OMG - you have to laugh don't you. Not only is someone saying her black and tan GSD has turned sable, but someone else is now saying that Asha is a sable; and when someone in the know tries to correct them it all kicks off. I'll stay silent I think. Mind you the same was said of Krizzie and that by someone who has been involved with the breed since the sixties. My friends will know who I mean, she who knew/knows everything. haha
Why can't people understand a sable is born a sable and has to have one sable parent (or in rare cases a white can produce sable I'm told) and a black and tan is born a black and tan. It's the fading of some black and tans that seems to confuse people I think, some, particularly bitches can fade dramatically and look nothing like their former self. Sable also comes in a variety of colour e.g red, grey, silver, black .. but whatever sable is still sable.
Black is even more confusing genetically as both parent have to carry the black gene to produce black puppies. So if I mated black dog to my bitches we would not get black puppies as my line does not carry the black gene. But if I kept a black and tan puppy from that litter and mated her to a black male then theoretically we could get black puppies. I like blacks, but at the moment there is only a couple of decent quality in the show ring.. well only one I would even consider using at stud really!
Above is Krizzie at 6 months and again as an adult - Huge difference
Below is Asha at 9 weeks and 9 years - very faded but also a very pale tan.
Below is my first ever sable,
Ross at 9 weeks and 6 months.The puppy photo showing a huge difference between him and a black and tan puppy. (Asha Photo)
This is Sammi Belle, she like her mother Ziva she has kept a strong black saddle with only a little bit of ticking along her spine. It will be interesting to see what Kaiah does over the next few moults though as she does already have more ticking in her saddle than her mother.
