GSD colors and patterns are totally misunderstood.
GROUND COLOR The base or ground color of the German Shepherd Dog is actually the lighter color. The four base colors of the GSD are red, tan, cream, silver. These ground colors COVER THE ENTIRE DOG. The ground color is usually most intense on the ears, forehead, cheeks, and legs, particularly the front of the legs. Although I don't know the reason for it, the most uncommon ground color to see is a good distinct clear cream. Most dogs people refer to as creams are simply washed out tans.
The ground color of a GSD is usually lighter on the throat, forechest, on the underside of the dog on the inside of the legs, and on the underside of the tail.
The most often misunderstood and erroneously used color term is silver. Many agouti and two-tone dogs whose ground colors are red or tan, especially saddle pattern bitches, will show a lot of silvery hairs in their necks, backs, and sides, usually most obvious right behind the withers. These silvery hairs are often referred to as "peppering". However many people mistakenly think these silvery hairs mean their dog is a black and silver even though the dog's legs are clearly red or tan.
A true silver GSD's ground color is entirely silver, although some genetic silvers may show a tendency toward cream on their ears. Lighting also can greatly affect the appearance of silver. A clear silver may even appear light tan when photographed in warm light. For best results a silver should be photographed in the shade.
Clear silver appears to be recessive to the other three ground colors although occasionally silver to silver breeding can produce a rich red ground color. Silver to silver producing red has also been reported in breeds such as the Norwegian Elkhound, a breed where silver is the primary ground color. Many dogs who carry the silver gene are rich reds and tans, not washed out in pigment.
BRINDLE is a dominant mutation of the ground color from the typical relatively solid red, tan, cream, or silver ground color to the brindle ground color pattern. I've seen photos of a number of brindles. I also personally observed and photographed a dark black and red brindle bitch from puppyhood to adult. Brindle only affects the ground color. I believe that the mutation for brindle probably regularly occurs in the breed, but the only way a brindle GSD ever comes to the attention of serious GSD enthusiasts is if that brindle dog happens to be born in a litter owned by a knowledgeable breeder who knows for sure that the brindle dog's parents are registered purebred GSDs AND the breeder also RECOGNIZES the brindle for what it is. The black and red brindle bitch I personally observed and photographed was first described to me as a weird looking black pup. Most likely fanciers haven't generally tried to perpetuate brindle in the breed because a brindle agouti/sable isn't particularly attractive and brindle in a saddle pattern dog detracts from the illusion of greater substance and front and rear angulation provided by the contrast of the black saddle pattern against the normal ground color of a typical saddle patterned dog.
Puppies ground colors almost always are unclear mixtures of their genetic ground color and varying degrees of grayish tan. As a puppy grows, the ground color increasingly becomes richer and clearer.
MARKING COLOR
The BLACK (or its dilutions blue or liver) IS ACTUALLY THE MARKING COLOR, spreading over the dog in one of the below three patterns. In order of dominance with agouti being most dominant and solid black being most recessive.:
1.. Agouti (Called Sable or Gray in AKC, Called grau (Gray) in Germany) Agouti is the most accurate term for this pattern. Its dictionary definition accurately describes the appearance of this pattern. Agouti is the natural wild color of many mammal species. In agouti pattern animals, individual guard hairs will have bands of two or more colors on each hair. The term sable actually means a solid dark brown color and the term gray also fails to accurately describe the agouti pattern.
An agouti/sable dog MUST have a sable/agouti parent (or a solid white GSD parent who is genetically agouti/sable)
If an agouti dog carries the saddle pattern two-tone gene, its black markings will often be in a very distinct saddle pattern.
A dog who is genetically pure for agouti usually can only be distinguished when that dog is bred to two-tone or solid black dogs and consistenly produces only agouti progeny. Many agouti dogs who carry genes for the blanket or darker two-tone pattern and some agoutis who carry solid black visually look the same as agoutis who are genetically pure for agouti.
An agouti dog who carries the solid black gene often is very dark, with the black extending down the legs and black on the tops of the toes, sometimes referred to as "toe tracings."
