Cavapoos come in a variety of colors! That’s one fun thing about them. The Cavaliers only come in four colors; blenheim, ruby, tri-color and black and tan. But Poodles come in an assortment of colors and patterns; solids, partis, phantoms, etc. So the possibility is great, depending on the parents and their genetic background.
There are two main “patterns”; what we call “solid” colored with just one or two main colors; black, red, apricot, black and tan. And the second pattern which is parti-colored; a white body with colored spots. Any of the solid color/s can come in the parti pattern. If a solid dog has a white spot on it’s chest or paws that doesn’t make it a parti, but what we call mismarked. A tricolor could be called a parti-colored black and tan. (In the Poodle breed what we call a black and tan is called a “phantom”. So a black and tan parti (what we call “tricolor”) could technically also be called a black phantom parti). I know, it’s confusing at times, so we’ll just keep it simple; it’s a tricolor!
Here we hope to showcase a few of our past puppies/dogs and the colors we’ve had. This doesn’t mean we will always have these same colors to choose from. But this will give you an idea of some of the possibilities.
****************************
Black & tan; Think Doberman or Rottweiler coloring. The body is black with brown or tan “points”; eyebrows, cheek patches, legs, inside ears, under the tail, chest (unless there is a white patch covering it). (The top photos are the same puppy at as an older puppy and adult)
***********************************
Sable; Looks dark brown to almost black at birth. Most of the time the darker “color” is actually the tips of the hairs so once the dog is groomed you will only see the lighter color underneath. Although many times the ears will keep the darker tips because they are not shaved. As you can see sables lighten up with age. The darker ones (almost black at birth will stay darker even as adults. (The top two pictures are the same puppy at different ages)
A sable parti
A sable Poodle on the left and his “brother” Cavapoo, a dark sable parti.
**********************************
Red and Apricot. The reds are usually darker when they are smaller, but can lighten up as they mature and are groomed. Even a dark red will usually lighten up. Apricot puppies can be dark (almost red as babies) to a light almost blond (see blond/cream below).
This pictures shows a “true” red on the left and the dark apricot on the right.
********************************
Blond/Cream is just a very light shade of apricot. They look mostly cream with apricot “highlights”. They are a lot lighter even as a small puppy.
**********************************************
Black; a solid black all over, but sometimes they will have some white toes or a patch of white on their chest or chin.
******************************************
Tri-color; is a black & white puppy with tan “points” (as described under the black & tan).
Black & White; only two colors in various patterns all over the body.
***********************
Blenheim (like the purebred Cavalier color) is a white body with red, chestnut, apricot or even lighter cream spots.
********************
Merle & merle parti-merle is a totally different realm of color from the others mentioned. It comes from the Poodle side, but there is controversy there. Some people say a merle dog of another breed was introduced at some time to the Poodle breed and it was never a gene that the Poodle carried. But it has been in the Poodle breed long enough that if a merle Poodle was genetically tested it would come back pure Poodle. So controversy or not, the merle gene is here to stay in the Poodles. I love it!
Merle is a base coat of a diluted black which shows as gray or silver with spots, splotches or patches of black over the coat. Merles can also be brown or even blond with spots or merling that would be darker brown shades of the main coat color. All of our current merles have the diluted black merle (gray) colors.
If a dog has a parti gene it will have a base color of white with merle patches. It can also have brown points like a tricolor dog.
One unique thing about merle dogs (and why breeders need to know what they’re doing and do genetic testing) is if two merle dogs are bred together it doubles on that merle gene and can and will produce blind and deaf dogs. We do not breed merle to merle.
pics
You can see by some of these puppy/adult comparisons that the base coat of the merle can lighten up quite a bit.