Brindle Question - Page 1

I wanted to pick some brains here about the lost color of brindle.  I have a puppy that is 3 months old--my breeding--I kept her back because I really like her.  All the pups--5--were normal sable.  About 2 weeks ago I noticed this pup has some strange dark hair coming in her coat.  It is getting darker and more and more as time goes on.  It is almost like a merle or brindlely (as I call it) marking.  Her background color is a light gray and her legs are light tan.  Her mom was a blanket blk/tan and her dad a dark sable.  I am going to attach a couple of pics and see what you guys think.  Thanks in advance. 

Well, I can't give you an opinion on this as I don't know. But, very interesting whatever it is....and good luck!

WOW. I've wondered about that lost color in GSDs myself also. That's way cool-can you post more pics showing her like her entire side or something? Is she brindled throughout her entire body like what you show, or just in these spots?
I guess if she's a pup, the thing would be if she KEEPS the markings as an adult. Brindle boxers and such don't fade away their black/brown brindling with maturity-it stays, so I guess that would help maybe tell you something about it long-term.
I hope it IS personally-it would be really neat to see such!

here's one that is for sale came across him on puppyfind....sire is blk/red  dam is bi-color...no pedigree

I hate to say it, but as thin as the hair looks, it looks like she could have a staph infection?  The skin looks darker than the fur.  If it's the skin that is showing black vs the actual fur, she needs to see the vet to get an antibiotic.

Hope it's my eyesight or monitor playing tricks...

Sue-Ann

Sorry for that last one, must have twitched.....vonissk, can you provide a pedigree or parents colors and names? this is very interesting.. i have a geneticist friend and just forwarded this thead to her.. I know she will want more info

I'm really glad you kept her back; hopefully you plan to keep her, and post more pics as she grows.

I too want to know a bit more about the parents' lines, and see some pics showing all of her. Theoretically it's possible that brindle is hiding somewhere deep in the genetic makeup of a few dogs (uncommon, but existant, like purebred black-and-tan labradors). If that's the case, it's possible she could truly be a brindle GSD, which would make her a very unique pup.

Good luck with her, and keep us posted!

~J.C.

Brindle is a K locus pattern and the normal GSD allele on this gene is K^y (yellow) which is recessive to brindle K^br. 

Brindle is formed by dark stripes on a light background so the dog has to have tan marking to show the stripes so not possible for a black & tan to carry brindle without showing it, except possibly in rare cases where modifers reduce the intensitiy of striping.  The only GSD colours that could hide the brindle allele are recessive black and recessive yellow (white) and possibly bicolour if it was very dark. So for brindle to have progressed through the generations undetected there would have to be an unbroken line of these colours.

There's always the possibility that it's a new mutation.

wow there really are purebred black and tan labradors? i talked to a girl once that had a black and tan dog, i asked her was it part lab, she said the parents were purebred, one was a chocolate and one was a yellow. i couldn't believe it could look like that, but she insisted her dog was a purebred lab. i learn something new every day.

Interesting.  Please do post more pictures as she matures.  The photo that sjm posted does look like a brindle B&T GSD, such that can been concluded from one partial photograph.  Please do keep us updated.