Why is he black and tan? - Page 1

Since I got Fidu I always wondered why he is black and tan If no one of his ancestors are in that color. He has a brother of his same color. Is it normal?

Here you have the pictures of his relatives:
http://es.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=748508-fido-von-sprin

Thanks in advance
 

His sable father had to be a heterozygous sable, rather than a homozygous, so he can produce more colors than sable.

Technically speaking it is not correct that no one of his ancestors is of that color as going back in his pedigree there are black/tan colored dogs as well as colors other than sable.
I do not know how much familiar you are with color genetics so I will tell the basics; each dog has two color genes, puppy gets one gene from each parent.

Dominance sequence of color genes in GSD:
Sable
Black/tan
Bi-color
Solid black

If a dog has a sable color gene and any other color gene then its color will be sable (as sable is dominant to other colors and therefore sable color rules over). Same thing goes on for other colors in sequence.

As you can deduce, a solid black has two solid black genes otherwise it wouldn't have been a solid black. The only case puppies would be only same as their parents is when both parents are solid black.

Hope that helps

Ibrahim

If you go back a further generation on the pedigree pages, by
clicking on his 'tail female', you'll see there are indeed pics
​of black&golds, mostly blanket-backs, in Fidu's lineage.  If
those dogs are there they give rise to the heterozygosity that
Xeph refers to.

So how did bomber turn out black with his color lines in his pedigree ?  

even if both parents are non black, if they both carry a recessive  black gene, black puppy/puppies will pop out once in a while.  Commonly termed as throwbacks from pairing of same recessive gene from both parents, in this case a black color.  Now if black color in GSD is recessive to all other colors, matings of two black parents will give all black puppies, no other colors based on genetic influence.   If some other color will pop out from mating of two blacks, this color change is due to mutation.

I found three dogs here black and tan,but they are so far from Fidu I cant believe that those genes are in him:
http://es.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=495713-anahi-von-haus-vigna

That's the beauty of recessive genes.  They can "hide" for a long time.

His Paternal greatgrandmother is black and tan, she has obviously passed the black/tan gene to his father, who carries the sable gene and the black/tan gene. His father does not carry the black gene, thus the result of a litter with a black female have to be either black/tan or sable.
 
Margaret N-J

Apologies for referencing Hexe when I should have said Xeph;
must have sand in my eyes !  Board won't let me amend, already.
Linda.


Linda, done it for you, lol. mrdarcy (mod)