The basic body colors of Australian Shepherds are Red and Black

1. THE BLUE MERLE IS GENETICALLY A BLACK DOG CARRYING THE MERLING GENE (which breaks up the black color into a pattern of black patches on Grey).
2. THE RED MERLE IS GENETICALLY A RED DOG CARRYING A MERLING GENE (which breaks up the red color into a pattern of red patches on beige).

The four recognized colors for Australian Shepherds are: black, blue merle, red and red merle.

Any of the four recognized colors may appear as:

• "solid", no white or copper trim
• "bi" -- solid black (or blue merle) or solid red (or red merle) with white trim and no copper
• "tri" - solid black (or blue merle) or solid red (or red merle) with copper and white trim

All blacks and blue merles have black noses and eye rims, and all reds and red merles have liver/brown noses and eye rims.

Blue eyes and and brown eyes flecked with blue are common in merles.