EVER WONDER WHERE YOUR DOODLE GOT ITS COLOR?

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I am dog sitting my grand puppy this weekend - a 5 month old poodle.  We are most definitely in love with her and she is most definitely in love with Charlie and won't leave him alone. She is the most beautiful deep red, so dark that she is almost chocolate. When I get her in direct sun though, I can really see the red.    It made me wonder about poodle coloring. I don't know about you, but I thought poodles came in basic red or faded red (i.e. apricot), black, white, and gray, with a two-color parti or two thrown in.  Where did our unusual colored doodles come from?  I guess that I thought it was some rare mutation.  Well, guess again!  I found this poodle color site:

http://www.stunninglyss.com/explaining-poodle-colors.html

Poodles come in so many colors, shades of colors, mixes of colors and patterns, I was amazed. I saw apricot, cafe au lait, sable, silver beige, blue, ticking, phantom, brindle - all  of which are poodle colors.  I realized that Babette is a mahogany red and as such, will likely stay dark. 

I even found out that Charlie is sort of a Tuxedo parti - not quite, because he looks more like he is wearing pants and a jacket and a true Tuxedo has a solid saddle on his back.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Coat color is so complicated. But Babette is gorgeous and it's easy to see why she loves handsome Charlie. Great photos.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Aw... thanks, F.  He puts up with her, and we quietly tell him what goes around, comes around, and he sort of deserves it.  :-}

[Linda, Charlie Brown and Beau]

I love standard poodles and we had a large black standard (Wilbur) for many years.  Babette has a gorgeous coat. 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Her coat is so soft and not what I expected of a poodle.  Perhaps it gets coarser when she is older?

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Both dogs are gorgeous. Fudge's deep chocolate fades more each day. 

[Wendy and Myla]

She is gorgeous!  Do you happen to know what colors both of her parents were?

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Both parents are red but mom is much lighter almost apricot.

[Wendy and Myla]

I love her!  She looks very gangly but of course she's a puppy!  Is she tall for her age and what is her expected weight!  So cute!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

She weighs about 40 pounds.  She was one of the smaller puppies in the litter.  She is about as tall at the shoulder as Clancy - about 19."  I looked up standard poodle sizes(18-24") so I guess she is going to be fairly tall????

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm not sure where you saw 18"-24", but that's incorrect. The breed standard for Standard Poodles is anything over 15" at the withers, and there is no top limit. :) Average is 22". 

Weight should be 45 to 70 lbs. 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I simply googled and did NOT check the source.  Thank you for correcting me. I know nothing about poodles.  It has been fun learning.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I love educating people about Poodles, and since all doodles have Poodle in them, we should all know the basics. The doodle breeders often have misinformation about poodles on their sites. Like "Moyen" poodles, which they represent as a 4th size. But there is no such thing, lol. There are three sizes, and no reputable Poodle breeder in the world is mixing Miniature Poodles with Standard Poodles to make "moyens". A Poodle between 15 and 18 inches is a smaller Standard, unless some BYB did something weird with breeding a mixture of Poodles.