A look into life with Amanda and her 5 dogs (most deaf/blind), some cats and hamsters. There's never a dull moment! Welcome to our page.
Baltimore, MD
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Welcome to our page. My name is Keller, and my little sis is Calamity, or Clam. We are both double merle Australian Shepherds. Both of us are deaf and we have some wonky eyes which give us a little difficulty seeing properly.
When I was 5 weeks old, my breeder was going to kill me because of the disabilities that they created. This isn’t uncommon for dogs like us and a lot of them aren’t so lucky. Many of us are facing death at a young age, but we don’t make it out. Thankfully I was saved and now I live an amazing life being totally normal.
I was my Ma’s first experience with a special needs dog and I helped her find her passion. With my Ma, and now my little sis, we travel around the country and speak on special needs dogs. My Ma started a non profit called Keller’s Cause to help us reach more people. That’s how my little sis came to us.
We love to show people just how normal a deaf and/or blind dog can be, while also educating on the irresponsible breeding that creates double merles. Oh, you don't know what a double merle is? That's okay, a lot of people don't. My ma is constantly educating people on this. So let's get scientific! A double merle is created when two merle dogs are bred together. It doesn’t matter what color merle or what breed they are. If two merle dogs are bred together, each puppy in the litter has a 25% chance of being born a double merle. A double merle inherits the merle gene twice. One copy of the merle gene causes a marbling effect on the coat and creates lighter spots throughout the solid color coat. In a double merle, the marbling/lightening effect is doubled and the coat becomes predominantly white. Double merles also have a very high chance of being deaf, blind, or both because they lack pigment where it would normally be. The pups that do not inherit the gene twice are “normal” dogs. Their coats are normally marked and they are not plagued with hearing or vision problems. These are the pups that a breeder wants, because they can profit from these pups. The double merles are often killed at birth just for being white, when it is still too early to tell if the dog will have any hearing or vision problems. They just assume, and kill them because they know that no one is going to pay big bucks for a “defective” dog, and it also reflects poorly on their breeding program. If they aren’t killed, they are often sold as rare white to unknowing people. These pups generally end up in a shelter or used as bait dogs in dog fighting rings when the buyer finds out they can’t see, hear or both. Once in a shelter, they still face death because no one wants a “defective” dog. There are about 20 different breed that are merle and it’s being crossed into more breeds all the time! Again, I will emphasize that merle is merle, the breed does not matter. You can breed a merle Pomeranian (yes they exist) with a merle Dane and get double merle puppies. Can you see how this is a problem? There are rescues all over dedicated to saving dogs like me. We love all the work they do, but wouldn't it be a great world if pups just weren't created with disabilities? Dogs like me are completely preventable, but yet so many are being born and put into rescue on a daily basis. So this is where my Ma and I step in. We want to make a change, we want to educate on merle to merle breeding, and we want to show the world that dogs with "disabilities" like me can really make wonderful pets. We started Keller's Cause in hopes of raising money to educate. We travel around to different dog events and teach people! It's a lot of fun. We also raise money to help rescue double merles! Thanks for being my friend and helping us change the world!
