Long Coat German Shepherd Puppies
The obvious question is how do you draw the line between a long and short coats? The answer is found in the genetics. In genetics, what you can observe about a dog is called the phenotype. The phenotype of a dog is either long coated or short coated. However, the underlying genetic structure, called the genotype, tells us more about the dog. A dog that appears short coated carries the L allele causing a normal coat (phenotype). However, his genotype can be either LL or Ll. An Ll carries the gene for the longer coat but does not express it, much like a colored GSD can carry the gene for white but not express it. Like the white coat color, the long coat gene is a simple recessive. A dog expressing the long coat will be ll.
Since we understand the basics of what causes the long coat, we can predict what will occur when we breed. A long coat bred to a long coat will produce all long coated puppies (since the offspring receive the l allele from each parent). A long coat bred to a short coat that is Ll, will produce on average 50% short coats and 50% long coats. Two short coats carrying Ll will produce on average 75% short coats and 25% long coats. Finally, of course, two LLs cannot produce a long coat. If you have a dog that you are not sure is a long coat or not, the answer is to breed him to an obvious long coat. If all the puppies are long coats, he is a long coat. If some of the puppies are short coats, he is a short coat. Regardless of the differences we observe, the truth can always be seen in the genetics.
I am getting in some gorgeous imported European Long coats German Shepherds with top pedigrees. These long coats will not be the over sized giant long coats that you see in the American lines.
These picture of the long coats are from our previous litters