About the Breed

Incredible... In Every Color

Standard Poodles are intelligent, affectionate, athletic dogs known for their beauty, versatility, and deep devotion to their families. They are elegant enough to turn heads, playful enough to keep life interesting, and smart enough to thrive in many different homes when they are given the time, training, grooming, and companionship they need.

At Heart Song Standard Poodles, we love the whole poodle - not just the curls and color. Standard Poodles are wonderful companions for families who want a dog that can be active, social, loving, and deeply connected to their people. Many enjoy walking, hiking, swimming, training, playing, and simply being wherever their family is.

Poodles are often described as non-shedding, but that beautiful coat does require regular grooming. Their intelligence also means they need mental stimulation, structure, and attention. A Standard Poodle is not a dog to leave outside alone or expect to entertain itself all day. These dogs are happiest when they are included as part of the family.

One of the joys of the breed is the wide range of colors and patterns. Standard Poodles can be solid colored, parti colored, red, apricot, black, brown, cream, silver, blue, phantom, sable, brindle, tuxedo, abstract, and more. Some coats hold their color for life, while others lighten, deepen, or change as the dog matures. That color journey is part of what makes every poodle unique.

Parti Standard Poodles

A parti poodle is a poodle of white and another color. There are several distinct patterns: the tuxedo, spotted, and abstract all refer to a poodle that is white and another color. That color can be black, brown, red, apricot, creme, silver, blue, grey, cafe-au-lait, or silver-beige.

Parti poodles are usually more than half white with colored spots. They can range from almost a solid white with just a few spots of color to the more colorful tuxedos.

Tuxedos look like a poodle dressed for a party. They have white on the legs and a white collar that may or may not go completely around the neck. Tuxedo-colored poodles also have white on the belly that should extend up to the chest. Some tuxedos have colored legs almost to the feet and others have white all the way up to their back.

Abstract poodles have limited white markings and are almost a solid colored dog. The most common abstract poodle marking is a simple white mark on the chest. White splashes of color may also occur on the face, head, chest, and feet. Abstract poodles sometimes have a white chest and white feet that look like they have been dipped in paint.

Ticking marks are the small spots found within the white parts of the dog. Dogs may have little to no ticking. Ticking on legs may look like small spots or be large enough to look like stripes.

We have standard poodle puppies for sale in these parti color combinations: black and white parti, brown and white parti, red and white parti, apricot and white parti, blue and white parti and silver and white parti. Multi-colored poodles include parti poodles, abstracts, brindles and phantom poodles. We are conveniently located near Huntsville, Alabama an easy drive to Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Georgia.

Apricot and Red Standard Poodles

Poodles come in a wide range from a light apricot to a dark mahogany red. They should always have dark points, meaning that the nose, eye rims, and lips should be dark. The eyes should be a beautiful brown. Amber-colored eyes and light points are considered a fault in both the AKC and UKC registries.

We have apricot and red standard poodle puppies for sale that range in color from a creamy apricot to a deep mahogany red. We are conveniently located near Huntsville, Alabama an easy drive to Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Georgia.

Phantom, Tri-Color, Sable and Brindle Poodles

Phantom poodles have markings often compared to those of a Doberman pincher. There are several other breeds that have this color pattern. While phantom-patterned dogs have 2 coat colors, the markings of a phantom poodle are in a specific pattern, unlike a parti colored dog. Phantom poodles have lighter markings on their lower legs, across the cheeks on the face, across the chest, on the eyebrows, and below the tail. A true phantom will hold these marking throughout its lifetime.

Phantom colors can be found in these combinations:

- Black phantoms: black and apricot, black and red, black and cream, black and brown, or black and silver
- Brown phantoms: brown and apricot or brown and creme
- Red phantoms: red and apricot or red and creme
- Silver or blue phantoms: silver and creme or blue and creme. On a silver, the markings may become almost indistinguishable as the color changes (it is common for silver poodles to fade in color over time).

Tricolored poodles are genetically two color patterns. They are a parti colored poodle with phantom markings. The legs may be white as is often seen on a parti dog. Sometimes the only phantom marking that occur may be seen on the face and eyebrows.

poodle shown with phantom and parti body markings.

Poodle puppy that shows tri markings. markings of phantom and parti poodles

Sable poodles are usually born black or brown and clear (a kind of lightening) with age. Sable dogs will mature to a lighter dog with black tips. When a poodle is groomed you often may see dark markings only on the longer hair such as the tips of the ears. A puppy that is born a dark brown or black that is also a sable may lighten to a creme with just dark tips. You can have either solid colored sable or parti sables.

sable female poodle puppy showing facial markings

We have phantom, brindle, sable and tri colored standard poodle puppies for sale, make sure to check back often to see available puppies. Our waiting list fills up quickly, fill out an application and get the process started. We are conveniently located near Huntsville, Alabama an easy drive to Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Georgia.

Solid Color Poodles

We frequently have solid black, blue, cream, cafe-au-laits and brown puppies in our litters. Solid color poodles come in a wide range of colors. There are the darkest blacks to the stunning ice whites. There are colors that hold throughout a dog's lifetime and colors that clear or lighten. In blues, grays, silvers, browns, cafe-au-laits, apricots, and creams a solid colored coat may hold varying shades of the same color. This is frequently present in somewhat darker feathering of the ears and in tipping of the ruff.

Browns that hold their color throughout their life are rare. Most browns and their dilute shades will clear over time. Silver-beige and cafe-au-laits are easy to confuse. Silver-beige puppies are born brown and often have white between their toes or on the back of the foot. When you trim the face hair of a silver-beige puppy closely you can see the color change beginning. Silver-beige puppies usually clear to their adult color in the first 2 to 3 years of a dog's life. Cafe-au-laits differ from silver-beiges in that they are usually born a light brown or tan color.

The dilute colors of silver and blue dogs are usually born black. Silver dogs carry two genes for silver, while blue dogs carry one. You will find silvers in a wide range often referred to as grey, silver, or platinum. Blue dogs are not a "bad black," but a color of their own. A gorgeous blue is a stunning color, with blue-toned skin and a black coat when the dog is young. Over time the black changes, often going through a brown tipped phase until the coat becomes a blue color.

Reds and apricots may also change colors. Some are born lighter and then darken for several years, while some fade to apricot within a year or two. There are reds that hold the red mahogany color and some that fade. We have had several reds that surprised us and darkened during their first year of life.

Cremes may hold their color or change to a very bright white. Cremes may often turn white except for the creme color remaining on the ears.

There is no crystal ball to tell what color some dogs will mature to. I have had blacks they stayed black for all of their 16 years. I have had a dark red toy that faded to almost creme by the time she was 8 years old. I have had apricots that were born almost creme, darken to a beautiful apricot in the first year and then hold that color.

Based on our parents' colors and genetics we can usually determine what color our puppies will be. We do know our blacks are true blacks and not blue or silver. We do genetic color testing on our poodle parents.

Poodles that are a dilute color which we have very few of, can be much harder to predict the final color. We don't understand all of the modifiers that impact color and cause a poodles coat color to evolve. Clearing may take as long as three years. Some people have even found that their poodle change colors over the dog's entire lifetime. That's part of the charm of a poodle - the color changing process sometimes surprises us despite our best guess!

We have solid colored black, creme, apricot, and red standard poodle puppies for sale, make sure to check back often to see available puppies. Our waiting list fills up quickly, fill out an application and get the process started. We are conveniently located near Huntsville, Alabama an easy drive to Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Georgia.