German Shepherd Color - GSD Black and White
German Shepherds are usually only in one color which is the most familiar, the black & tan.
There are however quite a few other colors that come too along with different coats.
The first thing is to dispel the myth that German Shepherds and Alsatians are different.
They are not.
After the Second World War, the German Shepherds started being registered as Alsatian because of high anti-German feeling in the west.
This went on till almost the latter part of the 1970s before the Alsatian was dropped and the name reverted to German shepherd.
The most common color is of course the black & tan with the black covering the upper part of the dog and tan the lower part.
This black can either be a "saddle" i.
e.
covering only the back and sides, or a "blanket" covering the dogs upper half completely.
This black can also be intermingled with either tan or yellowish hair which is commonly seen in the shorter coated varieties.
These short coats are also German Shepherds and differ in coat length because of the varied ancestry in the development of the dogs.
There are also other colors that appear.
A solid or jet black version is also available and although this coloring is not very common, some breeders are breeding black with black to try and get black dogs.
As of now they are not breeding true in terms of color although the puppies have considerably more black than the normal dogs.
You also get a liver color which is very very uncommon.
There are only a few specimens around and they are just a genetic aberration and not necessarily because of cross breeding.
Be careful however because this coloring is so uncommon that finding one should be treated with a little bit of skepticism.
You also get a pure white colored dog, and these dogs are equally rare as the liver colored ones.
In fact many kennel clubs take it for granted that the white coloring is because of a mix if not in the immediate past, then somewhere in the ancestry of the dog.
Although the GSD itself as a breed was developed from other sheepdog breeds, there is no white coloring in any of them and it means that some other breed has been crossed with it in the past.
It is therefore not granted recognition.
The dog is however just the same and has the same character and temperament as any other German Shepherd.
There are however quite a few other colors that come too along with different coats.
The first thing is to dispel the myth that German Shepherds and Alsatians are different.
They are not.
After the Second World War, the German Shepherds started being registered as Alsatian because of high anti-German feeling in the west.
This went on till almost the latter part of the 1970s before the Alsatian was dropped and the name reverted to German shepherd.
The most common color is of course the black & tan with the black covering the upper part of the dog and tan the lower part.
This black can either be a "saddle" i.
e.
covering only the back and sides, or a "blanket" covering the dogs upper half completely.
This black can also be intermingled with either tan or yellowish hair which is commonly seen in the shorter coated varieties.
These short coats are also German Shepherds and differ in coat length because of the varied ancestry in the development of the dogs.
There are also other colors that appear.
A solid or jet black version is also available and although this coloring is not very common, some breeders are breeding black with black to try and get black dogs.
As of now they are not breeding true in terms of color although the puppies have considerably more black than the normal dogs.
You also get a liver color which is very very uncommon.
There are only a few specimens around and they are just a genetic aberration and not necessarily because of cross breeding.
Be careful however because this coloring is so uncommon that finding one should be treated with a little bit of skepticism.
You also get a pure white colored dog, and these dogs are equally rare as the liver colored ones.
In fact many kennel clubs take it for granted that the white coloring is because of a mix if not in the immediate past, then somewhere in the ancestry of the dog.
Although the GSD itself as a breed was developed from other sheepdog breeds, there is no white coloring in any of them and it means that some other breed has been crossed with it in the past.
It is therefore not granted recognition.
The dog is however just the same and has the same character and temperament as any other German Shepherd.
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