# Losing the black



## bigboy

Sierra is Hunter's sister she is smaller then him and looks more like a german shepherd when we first got them has pups she had black on her back and head and legs she looked like a husky, but now her black on her back is less before I would have called her a blanket back but how it looks like if you painted two black puddles on her with space apart. So my questions is will she lose all her black or just stay that way and I also thought when german shepherds get older thier color gets darker?


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## JKlatsky

Sable German Shepherds get darker as they get older, since as young pups they are sort of a gray caramel color. Ex. Tag as a puppy @ 12 weeks than 5 months.

















Black and Tan shepherd pups almost always get lighter developing their saddle. Females will also develop what's called a bitch stripe- which is the lighter stripe of hair down the middle of the back. As to how light she'll get it just depends on genetics. 

I don't have any pictures of black and tan pups since all of mine have been sable but I know there's been threads before of all the changes they go through!


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## gsdraven

It depends on the color, sables tend to get darker and black & tans will lighten up. 

Just for reference, here is my Raven is 3 months old. Notice she has a lot of black.










And here she is at about 1.5 years old. Notice she lost a lot of the black and has more of a saddle now. 








She is now 3 years old but her coloring hasn't changed much since this picture.


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## Jax08

Jax is a blanket back.

Jax at 3 months










Jax now


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## gsdraven

Jax, are you sure that's the same dog? She really did lighten up didn't she?! What a pretty girl.


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## onyx'girl

Bi-colors are the only ones that stay the same(other than black and white GSD's) Some black and tan's will keep a blanket, you can usually tell by the parents pattern if they may be blanket-backed. 
Many showline black and tans will get a bitch stripe as they mature, making them even less black on thier spine and neck area.
Here is my blanket long coat and my bi-color(at 7 mos):








Kacie~ the long coat & Taz~ black and tan littermate(who is in the middle of losing his dark coat) to my bi-color Onyx:








my sable pup:








and his "big boy coat":


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## Jax08

gsdraven said:


> Jax, are you sure that's the same dog? She really did lighten up didn't she?! What a pretty girl.


Crazy, isn't it?! LOL Her face really lightened up after about 9-12 months. That's when the black really receded.


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## Samba

I had a WGSL girl who had the fading saddle gene. As a pup she was very dark with a blanket but eventually faded even her saddle spots. She was often mistaken for a sable then.


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## Mrs.K

Indra as a puppy and Indra now. She has really lightened up too.


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## Xeph

Strauss is often mistaken for a sable (I actually asked our new vet to correct his color as they listed him as sable). He's just got poor color.

Strauss at 8 weeks









Strauss at 6 years


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## robinhuerta

I would love to see more pigment in the WGSL's.....too bad there are not many rich sable dogs still being used...and I haven't seen a bi-color yet....(at least I can't remember). I do know that Haus Dexel and the Arlett Kennels have incorporated SL & WL....so perhaps they have had other color variations....?


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## ChristenHolden

Lol My vet tried to list bella as a black and tan because they never seen a sable and didn't know what to call her mollted color look.


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## bigboy

oh ok yeah Sierra and Hunter's coats are odd Hunter is a plush and Sierra is some what a plush and short hair. We think Sierra's daddy was a border collie cause her and three of her sisters who are all black look bc, has for Hunter he is just blond with brown and his markings are like a gsd diamond almost will his brown get darker I know black and tans light up and the pic of Jax now was like how Sierra looked has a puppy but her ears were down. Has for their lines there mom might have not been a pb gsd she looked like it but that was cause she had worms but after she got better I could tell she was shorter and she looked way to fluffy and she looks fat but that might be from the fur.


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## Shoaib Ahmad

Is this a gsd


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## jakewojtowicz66

Mrs.K said:


> Indra as a puppy and Indra now. She has really lightened up too.


What color is she considered? My puppy at 8 weeks looks a lot like yours. Mostly black. Brown legs and cheeks with traces of white on the chest and legs.

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