[The Opera Poodle]

Great fun for all....

 

[cowpony]

I love the brief pause when he stops to reassess the situation...and then goes right back to feckless scrabbling.

 

[The Opera Poodle]

I love the brief pause when he stops to reassess the situation...and then goes right back to feckless scrabbling.

There was some left over whip cream in there. He may have been assessing how much he likes whip cream.

 

[Rose n Poos]

And Shasta just chillin' lol. Must try that .

 

[Grannie Annie]

Great fun for all....

Hello to Opera Poodle. I spotted your poodle pic while looking for pics of cafe au lait vs silver beige. My Gus looks a lot like your profile pic. He was very dark brown when born. Picked him up at 10 weeks and he was still dark brown, only not as extreme. Tiny tuft of white by chest. As I would brush him I saw his skin was a dark blue color. Totally freaked me out. Then little by little our guy started to change. I noticed some light colored hairs deep underneath as the months went by. Then his face was getting slightly lighter. It was totally weird because somewhere after 1 1/2 yrs he changed to look like he was lighter shade on half of his face, straight down the middle. Eventually it all pretty much lightened up and now he is this weird brown color? But I noticed yours looks the same. So do you think that is cafe au lait? All of the sites are so confusing, seriously! They say liver colored nose, etc. Try to figure that out, all I can say is its a nice brown nose. But that doesn’t hel because apparently some sites say the silver beige have the same nose, nails color. Some sites say that the silver beige will have guard hairs that are still the darker color, then others say the same of the cafe’s. So, I just don’t know. I will say this, he’s a smart guy. He’s now 4 and in 2019 my hubby surprised me with a Shih Tzu puppy. It took several months but eventually Gus learned how to play well with his new brother. The ornery little Oskar loves to agitate him, but they have great fun chasing each other from the yard to the house and back again! Any thoughts though, on the color situation? My daughter has Gus’ brother from previous litter, and I swear he is silver beige, he was just a regular brown when born. Thanks for your time

 

[Rose n Poos]

Opera Poodle hasn't been around in a while but might respond. Rather than looking at various online sites, I recommend just going to the AKC Poodle Breed Standard as defined by the Poodle Club of America:


ETA Sorry, this doesn't answer your questions about the guard hairs
Liver = Brown for points (nose, eye rims, lips)

Color
The coat is an even and solid color at the skin.
In blues, grays, silvers, browns, cafe-au-laits, apricots and creams the coat may show varying shades of the same color. This is frequently present in the somewhat darker feathering of the ears and in the tipping of the ruff.
While clear colors are definitely preferred, such natural variation in the shading of the coat is not to be considered a fault. Brown and cafe-au-lait Poodles have liver-colored noses, eye rims and lips, dark toenails and dark amber eyes.
Black, blue, gray, silver, cream and white Poodles have black noses, eye rims and lips, black or self-colored toenails and very dark eyes.
In the apricots while the foregoing coloring is preferred, liver-colored noses, eye rims and lips, and amber eyes are permitted but are not desirable.

Major Faults: Color of nose, lips and eye rims incomplete, or of wrong color for color of dog.
Parti-colored dogs shall be disqualified. The coat of a parti-colored dogis not an even solid color at the skin but is oftwo or more colors.

This and other PF threads go into this a bit.

Brown Vs. Silver-Beige Vs. Cafe Au Lait

Now I'm assuming since I'm seeing some silver hairs across Bella's Back (and an entire silver spot on her tail!) she's not a "Brown." She has all liver points. I think her toe nails are brown also but it's hard to tell if they're brown or black. I was reading this website from the other thread...

www.poodleforum.com

Reliable online poodle info sites:

Poodle Colors | Explanations and Photos

Explore the wonderful colors of the Poodle breed. Toy, miniature and standard. Color changes from puppy to adult coat.

www.allpoodleinfo.com

POODLE COAT COLORS: BROWN & CAFE AU LAIT

Arpeggio poodles more indepth look at the colors brown and cafe au lait.

arpeggiopoodles.tripod.com

 

[Rose n Poos]

The genetics of poodle coat colors is pretty interesting, mostly understood, and more than a bit confusing at times.
Most colors change to one degree or another, which isn't a help to folks just starting out in this area.

In the PF thread I linked, twyla and others remark on similarity of the black>blue for brown>cafe and black>silver for brown>silver beige, depending on the inherited genes. This is also noted in the other online sources linked.

I'll be happy to be corrected but I don't think the guard hairs are particularly relevant.

In the color threads you can see those changes but the takeaway is that your boys color story is probably told by how and when he started changing color, not necessarily the tone or color he ends up looking.

The black>blue vs black>silver is a similar color story. A blue can go light enough to look to be a darker silver, The question is when and how did they start changing .