What colors do Goldendoodles come in?

Which colors come from the Golden, and which from the Poodle?

The Golden brings shades of gold, and the Poodle can bring almost any color. A Golden Retriever should be a rich, shiny gold in various shades, never extremely pale or extremely dark, and its coat makes only the red and yellow color, with no black at all.

The Poodle side is far wider. A Miniature Poodle can be black, blue, brown, gray or silver, as well as cream, apricot, red or white, and our Mini Poodle color guide goes through each one. A Goldendoodle's colors come down to what each parent passes on. Any shade of red and yellow is open to it, from white and cream through apricot to red, and a black, brown or other dark coat can appear only when the Poodle side passes down black.

Why does an F1B Goldendoodle take after its Poodle papa's color?

Because the Poodle side decides most of it. An F1B is a Goldendoodle bred back to a Poodle, as our F1B explainer sets out, so it carries more Poodle than Golden in its family tree. On color the Golden side adds even less, since a Golden can only pass on red and yellow.

Red and yellow is the quiet form of the color gene. A dog shows red or yellow only when it inherits it from both its mama and its papa, and one copy of the black form is enough to make a coat dark. Nearly all light and red Poodles carry two red and yellow copies, and a dog with two passes red and yellow to every puppy.

So when the papa is an apricot or red Poodle, each puppy's color rests on the copy its mama gives. An F1 Goldendoodle mama always carries at least one red and yellow copy, the one her Golden parent gave her. If her other copy matches it, every puppy is red or yellow like its papa, and if it's the black form, about half the puppies can come out darker instead.

What makes a red Goldendoodle red and not apricot?

A red golden doodle has more color in each hair. Apricot, red, cream and white Goldendoodles all carry the same red and yellow color, and how deep it looks comes from how much of it the hair holds. Several genes working together decide that, and Golden Retrievers themselves span nearly the full range, from pale to deep.

Depth of red isn't passed on by one simple rule. Because the shade rests on several genes at once, each puppy inherits its own blend from its mama and papa, and a red F1B Goldendoodle can grow up beside an apricot one. Goldens show it too, with full brothers and sisters running anywhere from very light cream to rich gold.

At the pale end sits white. One gene can lighten red and yellow so much that the coat comes out anywhere from cream to solid white, while leaving black alone. It's found in white Poodles, but it doesn't explain every shade, and other genes play a part, so a DNA result can't always predict how pale a dog will be.

Will a red or apricot Goldendoodle fade as it grows?

It may, and nobody can tell you in advance by how much. In several breeds, the Poodle most of all, a coat can lighten as the dog grows up, and nobody yet knows exactly how that fading is passed on.

The Golden side has changes of its own. A pale Golden puppy's color often deepens as it grows, the feathering can be lighter than the rest of the coat, and the face and body can gray or whiten with age.

That makes a young puppy's shade an early read on its grown color. Waiting for the pick until 4 to 5 weeks gives the coat a little longer to show which way it's heading, and the grown mama and papa are a useful preview of where it may settle.

Does color say anything about shedding or temperament?

No. The genes tied to shedding aren't the ones that decide color, and nothing gives a red coat an edge on shedding over an apricot one. The odds by generation are set out in do Goldendoodles shed, while curl and grooming are in our Goldendoodle grooming guide.

Color doesn't decide a dog's temperament, health or likely lifespan either, and the care a breeder takes is what shapes a dog. Ask any breeder about the parents' health and how long the dogs in the family tree lived, which the Goldendoodle lifespan and price page takes up.

Which Goldendoodle colors do we raise, and how does reserving work?

Our Goldendoodles are F1Bs that we raise as Minis, each the puppy of a Miniature Poodle papa and a Goldendoodle mama, and their colors follow our Poodles. Look for apricot and red, plus the occasional white.

The genetics above are why we don't leave color to luck. Where we have DNA results for a mama and papa, they help us plan the colors a litter may carry, and we are working toward health testing all of our mamas and papas, with the certificates we have posted on each parent's page. Shade still rests on several genes at once, so each puppy's grown color is our estimate from its mama and papa.

Name the color you'd love on our puppy application, where it asks about your dream puppy. When you're approved, we can set a newborn aside for you by gender and color, and the final choice is yours once the puppies are 4 to 5 weeks old. A $200 non-refundable deposit holds a place on the waiting list for a litter that has not been born yet. Our Mini Goldendoodle guide covers size, and the puppies available today are on our F1B Goldendoodle page.