Here are some interesting facts you will need to know BEFORE you breed your Australian Shepherd.
When you begin as a breeder of animals, ANY animals, you need to do some research and find out all you can about that type of animal BEFORE you begin your breeding program.  Then you should seriously consider why you have chosen to be a breeder and also what your goals are as a breeder  --- even if you just plan on "having one litter" . One of the biggest mistakes a person can make is to breed a pair of  dogs together just for the puppies and not give any regard to whether the pair compliments each other (ie. personality, color, confirmation, etc.) or even whether the pair is of breeding quality.
If you have chosen to breed Australian Shepherds -- Congratulations! BUT it does require much thought, planning and consideration. First evaluate your reason for wanting to be a breeder (even if only for one litter), and then decide if it is still good to go ahead. There are many reasons for wanting to raise a litter of puppies, there is the enjoyment (and work!) of the puppies themselves, there is the satisfaction of producing top quality Aussies; there is also the desire to bring in extra income with the idea that your dog would pay for itself. Please be careful with this last idea! You must be sure that you have a market for the pups and you will also need to know how to market them properly. Another good reason for wanting to raise a litter is to produce a top-quality pup for yourself with a particular trait that you desire.
When breeding Aussies (the short version of Australian Shepherd!), one of the first things to consider is color because the breed's beautiful merle colors have a lethal side. The homozygous merle puppy (usually white with maybe a few merling spots), produced from a merle to merle mating may be deaf and/or have eye problems ranging from slight to complete blindness. If you have a solid female you will probably want to breed her to a merle just to get a variety of merle and solid puppies. If you breed her to a solid dog you will get all solid puppies. WITH A SOLID COLORED DOG AS ONE OF THE PARENTS, YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANY PROBLEM WITH THE DEFECTIVE MERLING GENE!!!!
However if your female is a merle (like the one pictured above), you have a decision to make! Are you prepared to cull the defective puppies? A lot of times people think they will just give the defective puppy away. Can you imagine giving a puppy to a friend and then it getting run over because it didn't hear/see the vehicle approaching? If you are not able to cull defective puppies it would be better  for you to breed your  merled female to a solid dog. If you do go ahead and breed merle to merle here are some basic genetic facts for you to study:
The defective puppy is not caused by one defective gene. It is the unfortunate side of our merling genes which produce the gorgeous merling pattern. The defective puppy is the pure merle puppy which averages one puppy out of every four puppies in a merle to merle mating. Something that is not quite understood yet about the merling gene is how the gene breaks down the coloring in an otherwise solid dog, and also affects the ear and eye developement in the developing fetus. When the solid gene is present with the merling gene, the results are a perfectly sound merle dog. When the merle gene is joined with another merle gene (homozygous merle), a defective puppy is the result.
In litters from merle to merle matings, they will theoretically average one defective homozygous merle puppy out of four. This will vary from one to many defective puppies in a litter. If you cull all puppies with white OFF the blaze, collar, socks, white chest and belly patterns, there will not be any "borderline" pups. Defective pups are often primarily white with just patches of color, and nearly always have a lot of white on the head. Puppies with each eye surrounded with color, color over the ears, and no white on the body behind the shoulder should be sound. The patterns seem to be the key. Sometimes a puppy without very much white, but with mismarkings on the body, such as a stripe running up from the underside, will be defective.
There are many breeders who said they would keep excessively white puppies long enough to see if they are defective or sound. They are then faced with the hard job of having a cute, fuzzy, white puppy destroyed because it is deaf or blind or both. Some people give these dogs away or even sell them. If you really care about The Australian Shepherd breed (and your reputation!) don't do it!!!!! That white Aussie is advertising the breed wherever it goes as well as your breeding program! The best way is for you, the breeder, to cull those defective puppies at birth and then forget about it and enjoy your healthy, sound litter. Or, even better yet, just always breed solid to merle and avoid the whole mess entirely!!!!!!!!
There are some dogs in the breed with excessive white markings, but are sound dogs. They are carrying the genetic makeup like a pinto or piebald horse, which simply causes white spots. Also, puppies may be from a bloodline with a lot of white markings and a puppy is born where the white just went too far. Breeding these dogs is strongly discouraged for an obvious reason; if the breed carried genetic possibility for sound puppies to be marked like defective puppies, there would be no way to make a determination at birth. No one wants to have to wait five or six weeks to cull those cute little fluffballs!!!!  To keep these defective puppies easily identifiable, the excessively white Aussie must be kept out of the breeding program.
Also when you buy a puppy, if at all possible, check the coat colors of the preceeding generations! We bought a red merle male (pictured at right) a few years ago and neglected to check coat colors in the pedigree. Unfortunately, he had all merles in a five generation pedigree and when we bred him to our solid female, he produced four white puppies out of a litter of twelve puppies. They could see and hear but we were unable to register them. 
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