Leerburg Puppy Colors

By Ed Frawley  |  Last modified: April 15, 2022

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Note: Leerburg formerly bred working bloodline German Shepherds until deciding to shift its focus towards producing dog training videos and courses alongside providing quality dog training equipment. This article was written when our breeding program was still active. While Leerburg no longer breeds working GSDs, we believe this article may still provide valuable information for those interested in starting their own breeding program.

Black and Tan

The photo below is a typical black and tan puppy. Many times, the dog will be darker as a pup and the tan areas will get larger as it matures. So often a dark pup will turn out more like a typical black and tan as an adult.

Black Sable

This color is called a black sable. The deep black color is brought out by the black on the tips of the hair. Usually, pups don't start out this black. As they age, they get darker and darker.

Tan Sable

These dogs are beautiful as adults. As they get older, their bodies almost always darken into a brown sable color. What in effect happens is the tips of the hair follicle get either very dark brown or black so the dog looks a lot darker than this. If the hair is pulled back (towards the head of the dog) one sees that the bottom part of the hair follicle is tan while the tips of the hair are dark. People will stop on the street and say how beautiful these dogs are. There are no American bloodline GSDs that are tan sables. Below are photos of all Leerburg dogs.

Brown Sable

The sables offer a wide range of spectacular colors. This is just one example of what a brown sable will look like as an adult.

Dark Brown Sable

A dark brown sable puppy is a very unusual color. However,they grow up to be very dark, good-looking dogs.

Bi-Color

A bi-color is a dog that is almost exclusively black with some tan markings on the legs.

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About Author

Ed Frawley

Ed Frawley is the founder and owner of Leerburg.com and has been producing professional dog training videos since 1982. Over the years, he has collaborated with some of the most respected dog trainers in the country. His body of work includes 194 full-length training DVDs and 95 comprehensive online courses. In addition to these, he has produced and published over 4,000 short training videos available free of charge on Leerburg.com and across the company's social media platforms.

Ed and his wife, Cindy—also a professional dog trainer—bred working-line German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois for more than 35 years. Although they retired from breeding in 2009, they had produced over 300 litters by that time.

Ed also served as a K9 handler for the local sheriff's department for 10 years, working in partnership with the West Central Drug Task Force. During his time in law enforcement, he handled multiple narcotics and patrol dogs and conducted more than 1,000 K9 searches. If you want to learn more about Ed, read about his history here.

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