Fading!

[Kathy]

Both my dogs are JerseyDoodles puppies by Julius and Jessica.  Both were dark dark red as puppies, but Casey, who is now almost 2, has faded significantly - she's now a dark creamy color and I see even lighter coat at the roots.  Roxie is 14 mos and I can see coat lightening at her roots, too.  What's going on?  Julius is still very dark so it must be the poodle mom's contribution.  Does anyone have any insight into this?  Of course I still think my dogs are beautiful, but I loved the color of that dark coat.

[1nhzi2aljzh3g]

Apparently, that's normal.  Just like humans, dogs usually lighten over time.  Lily's dad is Julius and her mom is an apricot poodle, so we have the same thing going on.  She has many coarser blondish hairs on her back, near her butt that are the texture and color of a lab's.  I figured it was from Julius, since he's a labradoodle/goldendoodle mix.  Not sure who it came from, but I do miss that darker red color! :)

[Rose]

From what I've been told, the fading is a poodle trait and the only way to keep a "true" red is to have at least one parent/grandparent that is black. My Blaze also gets "snow nose", which is a Lab trait. His nose started out black. It turns brown in the winter and gets darker again in the summer. He will be three in May and has also faded to a lighter apricot, a blond/light red mix, but the coarser hairs on his back are dark red.

[R Umlah]

Unfortunatley this happens to alot of reds and chocolates. It's a gene thing. These fading genes kick in at around that age and sometime earlier. Breeding a red to a black helps the offspring retain red as some blacks carry another gene that causes darkening,  but more often than not the reds will fade to apricot.

It's too bad,  both colors are so beautiful when they remain dark.

 

[Kathy]

A dog of another color...

 

[Janine and Abby]

From what I read, Golden Retrievers darken as they age, but Poodles get lighter.  Abby's coat is quite a bit lighter than when she was a puppy.  And you're right, they are still beautiful dogs no matter what.