# Just by the picture



## Catu (Sep 6, 2007)

And without further information... could you say what color this dog is?


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## BlackthornGSD (Feb 25, 2010)

Looks like a saddle marked sable to me.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

Patterned sable here, too.


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

agree , nice sable


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## Xeph (Jun 19, 2005)

Saddled sable


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## Dragonwyke (Jul 21, 2011)

how's beautiful sound? :thumbup:

dw


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## Catu (Sep 6, 2007)

BlackthornGSD said:


> Looks like a saddle marked sable to me.


That is what I thought, until I saw the pedigree:
V Akela iz Dijakova Gorodisha - German Shepherd Dog

Father could be sable, but looks more like a very matted b&t, and even if he is sable, where the sable comes from? It was my understanding that to have a sable, at least one of the parents must be sable.

Last night I posted here with the hope of someone seeing a black and tan, maybe hints I can't see or don't know, but today I had the brilliant (yeah... it was very late last night) idea of looking at the siblings, and there are sables. So this dog is indeed a saddle marked sable then... What am I missing? :thinking:

I am sure someone will come and say something that was obvious from the beggining and I'll bang my head against the wall 


JFYI: This is a random dog I found looking for my own Akela, I don't know him nor anything about him.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I would say patterned sable. The sire looks sable and goes back to Timo (well known sable show line). There is also an Arlett dog in the sire's pedigree, can't tell if that dog is sable but Arlett is known for sable show lines and there are some behind that dog as well.


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## BlackGSD (Jan 4, 2005)

I would say the sable came from Timo(and beyond). All of the males on the top side, back to Timo look like patterned sables to me.


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## trudy (Aug 25, 2008)

his sire is a sable, and his parents look black and tan, so I would question the accuracy of his parentage...I would bet the DNA would not stand up...just my guess


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I think Yugo is a patterned a sable. He has several sable progeny when mated with black and red/tan females with no sable at least not as far as I checked. I found some other pics of him (not on PDB) and he looks no less patterned sable than my patterned sable female. Also I found a 2-2 on him that produced only sables (there are six littermates pictured).


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## Catu (Sep 6, 2007)

Yugo is the harder to distinguish, then Timo is easier to determine as sable as long as you are looking for it.

So my lesson of today is: In order for a sable to succeed in the show ring, they must look like their cookie-cutter b&t siblings :laugh:


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

Depends. This is a 2x V-rated KKL1 (including Sieger Show) dog that placed above a now VA1 rated show line. I'd consider him a dark sable (IMO he's actually darker than in this pic) and not patterned.










Generally the sables that campaign in shows are the redder, patterned type. I honestly don't know how the genetics work but typically these show line sables all descend from Timo and/or sable Arlett dogs and all end up more of a patterned look. It is rare to see the darker, working line type sables in shows, especially more than the once or twice they do for a breed survey and that's it. I don't think they would place lower just because they are not patterned. Dogs cannot place if they do not enter.


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