Agouti dogs are very clearly agouti at birth. As soon as an agouti newborn dries off, you can see the lighter undercoat showing through the coat and the banded guard hairs. An agouti puppy is generally fairly dark when born. At approximately 7 to 8 weeks, an agouti puppy goes through a stage where the black tipping fades and the puppy may look a dirty grayish tan color that breeder sometimes refer to as the "peed on" stage.
After that first washed out stage, the black markings gradually reappear between 3 to 4 months of age. The black first shows on the tail, then on the back, and gradually spreads back out again. At approximately 7 to 8 months of age, an agouti puppy once again goes through a stage where his black markings become less obvious although this second stage is less dramatic than the first stage.
Thereafter, the degree of black in the agouti dog's coat will return to being similar to what it was when he was born, except in the case of saddle pattern agoutis where the black recedes into the typical saddle pattern. An agouti dog may look darker in summer and lighter in winter due to undercoat being much heavier in wintertime.
2. Two tone ( What is commonly referred to as black and red, black and tan, black and cream, or black and silver), Actually the term BICOLOR would be the best accurate term to use for all dogs of this pattern regardlkess of whether those dogs are saddle, blanket or darker. BICOLOR literally means two colors, which is the main characteristic of this pattern. Depending on extension genes, these dogs may vary from being light saddle pattern dogs all the way to being so dark they may be difficult to distinguish from some genetic solid black dogs.
What's often referred to as the "blanket" pattern, is a pattern that is darker than the saddle pattern iin which the black covers the back of the neck and top of the shoulders and extends partway down the sides of the neck and shoulders and the pattern on the sides of the body still somewhat resembles a saddle but covers a larger area.
The term bicolor as it is used now, is confusing and inaccurate because there is widespread disagreement as to how dark a dog should be to call it a bicolor AND MANY DOGS WHO ARE GENETICALLY SOLID BLACKS ARE ERRONEOUSLY CALLED BICOLORS.
Two tone dogs are born with a lot of black on them. As a two-tone puppy grows, the black areas recede to varying degrees according to whether the puppy is genetically a saddle pattern or darker dog.
I have seen a variation in two-tone dogs in which the undercoat in the black areas of the body will be very light.
Two tone dogs regardless of how light or dark they are, will either be pure for two-tone or carry the solid black recessive. Sometimes a two-tone adult dog may have so much light undercoat and/or so much peppering on the neck, back, and sides that it may appear to be an agouti/sable. Some two-tone dogs may as adults have so little black left in their saddle, they may appear agouti/sable. In these cases, if the dog's parents are both two-tone or if one parent is two-tone and the other parent is solid black, then the dog in question cannot genetically be agouti/sable. If one or both of the parents IS agouti/sable or if you don't know what the parent's colors and patterns were, then the only way to tell for sure what the pattern is of the adult dog in question is if you can see a puppy picture of it. It is very easy to distinguish between puppies who are agouti/sable and puppies who are two-tone.
Although most two-tone dogs who carry the black recessive will have the blanket or darker pattern, a light saddle pattern dog CAN carry the solid black recessive. Canto v Arminius, Vax vd Wienerau, Drigon Fuhrmannshoff are three examples of saddle pattern dogs who carried the black recessive.
3. Solid black The solid black dog is a dog whose black markings ideally cover the entire dog, totally masking the lighter ground color. HOWEVER in most genetically solid black dogs, the black fails to entirely mask all of the ground color, resulting in the lighter ground color showing through to varying degrees on the backs of the legs, under the tail, on the inside of the legs, and sometimes showing lighter hairs on the insides of the ears. In some genetic solid black dogs, the lighter ground color may cover ehtire areas of the lower legs and these genetic solid blacks are visually impossible to distinguish from the very dark two-tone dogs that presently are called bicolors.
DILUTIONS
The BLUE gene acts to turn all the dog's black pigment to blue.
The LIVER gene acts to turn all the dog's black pigment to brown, called liver in the AKC, called braun in Germany.
To get a blue, one or both parents must either be blue or carry blue.
To get a liver, one or both parents must either be liver or carry liver.
A normal black pigmented dog can carry both the blue and liver genes.
