Coat changing from golden to brown down spine

[Chris]

Hi there if anyone has any info on this subject. I have noticed on my 3.5 year old goldendoodle a few weeks ago that a few spot on his back coat changed from golden to brown. We gave him a grooming yesterday and shaved him down and noticed even more brown fur down his spine. The skin under the brown fur is normal and just like everywhere else. His appetite and potty are normal and he is not itchy in that area. It is $75 for a vet examination but everywhere I read said it's normal for a dog's coat to change color as long as the skin does not change color. The pictures look likes he's missing fur but it is the same length but just darker.

Anyone come across this or have any thoughts?

Thank you

[Gail and Bailey]

Just something for you to think about........ We had a dog who always crawled under the coffee table to sleep and after a while he had the same dark "stripe" down his back that your dog has. It seems the edge of the table top scraped his spine each time he went under and came back out. The vet said it was just like humans getting a bruise. When we made the table unavailable to him, his fur eventually went back to normal. I seem to remember it took quite a while for the fur to grow out but it did go away. He never seemed to feel any discomfort and it was not a big deal.

[Lori, Winnie, Bob and Indie]

My redhead, Winnie, had a darker stripe down her back when she was younger. It gradually went away. If you type in "stripe on back" in the Search area on this site, you'll see lots of discussions on this subject. Nothing to worry about! :-)

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

This is pretty normal for doodles.  It is just part of the doodle coat especially shows on the apricots.  It seems to show a lot for a while, then fade back out.  It show a lot more when you cut them that short.

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

Yes! This happened to my white doodle a few years ago. I asked the vet and there was no explanation. The hair itself was a different texture, like a Golden Retriever 's hair so he thought maybe it was just the Golden genes making an appearance. It's not harmful. The only thing I could think of was that was where she had been bitten during puppy play and is the equivalent of a "bruise". I realize it's only the fur color that changed. My girl had it for a while. It eventually grew out and she was all white again. Then it happened again a little over a year later. I thought maybe it would be a yearly occurrence but she is 5 years old now and and we haven't seen it and it has been three years since the last time. http://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/is-daphne-changing-color
There are some responses in my discussion that have photos and links to prior discussions.