# Gray Poodles



## MiniPoo

What do you mean that they are not recognized? And the names of blue and silver are what grayish poodles are called.

Dakota is a blue mpoo.


----------



## Bandit

MiniPoo said:


> What do you mean that they are not recognized? And the names of blue and silver are what grayish poodles are called.


Gray is one of the 10 allowable colors. 

Description	Registration Code
APRICOT 002
BLACK 007
BLUE 037
BROWN 061
CREAM 076
GRAY 100
RED 140
SILVER 176
SILVER BEIGE 183
WHITE 199

http://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/poodle/detail/#tone


----------



## MiniPoo

Someone more informed than I should answer your question, but I will take a guess.

Gray is a very vague term that could refer to either a silver or a blue. Blues have one fading gene and develop a bluish tinge. So the term blue is a good one.

Silvers have 2 fading genes and are most often almost white with a light silver color. So silver is a good way to describe them.

I think at one time blues were considered a bad black and it took a while to realize they were a different color. 

I see no reason to use the term gray to refer to both blues and silvers, but that is just my opinion.

ETA: Perhaps gray is an old term for silver before the blue color was recognised by the PCA. Or perhaps a person is unsure if the puppy will be silver or blue. So they register the puppy as gray.

I prefer to call my dog blue, not gray. I think most owners of silver dogs like silver as well.


----------



## Bandit

MiniPoo said:


> Someone more informed than I should answer your question, but I will take a guess.
> 
> Gray is a very vague term that could refer to either a silver or a blue. Blues have one fading gene and develop a bluish tinge. So the term blue is a good one.
> 
> Silvers have 2 fading genes and are most often almost white with a light silver color. So silver is a good way to describe them.
> 
> I think at one time blues were considered a bad black and it took a while to realize they were a different color.
> 
> I see no reason to use the term gray to refer to both blues and silvers, but that is just my opinion.


Yes, I know silver and blue are technically shades of gray, but I'm just going by the AKC color standard. Gray is an actual color recognized by the AKC but not by the exhibitors. I've seen dark dogs identified as "silver" and dogs without that bluish tinge identified as "blue". Those are supposed to be gray.


----------



## Bandit

This is a gray, in my opinion.


----------



## zooeysmom

I've wondered the same thing. Isn't gray like a silver that stays steel gray into maturity instead of turning more "platinum"?


----------



## zooeysmom

Do you know how old that dog is, Bandit?


----------



## MiniPoo

Since blue and silver are also on the AKC list, they are perfectly good colors. There is simply no reason to use gray if you know your poodle is a blue that took 2 years to clear, or you know your poodle is a silver that cleared much faster.

Sorry but I do not understand why this matters to you. Blue and silver are good and precise color terms recognised by AKC as much as the color gray. I don't see the need to use gray.

Maybe you will get a better response from someone else. I am just repeating myself now.


----------



## MiniPoo

zooeysmom said:


> I've wondered the same thing. Isn't gray like a silver that stays steel gray into maturity instead of turning more "platinum"?


That is a blue. Dakota will be gun metal gray in a year or two.

Look at the pictures in the Blue Poodle Thread. The url is in my signature.


----------



## Bandit

zooeysmom said:


> Do you know how old that dog is, Bandit?


No, I don't know the exact age, but it's not a puppy.

My mother had one that color and stayed that way until the day it died.


----------



## N2Mischief

See, in my opinion, that dog is blue.


----------



## MiniPoo

N2Mischief said:


> See, in my opinion, that dog is blue.


Looks that way to me too, and a very pretty one as well.


----------



## glorybeecosta

Bandit said:


> This is a gray, in my opinion.


Oh how beautiful they are


----------



## Coldbrew

the AKC standard doesn't include all the colors that poodles can come in (it excludes cafe au lait, phantom, sable, brindle, and partis), so the fact that it includes "Grey" when the correct term would be "blue" or "silver" doesn't really surprise me.

If the standard were ever changed (doubtful), I expect that they'd remove grey rather than keep it, since it's very well accepted in the poodle world that a black poodle with one dilute gene is blue, and with two dilutes is silver, even if their colors could all be lumped into a single "grey" category. Why use a word to describe a poodle when you could use a more accurate one?


