When Doodles change color

[Doodle Grooming]

So I fully expect Theo to fade to white. His father was born dark red and faded to white and his mother was born black and faded to silver. Theo, I think, has begun the change. I wonder though if anyone has insight into the change and how fast or slow, and if it is always overall or just sections. He seems to just have sections changing right now, his forehead and neck mostly :/ Here are a few pictures to show.

The first picture is at three months and he was all one color with white highlights. Now he is six and a half months.

[Linda And Loo]

I know nothing about when and why doodles change colors! However, Theo is mighty cute! I love his color!

[Barb @ Gemstone Labradoodles]

He will probably be a white dog with apricot ears by the time he is 12 to 18 months. Some change later, but since he has already changed quite a bit, I would say he will be earlier rather than later. If you look here and scroll down to Sebastian you will see a dog of a similar color. http://www.haltonhillslabradoodles.com/retired%20dogs.html

[Janice Sutherland]

Ahh, what a lovely boy. He is the spitting image of my Libby. She was born kind of two tone with darker red stripes running down her back and ribs. She was always a little lighter around her eyes. Now she is a cream colour on most her face, but still quite red on most of her body. I too am curious about how her coat will settle out. She is almost 9 months.

[Marla Norton]

He is very cute, whatever color he turns out to be!

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

FInn started out as a light apricot pup and started to lighten in spots like Theo. Now he's all cream, except for his ears, muzzle, eyelashes and around the eyes. If his coat is long, he looks darker but when clipped, he's white.  The light changes his color too.  That's why his photos can look so different.  Enjoy the changes.  Theo will be adorable whatever color!  He just keeps getting cuter :)  

[Doug, Micki, Dawson & Mya]

Dawson was solid black and white as a puppy. By the time we picked him up at 8 weeks, he appeared he was going to be a parti brown/brindle boy.....

This is a week or two after we got him home:

He continued to lighten, but kept the white blazes in his coat.....

Now, at a year old, with the exception of brown ears, we'd say he is a parti silver/brindle dog.....

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Just to be different...Luna got darker as she got older! Now she's starting to fade in certain places at 2.5 (chin, eyebrows)  Who knows where this is going :p  The base of all her dark red hairs is the light apricot that she was when she was a puppy, but all the tips are a deep rusty colour.

11 weeks:

2.5 years:

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

Luna is really pretty girl!

[Pat and Traveler]

Trav is still changing at age 3, but he does seem to be changing in sections.  Theo is such a cutie!

[Trudy Harlow]

It's interesting to me that LDs change color more than GDs do. Why is that?  My Paddy was reddish as a pup, but turned creamy when his adult coat came in. He's the same color all over, though, and I have not seen too many multi-colored GDs. What causes LDs to have "frosting" and other interesting colorations? BTW, I once saw one that actually looked lavender -- it was a very hard-to-describe color but definitely bluish, and no, he had not been dyed.  Anyway, thought Barb might have the answer to this.

Theo is really cute! Looks a lot like Paddy as a pup.