gsd colors - Page 7

An unbroken line of solid colours in a predigree is a good indication that dominant black is present and even more convincing is the large percentage of black progeny from a suspected dominant black dog, as in the dog that Christine gave a link to.... but the only way to be sure would be to DNA test a suspect dog.  It's not a recognised test for the breed but the K locus is the same gene in all breeds and I'm sure Healthgene would be happy to oblige if someone was willing to pay.

ETA: Here's the link if anyone is considering this :)
http://www.healthgene.com/canine-dna-testing/price-list-for-canine-dna-tests/

Another good indicator of the dominant black gene is the presence of solid black puppies in every litter, no matter the female, no matter the pedigree. What are the chances that that many conformation bitches have the black recessive despite generations of only black-red ancestors and being linebred on black-red ancestors? If it was just one or two crop-outs, I'd buy the dog being a standard recessive black.

In addition, you see the number of solid black puppies per litter is high--not just one per litter. With a dominant black gene, heterozygous, you'd see 50% of the puppies being solid black. Normally with 2 parents with the recessive black, you get about 25% black puppies. (Although, to be fair, note that I have sample selection bias--it is highly likely that the pictures of black puppies are *more likely* to be on the PDB than just the "ordinary" black/red pups...)

And a final point is that the non-black puppies have normal conformation-line pigment--there is no "residual" improvement of the saddle or mask and very few blanket-back or bicolor puppies.

Christine

"And a final point is that the non-black puppies have normal conformation-line pigment--there is no "residual" improvement of the saddle or mask and very few blanket-back or bicolor puppies."

Ah yes, good point.  I didn't think of that.

     I'm wondering if the fact that this dog is King Shepherd has any bearing on the color pattern.
A King Shepherd is in no way a German Shepherd,and shouldn't be compared to German Shepherd.
   These dogs stretch further from German Shepherds than Tina's Shiloh's. A king Shepherd has a few dogs in the mix.

	American dog breeders Shelley Watts-Cross and David Turkheimer developed this large breed from American and European German Shepherd Dogs, Alaskan Malamutes, and Great Pyrenees. An official breed club was established in 1995.
Group	Herding
Recognition	ARBA, AKSC, WWKC, ERBDC, SKC, APRI, DRA

     I just met a King Shepherd last week. Nice temperment, but that was about it. Floppy ears, looking just like what they are mixed with.
    And I'm a fan of big GERMAN Shepherds.