Well now I know, of course I didn't turn to google or a book, I have a much more reliable and trusted source, I asked Katrina! Bicolour is not a colour I have ever had in my line, and as I said I can't remember ever seeing one at a show. I probably have, but I really couldn't come up with the facts! So a bicolour isn't simply a dark dog, a bicoloured German Shepherd will have black and tan colours, but the black with be dominant. Almost the entire body will be black, with only a few areas such as the legs or chest displaying tan fur. To produce bicolour both parents must have inherited one gene from their parents. So the parents of a bicolour need not be bicolour, but one of their parents on each side had to be to pass on the gene. Simply, if a puppy is bicolour and his parents are not, then at least one grandparent on each side must have been. Going back to our possible scenario, if Orin and this bitch have a litter, all will be dark, but all will be black and tan as Orin does not carry bicolour, but all the puppies will carry the gene and could produce the colour if mated to another who carried the gene.
So from what I understand that is the same as black, but very different to sable. One parent has to be sable to produce sable. Though apparently white can mask sable, but it's going to be pretty obvious if one parent is white! What is important to remember is that 2 black and tan parents can not produce sable, if someone tells you otherwise they are lying to you. I fear yet again the shit is going to hit the fan and someone's reputation will be in tatters. Well more fool them for the fraud in the first place, these things have a habit of coming out don't they!
