POODLE COAT COLORS: BRINDLE & SABLE

COMPARING SABLE TO BRINDLE

Many people find the difference between brindle and sable confusing so I have decided to devote a page to these colors and try to break it down a little more so that its more understandable and show more pictures.

SABLE

DEFFINITION OF SABLE: A coat represented by black-tipped hairs on a background of any solid color, with no particular pattern/location designated for such hairs.

I would change the above deffinition to say dark tipped hairs. I have seen sables that have been tipped with other colors other than black, such as dark brown or even blue.

This color comes from the wolf. If you were to look at a single hair from a sable you would see that this hair is multi-colored. The tip of the hair would be dark and the base would be a lighter color. Keep in mind that this is only on a PUPPY sable poodle, not on an adult sable poodle that has been cut or shaved at all. Because a poodles hair never stops growing, these dark tips will eventually dissapear due to the trimming or cutting of the hair. Thus eventually leading to a sable poodle looking as a solid color as they age. You may see that some sables keep the dark tipping in their ears. This is usually due to the fact that most people let the fringe on the ear leather just grow and do not cut it. However if the ears have been trimmed or cut in any way the ears will appear as solid as the rest of the dog.

You also have to realize that sable is a fading color. Meaning that the color a sable puppy appears as a puppy is much, much darker than the appearance of the adult sable.

Here are pictures to demonstrate the sable pattern from birth to 4 month of age. Now keep in mind this particular sable also demonstrates the phantom pattern also.

A toy sable puppy at birth

Sable at 1 week

Sable at 5 months

BRINDLE

DEFFINITION OF BRINDLE: A coat that exhibits a tiger-striped pattern resulting from layered black hair intermingled in areas of lighter color: ie: lighter color with black stripes. Reverse brindle occurs when the black striping is so heavily concentrated that the lighter background, while clearly still present, is much more subdued, giving the appearance of the coat being black in color with lighter stripes.

Now if you were to study a single hair from a brindle you would see that the hair shaft is a solid color all the way through and down the length of the shaft. It is the placement of these hairs, whatever solid color they may be, in swirls that gives the brindle its tiger striped pattern. The brindle color will ALWAYS be present in the coat no matter how often or how short the coat is taken down. This is the same pattern that you can see in Great Danes, Boxers, Bull dogs, Afghan hounds, and several other breeds. Brindles even if shaved clear to the very skin, will still display their stripes. The brindle pattern is more noticeable if the coat is kept short on the poodle. If the coat is grown out it all mixes together and gives the dog a more solid looking color all over, albeit a muddy looking color.

These pictures demonstrate the brindle pattern at birth, 3 weeks and 7 months of age.

Brindle toy at 2 weeks

Same brindle toy at 7 months

Reverse brindle puppy at 4 weeks

Same reverse brindle puppy at 12 weeks

In this picture you can see the difference between brindle and reverse brindle. The brindle is closest to the camera.

Showing brindle (front) and reverse brindle (back)

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