Are German Shepherds darker when they're puppies (about 8 weeks)? Or does their color stay the same as they age?
I can't speak for purebreds, but my brindled GSD cross is getting darker in her black bits, and paler in her fawn bits
from pics ive seen as puppies, espically the mum of the pup i want, she was a sandy colour.........and turned int oa blue sable!!!
I have had black and tans and at 8 weeks they were both almost black with just tan legs but as they have grown their colour has changed and they just have a black saddle, and the rest is a mixture of cream and tan.
It varies depending on the colour. Saddle marked black & tans are usually born dark, mostly black and the tan areas increase in size continuously, often right through life. Darker black & tans when born can be indestinguishable from saddles but lighten less (obviously ) and bicolours often don't lighten at all. The tan areas in saddles and B&Ts also tends to lighten. Sables are born, often very dark, but lighten very quicky, moreso than B&Ts, but do usually darken again when the guardhairs come through. Sables with a strong mask often darken considerably. This pattern can change thoughout life but it's more to do with seasonal gaining and losing of undercoat which is invariably lighter than guardhairs, so dog looks darker without it. Solid blacks may lighten a little. Sometimes they aquire a palish undercoat. Whites don't change much either though they can go more yellowish round ears and dorsal stripe area. Blues and browns will follow whatever pattern they are ie sable, B&T.
The sandy colour must have been the puppy coat before the darker guard hairs grew through. Sable GSDs can darken quite dramatically
This is exactly what happened to Fudge`s patches. She has some sable patches thet stayed(mainly on her legs) and the rest darkened with longer guard hairs. Very interesting Pod.
A real all Black GSD is born black & doesn't change colour, Mainly black GSDs with sable patterning on the feet etc will change colour. Grey dogs(UK colour grey sables)are born very dark with the sable patterning developing as the grow up, the other sable colours tend to be born paler & develop the sable patterning as they grow up. Colour paling dogs(born gold/cream/pale grey & black)lose their black dramatically & can end up with no black marking at all. Bi Colours(black & tan/gold-no white/light markings)stay exactly the same as when they are born & are usually darker tan/gold that the traditional black & tan/gold
I had a very dark coloured puppy once and she turned a lot lighter as she grew up, the difference was quite amazing, since we thought she was going to stay dark. A friend of mine has got the most gorgeous sable puppy, and I hadn't seen him since he was a real baby, and yet now he's very much lighter in colour?
There are actually two types of sable. Wolf sable, that is the one commonly found in the GSD.... and red/cream sable, which I have seen in GSDs in photos. They are genetically different but can look very similar. The second type of sable is the type found in breeds like Finnish spitz, red in Boxers, fawn Mastiffs etc. They're born very dark, like usual GSD sables, but continue to lighten. Could be this puppy is one of those? I'll see if I can find some photos.......
Some on this page here - http://www.kerstoneshepherds.net/colors/colors1.htm And this one here from working lines, could be mistaken for a paled saddle, but the owner is sure it is Ay sable - http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/userfiles/Dunja.jpg
ahhhhhh!!! when i was looking at the pictures it was hare to imainge it was the same puppy to dog! gorgeous though
Harry was very dark, almost totally black at 9 weeks old but his coat has lightened especially around his face and his undercoat which has turned into a beautiful golden colour. He still has a dark saddle and nose but his chest and mask are considerably lighter.
Hi, our silver sable darkened as he got older, you can see the difference in this thread: http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=70268
Ian, how could I have missed your Kahn!!!!!!! OMG how beautiful he is, a real stunner. Can you please stop talking so much and get some more pics up of this little baby!!!! He's truly gorgeous, and I think I'm in love - again!!! Pod, looking at the links, the particular gsd I was talking about appears to have been the powder blue almost a spitten image of the dog called Bella in the first link. When she was a puppy though, she looked predominantly black, and her black was jet black, whereas as she grew, everything lightened up to the powder blue/tan, but then I wouldn't have said she was black and tan more black/sable, like the Bella dog looks?
Probably not a true blue if she was black when younger. The dilute (blue) gene has the effect of turning all the black pigment to blue so she would have been blue, rather than black, right from the start. Even the nose pigment is turned to blue. The gradual paling that many GSDs go through can make the coat look greyish, but if you look closely at the hairs, they're still black, just intermingled with lighter hairs. Just got to mention one bugbear of mine - Black sable is a very dark sable that does occur in the GSD but black & sable is not. A GSD, or any dog for that matter, can't be black, or black & tan and sable. Sable is a pattern not a colour, so if the dog is sable, it is sable all over (except for white markings obviously, as these have no pigment. The tan points on some black & tan dogs can have black hairs intermingled, most often seen in puppies and this does give a sort of 'sabling' effect but it shouldn't be confused with the sable pattern. I've so often seen GSDs incorrectly registered as 'black and sable'.
