Black GSD puppy with sable(ish) tail?! - Page 1

Hello,
This seems like a very silly question but I am curious, so I will ask anyway. Is it common for an (otherwise) all black GSD puppy to have a tail that has a blend of colors underneath? Both of his parents are sable. His sire is pretty dark sable. I would upload a photo but I have no idea how. Lol

to upload a picture

enable editor

click on the image icon bottom  row last box 

click on upload then click on choose file

this must be a picture in your computer so it is a file

then click on send to server

follow the directions from there.

IMO (without seeing pics yet): He is either a VERY dark Sable himself, (most likely), or he's an 'all-black' with what we call 'bleed-through' colour. Lots of Black dogs have some bleed-through colours on their legs these days, confined to the tail is less common. Sable-to-Sable matings are unlikely to produce a 'proper' Black & Gold, genetically.

Also, you wrote "underneath", so this may just be variations in the grey of the undercoat showing. Not all GSD undercoats are 'iron grey', far from it ! Or even consistent in colour over the whole body ...

How old is he ? The GSD coat pattern appears a very flexible thing until at least after the first moult, but dogs are BORN one of two things: Black (with variable amounts of Gold/Tan) OR Sable. And eventually the adult coat will revert to (basically) whichever that was, and more or less settle down. [I have had Black & Gold dogs who retained a distinctly 'coat of many colours' appearance throughout adult life, when you looked closely at them, because of differences in tones of colour and degree of depth of pigment. And then there is the 'bitch-stripe' to consider. :-) ...]

Did you see him as a very young puppy, or can the breeder supply a less-than-2-weeks photo ? Usually, which true colour shows itself briefly but clearly at the beginning.

Always remember, "no good dog is a bad colour", no matter what you thought you were buying !

 My girl Sasha was solid black as a puppy, but as she ages she has got tan bleeding through on her legs. Here is her gallery showing from a puppy to adult her color changes:

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/galleries.html?gallery=65172

She really does look more like a bi-color now. Her mother is a sable and her father is a solid black.

 

And then there is my male Sam who was a red and black sable. His breeders said he would be a nearly solid black sable. And he was very dark when we got first got him at 8 weeks old, but as he grew his coloring lightened dramatically. Sam ended up a saddled sable in the end, which you can see in his gallery along with his coloring from a puppy to an adult: http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/galleries.html?gallery=65893

The breeder shared with me that this was the first time these two paired together had produced a solid black Gsd. I actually like them, so I don’t care either way. The question is whether it’s normal for him to have so many not black hairs in his undercoat/under his tail? I have owned a solid black GSD previously and he had no other colors at all but i never saw him as a puppy. The picture of his tail won’t upload (it says it’s too large) so aim still working on that. Thanks for all of the opinions!!

You simply can not have one and be another.

If he is genetic, non-dominant black, then he is not Sable. If you see any other color than black than he is Sable.

All the degrees of such are included for free.