poodle breeding

Question
hi there can you predict what colors you will get when breeding,
i have an apricot boy with buff on his feet and crown and tail. his nose has a tint of apricot in the middle of the black.  and a female white with pink skin. but black points.   i was wondering what i might get if i choose to breed them. i have no history on the apricot,just that he has a very dense curly coat. more coarse. my white come from two whites with pink skin and black points.
someday i would like to breed crystal whites, with black skin. but i dont even know if they come that way. but is there a way to know that your pups will come out true whites. black or pink skin? i do want healthy pup above all. grateful for any info.   thanks shannon

Answer
Hello Shannon,
First off, make sure you call the colors by their standard name, otherwise you sound like you don't know what you are talking about when talking to breeders. There are no Buff colored Poodles, its Apricot or Cream. There are also no Chocolate, its called Brown. White is called White or True White. This is important because when you start talking to Breeders, calling the color wrong looks bad.
I will say that if you want to breed True Whites, you need to start with two True Whites, which are White Poodles with no tinge of color to their coats, black skin and black points. If you breed a True White with any other color, you will start to get coats that have other colors in them.
Its the same thing with Black Coats. To get True Black, with Dark Black hair and points and No graying as the dog ages, you HAVE to breed True Black to True Black.
If you were to breed your two dogs, you would most likely end up with White with Cream points, which they do call White, but it isn't a True White, its a Cream. You might possibly have some darker creams also.
Your Boy sounds to me like a Cream with Apricot markings rather than an Apricot. Cream can be a White coat with creamy colored ears, head, down the back and legs and tail to Creamy colored all over with darker Apricot markings. All have Black Points.
I ran into the same thing when I wanted to breed Rats. I wanted to breed Siamese colors and to do so, you need to start with Self Black colored Rats. They are nearly impossible to find. You can find Black with white feet everywhere. Its because people that want to breed for other colors will use Black to darken lighter colors and you can get more of a color variety that way. Its the same with Poodles. People took the True Black and True Whites and bred them to other colors, and now we have Black and White Poodles that are not True Black and White. They have flooded the market and now its very hard to find True Black and True White lines. The only way to get True Black and True White is to Line Breed True Black or True White. That is, Breeding from Lines known to ONLY breed for True Black or True White.
When you line breed like this, You will be guaranteed to know what your Bitch will produce. Producing puppies from dogs where you don't know the background will produce a Mystery litter. You may have an idea of what will be produced, but anything can pop up.
I will throw this in also. Most Breeders of True Whites and True Blacks are VERY reluctant to sell their Line Bred dogs to Starter Breeders. If they do sell you a dog, chances are good that they will sell it to you with a Limited Registry (and possibly a Spay/Neuter contract) meaning that your dog can be registered, but you won't be able to register the puppies.
These Breeders don't want you taking their dogs and breeding them to something that will un-purify the colors so to speak. You will also find that their prices are going to be very high. This also discourages Back Yard Breeders from purchasing their dogs and mucking up their Lines name. This does hurt those of us that want to breed good quality colors, but don't want to make a career out of it.

Here is a site that explains the colors a little better than I can:
http://www.stunninglyss.com/explaining-poodle-colors.html

So, I hope this is helpful to you and that I don't come off sounding mean or harsh.
If you are really wanting to get into breeding True Whites, go to Dog Shows. Meet Breeders that are producing True Whites and get to know them. Talk to them and learn from them. As they get to know you and your intentions, they will try to help you. If you do find a small time breeder that will sell you True Whites, make sure that they Line Breed True Whites, not that they just happen to have a True White that has other stuff in the background. Otherwise you will come back into the same position of not knowing what you are going to get in your litters.

Again, I hope this helps you some. If you have other questions on this or other Poodle questions in general, please feel free to ask me.

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim