Читать книгу Poodle - S. Meyer Clark - Страница 16

Poodle colors are mind-boggling! For the purists, there are three choices: black, white and dark brown. For the more adventuresome, there are literally dozens of other shades, starting with cream to café-au-lait to pale apricot all the way to a deep, rich apricot that sparkles in the sunshine. From there, you can see deeper shades that reach eventually into rich chocolate brown. From coal black, you can descend to a deep gunmetal gray to various shades of plain gray and on toward silver-gray.

Poodle puppies are often born darker in color than they will be as adults. Gray Poodles, for example, are born black, while dark chocolate puppies usually lighten to a soft milkchocolate shade.

I have owned Poodles in black, gunmetal gray, light and medium gray, chocolate brown, deep apricot and even light butterscotch. As far as I’m concerned, choosing just the right dog to live with does not depend on its color. There are far more important features to consider than the color.

Despite the large number of colors and shades that Poodles can exhibit, the most commonly seen Poodle color is probably white. Whatever the color, it must be solid in show dogs; particolored dogs are disqualified.

Identifying the color of a Poodle can be perplexing. Some might call this a chocolate while others would say dark apricot.

One last note on color, however. It’s important to point out here that café-au-lait and brown Poodles have dark amber eyes rather than the traditional black eyes. Also, their lips, eye rims and noses should be liver-colored instead of black. Apricots may have liver pigmentation and dark amber eyes, but black is preferred. In selecting a Poodle for showing, clear colors are preferred; solid colors are required.

From gunmetal to silver, there is a magnificent range of gray shades seen in the Poodle.

A wellappreciated color is the apricot with a black nose.