i dont know who my GSD is - Page 1

hi, i bought my GSD, Ben in August of last year and he is just about 14 months old now.  i dont have a whole lot of time outside work, but the time i do have is spent with Ben. He is always with me during my off time and he is a great dog from my point of view.  i am lucky enough to have two off leash dog parks in my area with tons of people who visit them which made socialzing him very easy.  People are always asking me, usually one to five people a week, "where did you get your german shepherd?" or  "he is so beautiful" or "wow what a friendly dog", i also get "what kind of shepherd mix is that" alot because he is all black and i guess people dont recognize them as GSD's as easily and people think he is a lab mix at first glance.

well, i know he is all german shepherd, but my question is what kind.

his pedigree on this website, when taken out to seven generations, shows a variety of different things. he has genes from the netherlands NHSB, he has SchH1-3 titled relatives as well as CH titled relatives. SZ registry relatives and AKC registry relatives along with a few DDR relatives. 

all of this background within seven generations has me confused about the best way to classify him. he is not angled like a show line dog, in fact, if you see him standing up he looks exactly like an all black Beowolf SZ/10 .

he is incredibly quick to learn new tricks, and although i have thought about SAR for a long time, even before i bought Ben for unrelated reasons, i have not and probably will not train him in any kind of event or sport. he has a high ball drive and pretty much an everything that moves drive.

does the fact that the majority of his relatives past 6 generations have schH titles make him a working dog?do his looks along with a few DDR relatives make him a DDR?

is he nothing because his parents and grand parents are not titled for anything?

he will never be nothing... i think you know what i mean.

edit - i forgot to give a link- oops www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/pedigree/551438.html

I would say Ben is Ben and is a German Shepherd.

Accept him for what he is not what some paper tells you .

He sounds like a great shepherd that many would love to own.

Too many people  forget to love the dog for the dog. Not sport titles, beauty, hips, pedigree and ect.

It is the dog that makes the pedigree what it is. a title is just that a title . I would take a BEST FRIEND title over a ScHH title anyday. To me that is worth more.

EK

Well said EK.

Melissa

You have basically a American dog. You have 2 east germen (ddr ) dogs in the 7th generation. The west and east dogs are to far back and to minimal. You just should except him as a American dog.

thank you.  also, he was all black as a pup... now at about 14 months he has some hairs on the underside of his tail that are about 3-4 inches long and half black at the base and the end half of these hairs are white or very light tan. the insides of his back legs are turning tan as well... and the backs of his front legs at the level where his dew claws are located are also showing signs of brown... is this normal?

something i have wondered... can a change in diet prompt a change in hair color?

at what point should i try to have his pappers changed from reading he is black to reading he is black and tan?

I have a 21 month old rescued GSD whose color has altered somewhat as he has aged - when we adopted him at six months he was very black with rich reddish tan markings on his legs and underside. As he has aged the red has morphed into more of a tan (very little red now), and he has more of it overall, including some new areas on his face. Since he is in excellent health I assume that this is his adult coat , and is normal for him. I haven't experienced diet changing coat color - but have run into health problems over the years with some of my past dogs which have: hypothyroidism and Cushing's disease (syndrome) are two that come to mind.

I concur with EK - a good dog is a good dog no matter where he comes from or what his parentage may be. We haven't a clue what is in our fellow's background, but he has an awesome temperament (gets along with friendly people and dogs) is very protective, seems to be healthy and is handsome to boot...... so at the end of the day this is all that matters.

He is solid black, even those have white hair and still considered solid black

it is not the papers that tell you who your shepherd is, it will tell you his history hopefully but not who he is, he is your companion, he is there when you wake up, go to bed, when you are sad/lonely, sick it is a constant in your life he is your best friend and a very handsome one at that I may add.

How lucky you are to have a best friend.

Gretsch,

Ben is a fine looking dog, he would be considered American line's and the trace's of color are normal for a black as long as his vent area is black.  He may change before he reach's two years some more.   He may be bi-color, but not blk&tan.

Food will not change anything.   I would not worry about his paper's.

A lot of people don't see black GSD's very often, I've had the same experience.   What kind of dog is that....LOL

RUN !!!  and I'll show you ..LOL

Are you doing any kind of training with him?    Tell us more, I love black's.

Moon's.

For all intents and purposes, your dog has American lines for the lineage that matters (i.e. parents, grandparents, great grandparents).  It's always interesting to see the lineage of your dog, so I'd take a few of those names and Google them or get into the AKC and see what you can turn up.

He's a very handsome guy and sounds like a lot of fun. 

MomofBeckett

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