New puppy advice/coat predictions?!

[Caroline and Sammy]

Hi everyone! I recently joined DK and I'm loving reading the posts as well as seeing photos of your doodles! I will be a first-time doodle owner in less than 3 weeks. Sammy is 5 weeks old today! I CAN'T WAIT to bring him home. I've been waiting for him since before he was conceived and it's excruciating!

The breeder just sent me this photo and I was wondering if anyone could help me with coat predictions? I'm thinking he'll be loose wavy, but wanted to get others' opinions. Do you think he will have the classic facial furnishings? For reference, Sammy is an F1 standard goldendoodle. Here's a video of him at 5 weeks as well (as the breeder said - he's much darker in person as you can clearly see in the pic below!)

Also - I was wondering how the color of his coat might change as he gets older. If you have a doodle that was Sammy's color as a puppy, how did his/her coat change?

 

Last but not least, If you have any advice for a first-time doodle/puppy owner, please comment below! This can be recommendations on products, training tips, etc.

Thanks in advance for your help! 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Probably not but she has slowly been getting white hairs scattered in the black so I am wondering if it's stable now or she will continue to get more "salt" in her pepper :p

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

That could be part of the coat change. Jasper got some very wirey white hairs on his back when the fur there was still black. 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

I recently saw puppy and adult pics of Riley's parti poodle dad because the breeder just adopted him out of her breeding program.  The black doesn't seem to have faded at all really (he is only 4.5 years old though) but the border between the black and white is more "blurry" and a mix of black and white hairs so maybe that is what's happening with Riley.  She has a little white patch on her hip so it might be "spreading" from there?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It's not spreading, lol. But it might be a similar thing. 
As you know, parti Poodles are not recognized by the AKC in this country, and the best breeders don't produce them or discuss them, so I don't know much about their particular color changes, genetics, etc. About all I know is that both parents have to carry for it in order for it to be expressed in the offspring. 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Yeah I couldn't figure out a better way to describe it... that's basically what it looks like lol.  I'm sure the AKC doesn't recognize them because someone introduced some other breed somewhere along the way to get those colors.

[Adina P]

I was just reading recently about that in both brown and red poodles, if breeders want colors to stay strong, it's helpful to throw in a black now and then and NOT have any fading colors in the lineage.  (I was trying to see if there was hope for me to find a brown standard that's not 2000 miles away or more.  So far no).