


> At 8:34 AM -0400 4/29/99, Dean Mair wrote:
> >At 07:10 AM 4/29/99 -0400, jan wrote:
> >
> >>..... We now know where those lethal whites come from, but I bet there
> >>was a time that the problems with those pups was blamed on too much
white
> >>and not on the combination of too much merle gene.
> >>        That's my guess about why the blaze fell out of favor...
> >
> >Me thinks you are looking too deep. There is lots of talk about how the
> >collie is a head breed. Everything revolves around the "expression" the
dog
> >has. Some feel that collies are judged in the ring primarily for their
> >head. Its ok if they can't move as long as they have a good head. So
> >anything that detracts, in someone's mind, from the "expression" would be
> >ignored.
>
>         that answers it fine for the show folks who thought the blaze was
> too "common" looking (or so I've been told. But it doesn't explain why
farm
> folks (the "common" people the show people were trying to seperate the
> collie from...) shunned the wide blaze....
>