A normal black pigmented dog can carry blue, liver, and the white recessive and in fact many of the most important dogs in the history of the breed carried at least two or all three of these genes.
WHITE RECESSIE, A GENE SEPARATE FROM THE AGOUTI SERIES PATTERN AND COLOR GENES
The WHITE RECESSIVE GENE that produces the typical solid white GSD is SEPARATE from the above GSD colors and patterns,. The white recessive acts as if you dropped a white sheet over a colored GSD, hiding that dog's genetic color and pattern.
Solid white GSDs/White Shepherds are supposed to have white coats, black pigment, and dark eyes.A solid white dog can carry the genes for blue, liver, or both. If a solid white dog is genetically a blue or a liver, it will have blue or liver pigment instead of normal black pigment.
You can usually tell whether a solid white dog is genetically red or tan, or if it's genetically silver or cream. In solid white dogs whose ground colors are genetically red or tan, the white fails to totally hide the red or tan color, resulting in an off-white dog with varying degrees of reddish or tan shadings in its coat. Solid white dogs whose coats look really white without any red or tan off-white appearance, are dogs whose genetic ground color is cream or silver.
Until a solid white dog is bred to a colored dog who is not pure for agouti (pure for agouti can only produce agouti not two-tone or solid black), there is no way to know for sure WHAT the white dog's hidden pattern genes are.
Breeding a white to a solid black GSD is the easiest way to definitely determine what the white dog's hidden pattern genes are. Solid black is the most recessive of the three patterns in the GSD agouti series. A solid black dog can only pass genes for solid black to its offspring.
The only way you can get a solid white dog out of a breeding of solid white to solid black, is if the solid black parent also carries the white recessive gene. If the black parent does not carry the white recessive, all the pups will be colored dogs and all will be white carriers.
If you breed a solid white GSD to a solid black GSD, the colored puppies in the litter may be agouti/sable, two-tone(black and red, black and tan, black and silver), or solid black. If the black parent carries the white recessive, you may get some white pups in the litter. All the puppies in the litter will carry the recessive for solid black from the black parent.
If the white parent is genetically pure for agouti/sable, the colored pups in the litter will all be agouti/sable
If the white parent is genetically agouti/sable carrying the two-tone gene, the colored pups in the litter will be agouti/sables or two-tones.
If the white parent is genetically a two-tone dog who does NOT carry the black recessive, all colored pups in the litter will be two-tone pups.
If the white parent carries the black recessive gene, you may get some solid black pups in the litter.
If the white parent is genetically a solid black dog, all the colored pups in the litter will be solid blacks.
If both parents carry the blue gene, you may get blues.
If both parents carry the liver gene, you may get livers.
WHITE SPOTTING
The most common gene for white spotting in the GSD is the dominant white spotting gene responsible for white forechest blazes, toes, and tail tips. This white spotting is seen in GSDs of all bloodlines, colors, and patterns. These white markings typically shrink as a puppy grows up and often they become more cream and in the adult, may be almost unnoticeable on the forechest and toes.
The recessive gene for Irish white spotting is the gene responsible for the white markings in dogs such as Collies. It is fairly uncommon in the GSD but once in a while will surface and reveal itself when one or more pups in a litter are born with white markings on the face, neck, etc in the areas and pattern and degrees of white tyoically seen in breeds such as Collies, with the exception that sometimes an Irish white spotted GSD pup may have only a white face or muzzle marking or blaze and not have anymore Irish white spotting than that.
The PANDA gene was a spontaneous dominant mutation. The only way you can get a Panda marked GSD is if one of the parents is a Panda marked GSD.
OTHER ABERRATIONS
Aberrations and mutations can occur at any time in any species, including the GSD. Spontaneous mutations for dominant black occasionally occur in the breed.
An aberration may not necessarily be genetic, it may be a case of something going awry in a localized skin area during embryonic development. In such cases, the aberration affects that individual dog ONLY. It is not passed on to any of that dog's progeny.
Two examples: A dark mahogany patch the size of an egg below the right hock of a black and red-tan bitch from German lines, is one example of a harmless aberration I've seen. I once saw a male with normal short coat who had a patch of long curly hair on the right side of his neck.
