Very dark sable? - Page 1

Hi so this girl is from a Black male and a light patterned sable. Never seen a dark sable like this. Tricked me when a pup was black but then at 2 months started getting the sable line and started to get color. Just curious. 

Dad

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=2605532-zeus-gladicus Mom

Mom

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=2810944-misty-blue-sandoval

Could very well be a seal -- which is a dominant black dog with some modifier that allows the agouti pattern to leak through. I think mom is a black and tan, too. You should do the Embark testing and it will answer all the questions. :)

Christine

So, in a parallel discussion, a friend of mine just told me that she had bred a number of dogs from a bloodline behind your dog that also were black as puppies and turned "black sable" as the dog matured. And in those cases, neither parent was black, so dominant black wasn't a possibility. So, it looks like this may be an undocumented color variation. Possibly it's seal coming through recessive black. If you're curious, you can find more in the Facebook discussion group "Coat Color and Genetics". The dog behind your dog that she was referring to is this dog: http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=499030-jake-von-jeep-von-kinderhaus

Thank you . The mom is patterned sable I believe because she had 2 sable puppies in the litter as well. It was one full black, 2 black ones that could end up similar to this one because their black is is starting to show a faint black line and they are lighter than the real black pup. 2 look like they will be black and tan. This is my second litter and trying to learn genetics a bit because I want to do this full time when retired :D But surprised me with this one. I will check that post out!