German Shepherd Dog (Alsatian) Discussions

Not GSDs, but talking of colours. There is a collie that goes to sheepdog training that I would consider to be "lilac". I only know about lilac because someone else I know has a bitch of this colouring. However, when I mentioned the colour of this dog last night at training I was laughed at by everyone there!! Please tell me I am right in thinking there is such a colour in border collies that is known as lilac!

Do you know, I think I've seen one of these?? Where I kept the horse once on a farm, the farmer had 3 collies, and I used to call her the lilac dog, so you're not going mad Moobli!!!! Sadly, I didn't ask him about her colourings, or I could answer you!:?

Thanks Helen

Yes, it's certainly possible to get lilac in BCs but maybe they know it by some other name.... fawn for example?

It's a combination of two recessives brown (bb) and dilute (dd), and the same combination causes the silver grey of the Weimaraner and isabella Dobes. Both occur in BCs but not very common esp dilute which is usually seen as blue, but certainly possible yes!

Thanks Pod - very, very interesting.

Would you please take a look at "Mist" on the www.corriedhu.co.uk page and tell me whether she is a lilac, as this is the same colour as the dog at training. I will ask them at training what colour they think the dog is, although as they are mostly farmers and I suspect they may not really care what colour he is! ;-)

I have read through some of this thread, and thought I would add my shepherd, Lexus. She is an 8 year old rescue dog, who really belongs to my fiancée. (Krusewalker on here). She is long coat, short legs lol: ) and champagne coloured I believe? I don't know much about colours really.




out of curiosity, what would the name of the colour of my x-breeds girl be?

Oooooh I love big fluffy Lexus I think she is a white like my Georgie, and his coat has turned that orangy colour around his ears and along his back (I'm sure it's down to the amount of raw carrots he eats though!) I love her short chunky legs, she really is a cute bear, any more pics of her, she's sooooo gorgeous

Lexus is gorgeous - really beautiful. Great photos.

Ooh helena that was a lovely photo of Cassie a few pages back For what it's worth (not much!!!) she looks like a bi-colour to me. I don't know anything about colours though, I never knew there were so many

DanishPastry Lexus is stunning :smt049 :smt049 :smt049

It's not easy to determine shade in photos but yes, Mist could be lilac, or she could be just a pale brown (BC people call red). The nose pigment is a good indication. If it looks quite pale, a lot paler than a normal brown, then she could be.

This is what lilac looks like in a Dobe. The 7th photo down, not the really pale ones further down.

http://www.dobermann.sk/farby.htm

Two beautiful dogs DP!

The x breed looks to be a wolf sable, very similar to a sable GSD.

Helena54, I have never heard of dogs changing colour from eating carrots lol... perhaps it is just age that makes him darken a bit? Martin is almost certain Lex was "whiter" when she was young. People here in Denmark have a hard time guessing her breed . White GSD's are few in numbers here, and those around are mostly pure white with black noses and most often short coated.

It is my pleasure to post a few more pictures
swimming


being silly


first time we walked all 3 of them at the same time, 5 days after Lex and Martin moved over.


looking thoughtful :smt049

FANTASTIC!!!!!! I'm even more in love now with the beautiful, fluffy, cuddly, yummy, scrummy Lex, especially when she's being silly!!!! Awwwww, thankyou soooo much I enjoyed every one of those pics!

Here's a recent pic of Georgie, which shows his colour a bit better, and you can see the orange that Lex has a bit better in this pic:



These are very rare over here too, in fact I have only ever seen one other in my area. He's also a longcoat. Not as longcoated as my bi-colour (black/tan)bitch, but he's certainly not the normal standard coat, sort of shaggy his coat.

Just out of interest, does Lex suffer with her skin at all? I just wondered if all the whites were prone to skin problems?

You're right Moobli..I used to have one may moons ago at home on the farm. The Lilac coloured is a dilute The dilution gene is recessive and acts by slightly altering the shape of the pigment cells in the hair follicle so affecting the pigment granules.
Quote "The dilution gene acts on the Eumelanin pigment so dilutes Black to Blue and Brown/Chocolate to lilac.

So… dilute (blue/lilac) - dd (homozygous dilute)
Carrying dilute - Dd (heterozygous non-dilute)
Not carrying dilute - DD (homozygous non-dilute)

The dilution gene can act with the merle gene to give slate and lilac merles. "

http://www.bryningbordercollies.com/Border-Collie-Colours

Hope that clarifies it

Lex just blushed when I showed her Georgies picture
No, I wouldn't say she suffers with skin problems. She has the odd itch now and then, and goes a bit pink on her belly when it is very wet outside. Because of her long coat and short legs, she gets very wet and dirty, very quickly. I have cut her belly-hair all short now, so she dries up faster, and it seems to help.

nooooo mummy, stop posting piccies of me!!

LOVE this thread. I'm going to print it out for a more thorough read.

AWWWWWWWWWWWW she's just screaming out to be scrumped in that pic, look at that face!!! I'd better not show that one to George, Cassie would be sooooo jealous. You are a very lucky lady to have her around for constant cuddles, she's even fluffier than my big bear! The best white gsd I have ever clapped eyes on - honest!

Picks of our GSDs,unfortunatly we lost the white GSD about 3 weeks ago now, may think about getting a white puppy in the future, but have a 4.5 mth old Northern Inuit to finish house training first!!

Ths is Chole she is 5yrs





This was Caspa He was 12 yrs


He will be sadly missed!!

Chloe is just gorgeous, I soooo love the longcoats, they're so pretty. Of course I love Caspa too having a white one myself, and I'm so sorry you lost him recently. I'm sure he will be very sadly missed indeed. He certainly looks good in that pic for a 12 year old too!!!

Here's another longcoat I had who is very similar to your Chloe, she reached the grand old age of 16, but I think she was about in 10 in this pic
I miss her too, she was a fantastic dog, but then aren't they all!