----------



## peccan

WAIT. There's the very rare "blue-born blue" Poodle. "Grey" would be a great colour to register them since they certainly aren't silver or blue.


----------



## spindledreams

Actually "grey" is the term used for born grey poodles. These have blue grey noses and eye rims and are the color called blue in most other breeds. These are EXTREMELY RARE. Silvers and blues are born black and fade to their colors, some dogs actually end up in a grey zone where they could be dark silver or very pale grey if all you do is look at them. In this case you have to go by the rate of color change if known to know which of the two colors to call them. And of course some blues are so dark as to appear almost black.


----------



## MiniPoo

Coldbrew, they have a registration code for cafe au lait. See url Bandit gave earlier and scroll down. You will see more colors than the "standard" ones.

http://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/poodle/detail/#tone

Thanks, Spindledreams, for an explanation of gray. So the color of the pup at birth tells you if it is blue, silver or gray, and most dogs today are blue or silver. Interesting.


----------



## Coldbrew

Very interesting. I didn't know that there were dogs that were born grey; good to know! Now I have a reason to look at even more poodle pictures!

And thanks MiniPoo - I was using the list that Bandit gave rather than clicking the link, and am more familiar with UKC anyway.


----------



## lily cd re

N2Mischief said:


> See, in my opinion, that dog is blue.


Looks blue to me too, but as spindledreams pointed out we would need to know the color of that dog when it was born.


----------



## zooeysmom

On the Silver/silver beige/blue FB page, recently there was a litter with a "born silver." It looked pewter gray. So is this a born blue, born silver, or gray? I'm so confused!


----------



## MiniPoo

Blues and silvers are born black and fade. If the puppy is born grayish, however light or dark gray it is, I think it would be called gray. Who knows if it will lighten or darken as it matures.

People are going to call dog colors whatever they want, but I wouldn't call a dog blue or silver unless it is black colored at birth.


----------



## spindledreams

If the pigment on the points ie nose and eye rims is grey then it should be a grey. However if the pigment on the points is black then it could simply be a "fever coat" and the dog will turn black or blue or silver.


----------



## MollyMuiMa

I had never heard the term "fever coat" so I learned something new today! For those of your who are unfamiliar also, this is what a "fever coat'" is!!!


----------



## Quossum

Just wanted to mention that "Black and White" was an option when I registered Sugarfoot, and that's what his papers say. I cannot remember if Brindle was listed as an option, but I recall being surprised that "Black and White" was there!

--Q


----------



## lisasgirl

Is there a difference between what's allowed to be considered a poodle for AKC purposes, and which colors you can actually show without getting DQ'd?


----------



## Streetcar

lisasgirl said:


> Is there a difference between what's allowed to be considered a poodle for AKC purposes, and which colors you can actually show without getting DQ'd?


Yes, great question. PCA's standard DQ's parti-colors from the conformation ring. They can compete in performance, no problem. Here's a link to the standard; color info is on page 23: Illustrated Standard - Poodle Club of America . AKC rules come from this.


----------



## Caddy

Thanks MollyMuiMa, you saved me from looking it up. I've learned two things today because I didn't know there were grey poodles, I thought they were all blues or silvers.


----------



## kayla_baxter

MollyMuiMa said:


> I had never heard the term "fever coat" so I learned something new today! For those of your who are unfamiliar also, this is what a "fever coat'" is!!!



This kitten had a fever coat. By the time he was a year old he was jet black. I was really hoping he'd keep it, it looked amazing. 


















Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Streetcar

I didn't know about gray Poodles till today, either! Love how much learning is on offer here .


----------



## AngelAviary

Kayla baxter: we used to call that color a Black Smoke when I worked at the Cat only Vet. I had a Domestic Longhair that had that and she kept it her whole life. It is a very cool color! Ive seen adult Persians and such also with that color.


----------



## spindledreams

There is a difference between fever coat and a smoke. In the fever coat the tips are the silverly grey and the unaffected coat growing in is black. In a smoke the tips are dark and the under coat is light.


----------



## peccan

And smoke is a permanent colouration, fever coat is a passing disorder.


----------

