Black Shepherds Revisted - Page 1

I understand that black is not desired in the show ring but would adding black to the showline would that help solve the problem of dogs without solid saddles. From my understanding when a dog carries the black recessive they tend to have an extensive amount of black. I have seen some black dogs get V in the show ring and they also carry the working line wouldn't that also help the gene pool and workability of the showline dogs?

An example of a nice black male that I was talking about would be Buster vom Adelmannsfelder Land. He is a solid black male and V kkl 1

I can't answer the question, but I was wondering if anyone has ever seen an all black long coat. Just curious, I've never seen one.

yup, saw one this weekend... looked like a black bear!! You would have thought he was fat too until you put your hands on him... there was that much coat there!!

I have a 7 month old longcoat that is a bi-color. He is ALL coat- he looks like he would weigh a ton but I weighed him on our hanging scales and he just weighed 58lbs. He was the only longcoat in a litter of 10-Don't know where he came from!!!

I just looked up ped of Buster vom Adelmannsfelder Land and the Dam to my 7 month old bi-color longcoat is bred along the same lines. 3(Buster) - 3(Berlin)........................... in V Urs aus der Hopfenstraße 4(Buster) - 3(Berlin).............................. in V Xento von der Maineiche 4(Buster) - 4(Berlin).............................. in SG Bert vom Schloß Landestrost 4(Buster) - 4(Berlin)........................... in G Kora aus der Hopfenstraße My female is Berlin Von Mayohaus and almost all her pups were bi-color.

gimme10mins, http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/pedigree/409420.html This is my male Bennie-his Dam was pure workinglines and her mother(Nira) was a solid black.His Sire was all show lines. He came out Very black and dark red. Lost alot of size, as he is only 63cm.

The "problem" with solid black dogs, according to several Koermeisters I have spoken to (ie why do some Koermeisters frown on black dogs?) - is that black is not considered good pigment. RED is considered good pigment, not how much black coverage they have (of course they are also looking at correct black coverage, not washed-out and true black mask/muzzle too). According to the Koermeisters, breeding to a black dog might increase black coverage (and of course give the puppies the black recessive gene) but it WILL NOT improve red pigment, which is what is really considered good pigment - the red undercoat. Black dogs will not improve the red. Red sable dogs are actually the best to breed to if you want to improve pigment. To improve both black coverage AND red pigment, breed to a black sable dog with good red basecoat. Molly

http://www.arlett.de/berichte/sables.htm They discuss improving pigment- interesting read.