I must share with you this Aussie mix

Contender for most unique looking dog FOHA has ever had. Her name is Carlene. I think she should be renamed Harvey.

Pics from FOHA's facebook page.

She is super cute

I have such a soft spot for split faces <3

I've never seen a split face on a sable, very cool!

shes gooootttaaaaa be merle. i dont think masking can DO that. can it?! :yikes:

What a face! I have a soft spot for facial markings *-*

Very cool markings. Pretty dog!

*grabby hands* Beautiful and I totally agree with the name change

She looks like that chimera cat!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2377085/Bull-dog-chimera-contrasting-color-coat.html

That's what I thought at first but merling will ONLY act on the Eumelanin pigment never the phaemelanin pigment, she seems to totally lack black(eumelanin) pigment on the one side of her face. She' really got me stumped!

She's got to be a mosaic/chimera. I've never seen merle act that way. If the dog is red, it'll be red merle. If it's black, it'll be blue merle. Red with blue merle makes no sense.

Uh, there's so much wrong with that article I don't even know where to begin. A chimera is not two different SPECIES, and a black lab and yellow lab are certainly not two different species, not even different breeds! I'd question the cat, too, if it didn't say she was tested as a chimera, since it's a female. I sort of question it anyway just because the rest of the article is crap...

wouldnt the merling on a sable act on the red AND the masking? i cant bring to mind any sable merle collies or shelties that had heavy masks, just white blazes ><

edited to add:
Masks

A dog which is Eme, EmE or EmEm on the E locus will have a mask (Em, the mask gene, is dominant). The mask can be black, liver, blue or isabella depending on the dog's pigment. If the dog also has the merle gene, the mask will be merled. Because of this, masks are not be visible on solid merle dogs - they're just merled like the rest of the coat. However, tan-pointed merles with little to no face white sometimes display masks (recognisable because the areas which should be tan on the muzzle are merled instead). Sable (ayay) dogs have masks which are much easier to see. A dog which is ayayEmEmMm (homozygous for sable, homozygous for mask, heterozygous for merle) will appear solid red with a merled mask.

Merling does act on E masks, it will turn a black "e mask" to grey and black patches.

My Aussie Hawkeye has the e mask gene and he has merling on the right side of his mask. It's just hard to notice his "e" mask when the rest of his body is the same color as the mask, black.

Hmmmm, very interesting!

When Gambit was a younger, he looked sable merle with a blue merle mask and legs. http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=254320

It faded when he got older