What is wrong with Black Dogs? - Page 1

I had never breed blacks. I have been breeding for Show purposes since 1993, but despite the fact I like the black collor I just didnt find a good one at the shows, in fact, I found very feel black dogs in the Showring. I just want to know if there is anything wrong with blacks, some people say they dont got good bone structure, other say it is just a matter of preference. In my point of view it can be just a matter of hard work, if somebody dedicates his time developing it, they probably can be as competitive as anyother collor. If there is a biger problem with black Dogs, please tell me!

There is nothing wrong with black dogs. They are perfectly good "working dogs". In the show ring they do not stand a chance with black&red. They have to be much, much, much better to be placed in front of the black & red dog. Matter of prefference, fashion, whatever you want to call it. Most of the show dogs are black&red, purely black dog is difficult to "fit in the breed". Only black & black will give black. I even heard one SV Judge (On the video tape) interviewed on the show in USA saying: "When we talk about black dogs the first thing that comes to my mind is :BLACK IS WHITE".

HI Jose', I personally like the deep dark pigmant of the laquer blacks. I am into the working lines and asked a friend who is very familiar with the show lines the same question. He informed me that there are and were several all black GSD's that did well in the show ring. The bias against them is that they can not see the dogs expression because of the all black face. Body structure is difficult to see becaue of the all black body. Then you have the bias of if it's not black and red get to the back of the line. This is what I have been told. There was a tread on this topic some time ago. Hope you get your answer. Kyle

Kandi is right. I have a sable stud and a black and tan stud and both carry the black recessive. When I breed either of them to a bitch that carries the black recessive, I usually get about 1/4 of the litter black.

found a black dog who went V11 im sure there are more. V12 Vello von der Niddereiche

A dog like Vello would not fare so well in the show ring today. Black dogs are notorious for accentuating every little flaw the dog might have (every dog has some). With no option to hide anything. They have a clear disadvantage in comparison to multi-coloured dogs like the traditional black and tan. Not just in shepherds, but just about every breed that has black as part of their accepted colours, their owners will tell you blacks are harder to show. Show line breeders will breed what brings better results in the show ring. There are some black V rated dogs still around today that do have excellent conformation, but the blacks have long been bred just with working line pedigrees. The working line dog of today simply does not have the same structure as a show line dog. Some come close, but hardly close enough. So in short, today there are no black show line dogs. There is nothing wrong with the blacks, they are just part of a different focus in terms of breeding purpose. And yes, you do not need a black parent to get black offspring. Some show line dogs do have black as a recessive way back and when mating a black dog with a show line dog, you might get the odd black pup. All resulting pups will be black recessive even if not black themselves. Black recessive does not have to be from just one generation back, it can be several generations back. You could develop a string of black show line dogs over the course of several generations of breeding blacks and show lines, but all things being equal the blacks will still have a disadvantage. Breeding blacks to blacks over several generations with no other colours will produce problems over time. There are some breeders specializing in just this colour, and often forget to include bi-colours and black sables to preserve pigment. Colour is not equal pigment. You can have a jet black dog with poor pigment. Eventually both colour and pigment will degrade and give way to blue, slate grays and whites.

I saw a super dog that was all black in the showring not that long ago. I am not the biggest fan of all black but really liked this one. So in my opinion they are out there, you just have to look.

A black male working line dog, Anouc Lar Leomeg, went V4 at the 2003 specialty show in Slovakia. He was also featured in the 2003 Europa Sieger Calendar. Ang

I stand corrected. The thing is that only black & black will for sure give black. When black apperas from other combination it is a "surprise" dont you think. Show people do not want surprises, they want black & red.

I have heard that a black dog can improve pigment on a litter. So if you have a bitch with poor pigment you should breed her to a black dog and if you have a dog with poor pigment you should breed him to a black bitch. Is this true?