Genetics are complicated, and I have only rudimentary understanding. If anyone else wants to jump in or make any corrections, that would be helpful.
That being said, the pup inherited the "at" gene from each parent for tan points, aka the phantom look. The "t" is actually small like an exponent like you see in math, but I can't copy this with using the PF software.
Go to this page on the
Dog Coat Colour Genetics site, then scroll halfway down to Tan Points for more information.
A dog has to inherit two at genes to have tan points, it will atat. However,
there are other genes that can mask/hide the points won't be visible.
I don't know if this puppy, that does express tan points aka phantom, will have it's dominant black hair fade to blue or 'bad black'. You can read more about blues and silvers
here.
The blues, only from my limited observations and readings, come in two types: one is clearly blue or quickly clears to blue as a puppy, the other is born jet black.
The jet black then starts to get gray, white, and/or light brown hairs very slowly, like a salt n' pepper look. Dechi's poodle and my own began this process at the age of 2. So did my breeder's dam, and now at age five it's hard to tell what color she is. See Dechi's thread and the comments
here.
Without knowing if the silver dam of this pup has blacks that stayed black in her ancestry, I can't know if the pup's dominant black color will remain jet black. However, if it does begin a color change, my best guess w/o additional knowledge is that the new white hairs will be complimentary to the silver cream points.
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