The breeder of at least 2 of these puppies is on this board and this group, but not sure if she going to do another litter or not, the breeder she also got her dogs from in Texas also has blues. I believe her name is Stephanie - but I'd have to look.

I don't think the coat color effect the texture. Even within the same color, one may have more smooth, soft hair and another may have areas with more coarse and wavy hair. Both are normal for Corgis. Finnigan is my blue merle Cardigan and his fur is very soft and silky but along his back the hair is more coarse and thick with some wave to it. My Mom's blue merle cardigan is not as soft as Finn anywhere on his body.

Growing up I had blue merle Aussie and she was not as soft as Finnigan is. Nutrition and diet can affect this as well.

I know this is an old thread, but I used to breed blues (Great Danes, not corgis) so I know a little about the color and why it's accepted/not accepted in the breed standard.

Blue in Pembrokes and the merle color often called blue in Cardigans is not the same thing. It drives me crazy, in fact, that so many breeds call merle "blue," because it's not. Merle is (basically) a black (or solid color) gene fighting with a white gene, and sometimes one wins and sometimes the other does. So the mouse-grey color of a merle dog is actually a salt and pepper of white, grey, and black hairs. It's not a blue.

Blue is also called the Maltese dilution and it's found in many animals, not just dogs. It is a recessive gene and both parents must carry it to have it expressed in the puppies. In other words, it's not the dad's fault or the mom's fault. It's always (and must be) equal on both sides.

The reason blue (Maltese dilute) is discouraged in so many breeds is that the color is not just a dilution of normal melanin, or a genetic quirk that only allows certain melanin pigments to show up (like red or chocolate or fawn). The dog looks blue because it actually has abnormal melanin granules that clump up in the hair shafts and in the hair follicles instead of being normally spread out.

In a lot of blue dogs, you just have the clumpy melanin granules and he would look very weird under a microscope but that's as far as it goes. The dog is perfectly healthy otherwise. However, in some dogs - and at this point we don't know why, or what the genetic basis is - the melanin clumps enough that the hair shaft and follicle become deformed. Picture stuffing six dog toys in a nylon stocking and you've got the basic idea.

Where the melanin clumps have bulged out the hair shaft, the shaft can break in half and spill the melanin and its associated "stuff" (various chemicals, basically) on the skin (or the melanin can spill into the hair follicle). Those chemicals are cytotoxic; they kill cells. The result is a dog who has "hair loss" - actually hair breakage - over the blue areas and a constant low-grade infection and damaged skin where the hair loss has occurred. They're itchy and scaly and greasy and, while it can be managed well, it's no fun for the dog or the owners.

Many breeds - Danes and Weimaraners would be great examples - have very little of this disease, called color dilution alopecia. Their blue individuals seem to do just fine, and breeders are very careful to keep it that way. However, "very little" doesn't mean "none" - the disease has been recorded in both breeds. And some breeds, like the Doberman, have CDA so widespread that it's incredibly rare to find ANY blue or fawn (which is chocolate + blue) dog without some hair loss and skin issue. The black or chocolate parents have completely normal coats but the blue or fawn puppies will begin to lose hair at a year or 18 months old.

Because of this disease, and because blue is always to some extent evidence of abnormal hair, where the blue (Maltese) color has not been an important part of the breed's history or where it is not widespread, many breed clubs have chosen to discourage it. They'd rather not have it become common in a breed. If and when the genetic or environmental cause of CDA is discovered, maybe some of the attitudes will relax, but at this point it's actually not a bad idea to avoid deliberately producing the color -- especially in a breed where we don't have good data on CDA incidence and when you can't look at a baby puppy and tell whether it's going to have CDA. By the time it did show up the owners would be very attached and then be stuck with a lifetime of intensive management of an uncomfortable disease.