Will Your Doodle Stay the Same Color?

This is a complex question that depends upon the intricate set of genes inherited from the parents and grandparents as well as Mother Nature. In the early years of breeding doodles, we didn’t have the genetic testing that is available now so we were often flying blind trying to figure out what combinations would produce the desirable outcome for coat, color, trim, blazes, furnishings and more.

Even though we have considerably more tests available, not all of them give us all the answers we need. Some tests like the dilution gene have been available for many years but even dogs with no copies of the gene, can fade in body or points. This has been very frustrating to most of us breeders. I personally have retired otherwise perfect parents because their puppies had significant fading. Puppies born with great color that unexpectedly lightened.

Like most people, doodle hair often lightens as they age. Sable’s will fade to some extent and may end up an all over Carmel or cream body with adorable dark ears. Puppies born jet black very often fade to blue or silver. Brown (chocolate) may face to silver beige and dark red puppies may fade to apricot. Copper points may also lighten over time.

The Poodle genes introduced a lot of fading, much of which is still un-testable. The latest genetic test available is for intensity and is expected to show if a dog will retain or lose their color intensity and/or if they can pass the gene on to progeny. However the testing is still inconclusive and a dog that has retained a dark body color but it’s copper has faded to cream can still come up as full intensity. So it is another tool in our tool bag but it is unfortunately not the definitive answer we hoped for.

We still feel the most important traits in any doodle should be temperament, health and allergy friendliness. While we (almost) obsessively strive for the “ideal” look in our doodles, we keep those original tenets topmost of mind in our quest for perfection.