Hi, took my 15 month old Gsd for her booster this morning, vet was very happy with her, then she said to me "what else has she got in her" because she has white on chest, I said she was a from an accredited Breeder with years of breeding Gsds, the vet looked and shrugged her shoulders. she was advertised on cd and I have all the kc papers and met mum and I know who the father is. Am I just being silly to be bothered by this.  thanks

vet should know better.... certainly with blacks an amount of white on the chest is perfectly acceptable, not reason why not in an other colour... lots of folk say my GSDs are belgian shepherds because they're black... they too look disbelievingly when I say they're KC registered GSDs so I don't both now, just laugh at them!

thank you, phew !!!!!

sadly a small amount of knowledge is often very dangerous and vets should know better than to make crazy assumptions - they'd need to be GSD specialists to make much of a comment, which obviously few are... I get used to the bizarre where my big black hairy things are concerned :-)  even with the border collies idiots ask what my merle boy is ... they don't believe collies can be that colour.. and then someone said he was 'mostly white' - can people really not tell the difference between 'white' and 'silver' - he has white on him, but not much!

mind the oddest conversation was another person at the vets waiting for treatment who asked what my Jack Russell was crossed with, he asked several times and I replied each time 'Jack Russell' finally flipping and shouting 'he's a JR!!!!'

Do not worry

My GSD has a tiny white mark on his chest.

He has been graded at the British Sieger and won a class at Crufts.

It is very common, just like Labradors etc.

Yup, same here, my solid black gsd has a tiny patch of white on her chest, perfectly normal. Vet should know better.

and her my solid black long hair has always had afew white hairs on his cheeka dn his tail and abit of sable on his toes. Not suprising since his sister is sable or at least one of them is and if I remebr rightly dad carries a white gene. Stupid vet !!

Well to show you how much vets know, when I took my first dog (long haired white GSD ) to the vets for the first time, she insisted he was a Samoyed.....apart from the colour, he looked nothing like a Samoyed.

As all comments above, vet talking rubbish. My female has a white splodge on her chest and white tips on her front toes. She is regd as black and gold (full GSD) although I would call it ginger and altogether I think she is a stunning looking  dog! (biased or what?)

Agree with everyone above. It is very common in GSDs to have a white mark, especially on the chest, and sometimes on the tips of the toes. One of mine had a white mark on his chest. Interestingly in some GSDs the white mark doesn't appear to grow with the dog in the same way that white markings do in other breeds and so consequently in a lot cases they 'disappear' as they become adult, though you can still find the white hairs, spread widely apart if you look for them, that's what happened with my boy.

Our rescue centre's vet made the same mistake about a litter at the beginning of this year, one black puppy had a white chest patch and on that basis he pronounced them crosses. They are turning out to be full GSD!  It's a common vet error.

I find that really silly as most dogs of solid colouring/pattern  will get occasional white on chest and feet, in some standards it points it out and is acceptable, and in others considered a fault. 

In some breeds the standard allows it but it is penalised in the ring and in others not at all. 

We certainly get it in our breed.

Don't listen to people!

I've noticed lately a lot of people ask if my dogs are lurchers. Apparently, they thought they weren't greyhounds BECAUSE they were so friendly! LOL, most people haven't a clue. :)