Breed ID (Trainer says Dutch, Rescue says GSD) - Page 1

November of last year I got what was listed as a GSD from a rescue organization.
When we took her to training the trainer said she was a dutch shepherd. I'm not 100% sure as all the pictures I have seen show them being brindle where as she was all black.

She is starting to get some gold fur on the back of her front legs and on the inside of her back legs.
For those of you who have had a dutch shepherd from a puppy did they start off black and then gradually change color or were they brindle right from the start?

Here is a picture before she started to grow in the gold fur.
She is approx 1 year old and 55 pounds.

When I got her she was missing half of her fur and had worms / giardia.
Once all that was cleared up her fur started changing colors so maybe she was just set back a few months growth wise.

I'm not 100% sure what she is (GSD, dutch shepherd, or a mix) but any opinions would be appreciated. 

If the tan she is getting is on the back of her front feet or between her toes that is normal for a German Shepherd that is considered Bi-color. She looks like pure GSD to me.
Beth

The tan is along the back of her legs but it occurs all the way up her legs and on the inside of her thighs.
Its possbile shes GSD albeit somewhat small compaired to pretty much all the GSD's I've seen.

The trainer seems convinced shes dutch shepherd for some reason but I guess he has worked with alot more of them as he does do protection training and tracking along side the obedience. Maybe it is her temperment as she does seem to have pretty high drive.

Thanks for the reply.

I would usually be more inclined to believe an experienced trainer over a shelter (for the reasons mentioned on a number of other current threads), although it would depend somewhat on the trainer !
Not all dutchies are brindles, I've seen photos of them where they are black, sometimes with brindle or tan/gold on the lower legs.  Your dog does not look as though there is very much of anything on the legs from these pix ?
They are basically pretty similar breeds - probably originally from much the same roots.  For me the shorter tail would probably indicate Dutch Shepherd. 
 
Added as 'edit':   the 'black' may be a 'dark steel grey/blue' variation, as permissable in the Dutch Shepherd's Standard.  In the picture, she looks more 'blue-black' than 'red-black'.  Or it could indicate a cross.

She looks Dutch to me also if you look for pictures of a Dutch Sheperd than she has lots of resemblanc e

These pictures are when she was all black the color changes just started over the past month or so.
I will have to take a couple of pictures when I get home to show the color on the legs.
At the group lessons with the trainer there are 3 GSD's there and a Mal/Lab mix and she doesnt really look like any of them size or proportion wise. 

We had two Dutchies in the past. From what I can see in the photos of your dog, her structure is somewhat different than our dogs. Our dogs were more similar to the dog on this link in the upper right hand corner: http://dscna.blogspot.com/p/breed-standard.html  or this :http://dscna.blogspot.com/ 

Both of our dogs were brindle, one much darker than the other. One we got at 9 months so I don't know what he looked like as a young pup. His coloring didn't change much after we got him. The other was born dark brindle and stayed dark brindle. 

Having said the above, it is still definitely possible your girl is a Dutchie or a Dutchie mix. Good luck with her! It sounds like you've already done a great job of bringing her back to health.

I have a picture of her from today she has filled out since the original picture.
I know they arent great pictures but aparently my phone doesnt have a great camera and she doesnt stay still very long.

My dog looks much like yours. I just went to train with someone who is quite familiar with her pedigree. He laughingly said, "Bet you people call her a black Dutchie." She is a German Shepherd through and through.
---Mary

I say shepherd, there's something about Dutchies that is different. Maybe it the generous helping of pit bull in a lot of their blood lines that makes the difference. But your girl doesn't look anythign like the dutchies i've seen. So i say shepherd, maybe just some good old american back yard bred dogs. (You know the type i'm talking about. Nice family dogs with no working or showing for generations.)