Show me your Melanistic Blanket GSD - Page 4

Apparently one sable parent carried sable and the recessive saddle/blanket gene, and the other parent carried sable and the recessive black.  Sable is dominate so both parents appeared sable.
Theoretically:
 1/4 of there litter would be saddle and carry recessive black. Expressing as a blanket pattern. 
3/4's of litter would have been sable (1/4 carring all sable genes, and 1/8 carring Sable and saddle genes, but looking like sables, 1/8 carring sable and black genes, but looking like sables). 

But anybody that's ever bred can tell you it's a roll of the dice as to what you get, but that's the odds.

As far as the tan extending under the tail, yes this is normal.  But amount varies a lot between individuals.  This makes some individuals very hard to distinguish which they should classified as.  Look for bi-colored ancestors, they got to have them to be bi-colored, and the toe stripping and tar heels.

He is actually a much darker golden/red.  The photo was taken at dusk so the camera lightened to compensate for the black and washed out his red.  If you look at the second picture, there's a spot above his ear that didn't wash out as much.  This is more his true color.  With that being said, the working lines will usually show the more preferred intense red than the American Show GSD's.  But there are exceptions.