"A good dog can't be a bad color", but that doesn't stop people from having preferences and with choosing a poodle, it's very easy to satisfy that preference. Poodles come in all solid colors including black, blue, silver, cream, white, apricot, red, brown, cafe-au-lait or silver beige. While it does not make the written show standard, some breeders are breeding parti-colored Poodles.
Black, Blue, Silver Poodles
If you are looking for a black poodle that stays black, check for his/hers parents, grandparents and great grands to be black. Also, the entire litter should have only black puppies in it and the breeder breeds specifically for black poodles. If shaved, the face should be almost black, if not as dark, in color as the main coat.
Blue and silver are a dilute of black and it carries the fading gene. Puppies are born black and they will turn blue by two years of age for blue puppies and silvers should have silver face and feet by the age of six weeks. As a blue "clears", the poodle will become a dark gun metal grey color. Also, there are varying shades of silver to sparkling platinum that is almost white to a beautiful pewter color. Both blue and silver poodles should have black points and dark brown eyes.
White, Cream (Champagne) Poodles
White is the second most common color after black and is caused by a pair of recessive genes and white bred to white will always produce white. Most whites begin life as light creams but their face and feet quickly fade into white. They can range from the ice white to the creamy white, but they should always have black points.
Do you know the difference between cream poodles, champagne poodles and white ones? Cream poodles have decidedly off-white color that you will notice when they stand next to white ones or when they romp in the fresh snow. Sometimes they can have light apricot undercoats around the ears and apricot shading on the back and hocks, although to the untrained eye, they look white. Creams are, genetically, light apricots. Creams should also have black points. Liver points are acceptable but not preferred.
Red, Apricot Poodles
Apricot is a dilute of red. It is the rarest of the colors in all the varieties of poodles and the most difficult to get. Some of Apricots are so pale that seem cream but with reddish tones. Just as shaded silver is next to the greatest dilution of black, with pale platinum at the end of the scale, so apricot is next to the greatest dilution of brown, with cream at the end of the scale. Apricots should have black points.
Red Red should also have black point. Liver points are acceptable but not preferred.
Chocolate, Cafe-au-lait, Silver beige Poodles
Many Browns (Chocolate) fade into cafe-au-lait, but a true brown should never fade. Also, all brown poodles should have dark amber eyes, eye rims, lips, nose and toenails all brown to match the tone of the coat. The skin should match the tone of the coat in a lighter shade.
Cafe-au-lait and Silver beige poodles are born dark brown and change to cafe around the age of two years. They also must have liver points and dark amber eyes. Similar to silver and blue pups, a breeder will be able to give you an idea on the adult color shade around eight to ten weeks of age. Cafe-au-laits are milk chocolate shades as adults and silver beiges are more of a silvery or lilac-ey shade of chocolate when clipped short.
Remember that some puppies don`t show their adult coloring right away, the coat color clears and resolves as they mature. The majority of them will look a lot different from five weeks old to five years old.
