Poodle Coat Color

Question
I got my toy poodle when he was 8 weeks old and he was a pretty
apricot color. When I took him to be groomed when he was 12 weeks old; the groomer was horrible and did an awful job grooming him and cut his hair very close and uneven. He cut off all of his apricot color and now that his coat has grown back in...his coat is now a cream color and you can only see a few hints of apricot. What happened? Did that groomer ruin my poodles coat color?

Answer
Hello Kymm,
Your groomer should have just scissored your dog rather than shaving him like she did.  Your dogs coat color may come back in when the hair grows back out, but it probably won't have the same dark tint that it had before.  The apricot color is a fading color so as the dog ages the coat will lighten some.  When the puppy is born, their hair color is dark and sometimes has very unique colors that they won't have when they get their adult coat in.  If you shave your dog at a young age, you can start the adult hair coming in sooner rather than later (which is a plus in some cases because when the adult hair comes in, it can cause large mats).  The only problem is if you shave those neat colors off the dog, they don't usually grow back.  
So though your groomer didn't ruin your dogs color, by shaving it off it probably won't grow back in near as dark or pretty.  

I am sorry for what your groomer did to your dog.  I would at least get your money back and maybe even talk to her superior.  

I hope this helps you some.  If you have other questions or comments for me, please feel free to ask.  

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim