SchmidtDoodles

Coat Colors and Patterns

Colors

·      Black – solid black all the way to the roots

·      Cream – cream color is another variant of apricot and red doodles.  It is a light warm beige color.Some cream Goldendoodles may have light brown noses, eyes, and nails, whereas others may have lighter physical makeup. Many of them may have pinkish skin under their coats.

·      Red –The red color tends to appear as rich mahogany.  The bright red may fade to a lighter shade as the dog gets older.

·      Apricot – This color is somewhere between red and cream.   This color is deeper and warmer than cream. And it’s lighter and more subtle than red.  Theses doodles have black physical attributes, which include their eyes, eye rims, nose, and nails. Their coat color may also lighten to cream or tan once they age past their puppy years.

·      Blue – soft gray or blue-silvery in color often with a bit of an icy sheen

·      Brown or Chocolate – Deep chocolate color that can appear mahogany to dark walnut.

Patterns

·      Brindle – Appearing almost as a tiger stripe pattern, it is caused by dark stripes on a light coat. 

·      Merle – Irregular blotches or spots of color on a dog’s coat.  The blotches are set on a lighter background of the same pigment, such as solid black on gray (called blue merle).  Color variations are “blue Merle”, “sable Merle” and “chocolate Merle”.   Two Merle-colored doodles should never be bred together. If they are bred together, merle doodles can often be blind, deaf, or have other deformities.

·      Sable – Sable doodles are born a solid black or dark brown as a puppy. With age, the puppy coat begins to grow out and the solid color begins to fade. Each hair follicle often has 2+ colors on it.  Eventually, the sable doodle will mature into a lighter cream or tan doodle with black tips. The base is often tan and cream. Sable doodles tend to retain their original dark coloring on the face and ears, making them dual-toned.

·      Phantom – Phantom doodles must have two colors in very specific locations of the dog.  A phantom doodle must have a primary color that covers a majority of the body. The second lighter color will appear in the eyebrows, on the muzzle of the nose, chest, underneath the tail and lower parts of the legs.

·      Parti – Parti doodles have bi-colored coats, one of which must be at least 50% white. Their secondary color can be any solid or Merle shade.