# Blue or silver?



## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

There are two unrelated genes responsible for the "blue" color. One gradually fades the color of the dog to some shade of blue/grey/silver. This is the one found in Kerry Blue Terriers and is usually responsible for blue, silver, and cafe colored poodles. The dog is born black or brown with a black or brown nose and paws. As far as I know there isn't a truly reliable test for this gene yet. The other is a dilution gene. The dog is born blue or fawn with a light nose and paws. This gene is responsible for the blue and fawn color in many breeds. It is rare in poodles, but it does occasionally appear. Testing for the D-Locus should tell you if you have it.


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## Lsburney (Oct 21, 2021)

cowpony said:


> There are two unrelated genes responsible for the "blue" color. One gradually fades the color of the dog to some shade of blue/grey/silver. This is the one found in Kerry Blue Terriers and is usually responsible for blue, silver, and cafe colored poodles. The dog is born black or brown with a black or brown nose and paws. As far as I know there isn't a truly reliable test for this gene yet. The other is a dilution gene. The dog is born blue or fawn with a light nose and paws. This gene is responsible for the blue and fawn color in many breeds. It is rare in poodles, but it does occasionally appear. Testing for the D-Locus should tell you if you have it.


Thank you so much for your response! So should I expect their noses to stay light or will they become pigmented over time? One of them also has phantom traits.


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## Summer (May 2, 2016)

Why not Brown/cafe/silver beige? Is Dad not a brown carrier?


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## PoodlesinMass (10 mo ago)

cowpony said:


> There are two unrelated genes responsible for the "blue" color. One gradually fades the color of the dog to some shade of blue/grey/silver. This is the one found in Kerry Blue Terriers and is usually responsible for blue, silver, and cafe colored poodles. The dog is born black or brown with a black or brown nose and paws. As far as I know there isn't a truly reliable test for this gene yet. The other is a dilution gene. The dog is born blue or fawn with a light nose and paws. This gene is responsible for the blue and fawn color in many breeds. It is rare in poodles, but it does occasionally appear. Testing for the D-Locus should tell you if you have it.


That is not true, the dilute at D locus does not work in poodles, all mine are not dilute so DD and all are silver or blue. They have not found the gene(s) for poodles.


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## Starvt (Nov 5, 2019)

They look brown to me, or maybe sable or brindle. 
Hard to see accurate color from a photo, but I agree they are not black.


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

PoodlesinMass said:


> That is not true, the dilute at D locus does not work in poodles, all mine are not dilute so DD and all are silver or blue. They have not found the gene(s) for poodles.


The D Locus dilution is very rare in poodles, but it is occasionally found. Interestingly, in January 2020 a paper came out on the mechanism behind the cream/apricot/red and silver/blue/black color spread in poodles and some other breeds. I think a lot of people missed it due to the chaos of Covid occurring at the same time. Here's a link. Pigment Intensity in Dogs is Associated with a Copy Number Variant Upstream of KITLG


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## Minie (Oct 4, 2021)

cowpony said:


> The D Locus dilution is very rare in poodles, but it is occasionally found. Interestingly, in January 2020 a paper came out on the mechanism behind the cream/apricot/red and silver/blue/black color spread in poodles and some other breeds. I think a lot of people missed it due to the chaos of Covid occurring at the same time. Here's a link. Pigment Intensity in Dogs is Associated with a Copy Number Variant Upstream of KITLG


Thanks for the link. It's really fascinating


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