I had half black lab-gsd mix also. He was huge and pure black. Except for his half floppy ears, he looked like a black gsd. He was the most lovable, friendliest dog ever.
Ditto !=)) That's exactly how ours looked in every way! Word for word!

I'll search for an old pic.
Do you have pics of him ?
Ours was a female named 'Libby', but somehow our
baby lovie-talk morphed into
'Yibby'! ... 'Yibby-Yoo' ... 'Big Yib' ... 'Come-on Yibs! ' ... 'Whatta Yib .. Whatta Yib .. Whatta Yib'!
Once drove from Orcas Island, WA -to- Key West, Florida, and back, with all points in-between... in a Volkswagen Bug—with a car-top carrier on top, and four fishin' pole tubs in ski racks that attached to the rear engine vents, below the rear window—(remember how nothing seemed impossible when we were in our early 20's? =) —with 'Big Yib' and the English Setter that I had grown-up with, in the back seat !!
My Setter got a face, mouth & tongue full of Porquepine quills in Wyoming, while we were fly-fishing way way up at a very remote lake ( I think in the Bridger Mountain Range), and where, after a 2~3 hour trip down to civilization, a large animal Vet then gave her way too much anesthesia (like a dosage for a cow!), before pulling out the barbed quills. We never thought she was gonna wake-up afterwards; as she slept for 2 1/2 days!
Then 'Big Yib' got totally sprayed by a Skunk along the
Henry's Fork (a tributary of the Snake River), below Yellowstone, where a Grizzly Bear starting to molest our VW Bug while we were all sleeping in it—up a National Park Service maintenance road, that we weren't supposed to be on—after we couldn't find an open camping spot within Yellowstone, and by the famous Railroad Ranch.
Then a Rattlesnake bit my Setter in the face along the Snake River in Idaho, on the 4th of July, when no Veterinarian clinics were open.
And even after an emergency on-call Vet gave her the life-saving antibiotics & anti-inflammatory shots, her head swelled-up to the size of a St. Bernard !

So much so, she could hardly breathe all night.
And that's not even talkin' bout getting chased by Buffalo's in Kansas, and then Louisiana, Mississippi & Florida !!!
