Cockapoo Colors, Red, Merle, Sable, Chocolate, Brown, Particolor, Phantom, Black, Apricot, Buff, Silver, Tuxedo

Cockapoo Colors - Look Below for Pictures!

Cockapoos can be found in many basic colors as well as those basic colors blended, shaded and mixed together. Listed below are the descriptions for most popular combinations of cockapoo colors and patterns. Below the descriptions are pictures.

Black - Solid black. Can have a bit of white on chest, tummy, tips of paws (this is not considered a tuxedo but is considered in poodles to be an "abstract").

Black & Tan or Brown & Tan - Known as Phantom. Solid black or brown with red, tan, cream or silver markings under the tail, all four feet, on the face (eyebrows and cheeks) and a bar or "t" on the chest. The look is very similar to a Doberman or Rottweiler.

White - Solid white. Some white puppies have or will develop some apricot feathering in the ears.

Silver - Solid white but MUST have seal gray skin on entire body. The eye rims, nose and mouth must have black pigment. Very rare and hard to find in both poodles and cocker spaniels thus so in Cockapoos.

Buff - This color can vary in shade, like most blondes, from the palest cream to the deepest tan color.

Apricot - The MOST popular color in Cockapoos today. This color can vary in shade from light strawberry blonde of orange to a darker orange. Not to be considered "red". This color is decided by the breeder and is quite open to interpretation.

Red - This, like Apricot, can vary in depth of color. Very uncommon as the true red gene is recessive in both cocker spaniels and poodles. Deep and rich, a clear red is very distinctly different from apricot. This color is decided by the breeder and is quite open to interpretation. For me, a true red, is a deep mahogany color like that of an Irish Setter.

Sable - Sable is the dilute of the black or brown gene. The sable newborn puppy will have a base coat that is black or brown with tan highlights & then, as the hair grows in, it begins to lighten. If the initial coat is brown, then the pup turns a gold with brown tips on ears, mustache, and possibly on the tips of feet & tail. If the newborn coat appears black, then the coat may come in to be a silver with black tips. There maybe a black stripe down the center of the back as well.

Chocolate Brown - As the name implies. Can range from light milk chocolate to deep bittersweet brown in color.

Silver Beige or Cafe Au Lait - It is a dilute of brown. It carries the fading gene also. They will lighten with age just as silver poodles would. There are various shades of silver beige. Sometimes they turn almost platinum silver with a huge of brown to them. Silver beige must be silvering in the face and feet by the age of 6 weeks to be silver beige. They must have liver points and dark amber eyes.

Particolor - Mostly white (about 75%) with spots of another color such as black, red, sable, brown or buff.

Tri-Color - The same as a particolor but adding a third color, such as tan, over the eyes, under the tail, on the feet and chest. Examples would be a black/white & tan or a brown/white & tan.

Tuxedo - True Tuxedos is a dog that has white in a bib around the neck that may or may not go all the way around the neck, totally white on the belly and up into the chest, white on the legs that may extend all the way up to the elbow and or knees, may or may not have white markings on the face or head, and with the rest of the dog being predominately the darker color.