Is my doodle going GREY!?

[Erin]

Hi, I just adopted a five year old chocolate australian multi-gen labradoodle and I was wondering with all these silver hairs, are they actually grey hair or is this a feature of the breed? I'm used to labs (and dogs in general) going grey around the muzzle first as they age, and her muzzle is mostly brown and tan, but her body is speckled with grey or whitish hairs. Just wondered if she's ready for the blue-rinse set or this is just part of her lovely coat coloring. Not that I mind, we're both aging beautifully!

Thanks!

[Adina P]

Yeah it's a poodle thing. My 4 y.o. black labradoodle is covered with speckles of grey and has been since we had her at 11 months. You can see the most in her face:

[Erin]

Aw how cute. What a face!

[Denice Caouette]

The Chocolate Standard Poodle Breed can tend to Silver/or Blue as they get their adult coats. My Coco has a lot of silver/grey as well as blonde. Just makes them more interesting and pretty I think!!! Yours is adorable!!

[Erin]

Thanks, I'm noticing this more and more as I look at pictures of chocolate doodles. As you said, it makes them even more interesting.

[Lynda Kamrath]

I think you are right that graying occurs around the face, not all over the body. I think that is just her color. My 3-year-old goldendoodle is getting lots of white hairs all over his body, but my 6-year-old labradoodle is getting some white hairs on his face. It's all beautiful anyway.

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

Our Harlow is 9 months old and in the last month or so has begun to get a scattering of silver hairs across her back.

[Lynda Kamrath]

Enjoy! As you can tell from the rest of these posts, it is pretty normal for doodles to change their colors throughout their lives. Now, with a name like Harlow, I would expect that she would keep you on your toes with changing her costumes!

[Kyoko]

Charlie is getting a lot of silver / white kemp on her back. She looks like a powder sugared chocolate donut!

[Erin]

Thanks! My Dad just commented on it yesterday saying "she's gettin to be an old girl already!" and I was really upset! She's not old! Cosmos is really cute too. I like your pic.

[Linda,Yankee & Finn]

Finn is 7 months old and is changing colour daily. He was a dark chocolate but is now much lighter. I recently noticed that he has some white (not grey) hair on his ears. I was talking to a lady at the dog park today who has poodles and knew a lot about them. She looked at Finn's skin and said he will be silver/grey. His skin is white with a bluish hue(she said). She also said if his skin was pink that he would stay dark. Does anyone know if this is true?

I wonder why he has white hair coming in? Here are a couple of pics.

[Lynda Kamrath]

What a beautiful coat he has! I think you have it - he changes colors frequently. Don't worry about it and just enjoy the show. And do remember to take photos to document his many changes.