Hi There

I've been searching for the pefect puppy for a while now and I was just wondering why all the german shepherd puppies seem to be very dark coloured, well almost black.  Do they lighten as they get older? I would love a tanned puppy with some black hair. Are they mostly born dark?

Sorry if theis sounds like a silly question!

Many Thanks

Katie

Generally the lighter they are at birth, the darker they become as an adult and vice versa.

Hi,

I always thought you choose the darkest puppy as it would become lighter leaving a possible saddle?Especially in the black/tan and black/gold dogs.

our 2 GSD puppies as a child were very darkwith little gold, and as they got older the gold started to spread to eventually it stopped still slightly more balsck than gold .

Briony :-)

That's not my experience tohme. A lot of GSD puppies are born black and lighten up as they get older. They can change dramatically up to about 18 months of age, going through phases where they darken and lighten up, the gold can get deeper in colour etc.... The puppies I've seen from birth have been the traditional colour (with a black saddle).

It's more dependent on their parents colour than anything.

> I would love a tanned puppy with some black hair. Are they mostly born dark? <

I've never seen a GSD this colour as GSDs should be Black, Bi colour. Grey(Sable  in the UK) & Black & Gold(all shades of Gold from deep red gold to pale gold)

Sable patterned puppies are born the background colour to their sable marking & develop the patterning as they grow

Black & Bi-colours are born Black & Bi-colour & do not lighten or darker as they get older. Some Black sables are mistaken for blacks(& even registered as such)& the way to tell is to look under the tail & between the toes where the colour appears(have owned & bred both real all blacks & Bi Colours)

The Black & Gold do change colour & the darker the at birth the deeper the gold is in the adult(have bred B&G as well)

Never bred a non standard colour such as the colour you seem to be looking for so can't help with what colour they would be as puppies & never seen one as an adult either

Why not join so you can fully describe what you are looking for ?

The way GSDs pale/darken depends a great deal on whether they are bi-colour, sables or solids, if you have only had experience of bi-colours then you will not have seen some of the quite dramatic changes that occur particularly with sables.

That is really true. The breeder I got my GSD pup from has a tendency to produce sables, and when you compare a litter born to my pups parents two years ago, they are different in colour at the same age from the litter my pup came from, and both litters were mixes of whites and sables. Sables do change in a really dramatic way, and I have no idea what colour my sable bitch will end up settling on but that is part of the fun!

My own breed are born clack ans in fact the lightest parts (feet) stay darkest the longest, GSD pups are nearly all the same very dark and their adult colouring won't be apparent until soem months pass.  Your best guide to their likely colour is the colour of parents and other relatives.

Hi,

The puppies did develop clour like their parents black/gold with evetually a black saddle but as babies they were mainly black with some gold namely on feet.

Briony :-)

Hi there
my 5 month old Sable puppy is changing almost daily.   He was quite light when we got him at 9 weeks with a dark line down his back.  His mum was black and his dad was dark sable.  Friends who visit cant believe he is the same dog, he is long haired so now all his adult Hair is coming through Jet black on his back he has black on his feet and front of his legs, he has a black mask, but his ears at the moment all quite light with fluffy tufty grey wisps sticking out of them, gorgeous!!  Cant wait to see what he looks like as an adult, although I suspect dark sable.

Kizzy, I am going through the same thing with my GSD pup who has just turned 4 months. Her mum is a gold sable (whose sister was blue sable) and her dad is white (carries gene for grey and gold sable as well as white). My pup was born grey, black and white (looking like a little wolf cub), and was thought to be a grey sable, but quickly developed gold points coming through. Her puppy coat from about the age of 12 weeks was a very pale gold on her body, with two bands on her shoulders of white, and a white chest, throat, belly and insides of her legs. She has a beautiful black muzzle, with black around her eyes that comes out as wings (like cleopatra!) About two weeks ago she started getting a strip of adult coat coming through along her back, which is darker than her puppy coat, so I am fully expecting her to go darker all over, but part of the fun with sables is not quite knowing what you are going to get and seeing the changes as the months go by!