Silver vs. black puppy

Question
Hi,
I have 3 puppies left of my first litter of Standard Poodles.  The mother is Black out of a Silver mom and Black dad.  She is looking like she may be fading as she gets older and she isn't even 2 yet.  She has silver edging on her ears now, which surprised me.
Now I am wondering about one of her pups.  I am seeing some lighter color to her face, though it is not silver, it is lighter than her sister who is jet black right now.  By the way, dad is a brown with a major fading gene and has lots of silver/gray in him already.
So, at 12-weeks, do you think that if I am seeing a lighter face on this one girl, does it sound more like a fading black or silver?  The rest of her looks black still, but not as dark as her sister.
thanks for any info you  can offer.

Answer

Riot Hello Theri,
You didn't say if this lighter girl had any brown highlights or not.  If not, then she could be a dark Silver.  If she had brown highlights down her back, then she could be a Blue.  Blue is lighter than black, but darker than Silver.  I have a Blue and he was born black but had a brown patch on his back half.  He is as Blue as you can imagine with some Silver down his legs and on his ears.  

The mother could be a late turner as far as being a Silver.  She could just be slow in turning from Black to a Silver.  

I'll send you a pic of my Riot, the Blue boy.  

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

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim

I think Riot was about 4 months in this picture.  He got the brown around 12-14 weeks of age.