Blonde Aussie? Colour genetics?

I was at the dog park today, and I saw a blonde Aussie. She looked to be out of non-show lines. She could have been out of working lines, or BYB- she looked sort of like a Mini Aussie mixed with a Golden. She was probably about 21" at the whithers and probably about 45lbs (she was tubby). She had one blue eye, and one brown. And, strangely enough, she was the colour of a Golden Retriever.

Think this:


In this colour (with the same white markings as above):


I asked if she was purebred, and her owners assured me that she was. They said the rest of her litter were red merles, and she's retained her blonde coloration since birth. Now... the rest of the litter were red merles, which suggests to me this might have been a merle x merle breeding. It still doesn't explain her coloration - she had minimal white markings on her.

So, colour/genetic nerds, any idea what might have been going on for her to express such a golden/blonde coloration?

Sounds like an ee red.

Here, they call it 'yellow' on here but it's the same thing as 'ee' or recessive red.

http://www.ashgi.org/color/yellow_aussies.htm

It's the same color as true red and white papillons, goldens, Aussie red border collies, etc.

The eyes might mean the dog was merle but merle doesn't show up on ee dogs.

^ yup this sounds ee to me

Yep. It sounds like an ee red, or pink as they say in Cardigans!

It most likely was a merle x merle breeding, if all of the puppies were red merles, which would make her genetically merle.

yup what they said

I know someone with a "yellow" aussie. He's from a BYB however but is purebred

Curious -- did you notice if she had a red or a black nose?

Well technically she's only guaranteed to be merle if one of the parents was a double-merle. If they were just merle (Mm) each pup had a 1/4 change of being solid.