Stripe on nose

Question

Stripe on Perry's nose   QUESTION: Hello Kim,

We have a 5 year old standard poodle that is black with a lot of grey.  His muzzle and tail are especially grey.  After letting him get pretty shaggy, we had him groomed yesterday.  On his muzzle, a black stripe has appeared around the top.  It looks like a child took a black magic marker to him.  It goes over the muzzle, lip to lip.  It is a stripe of black hair on a perfectly grey muzzle.  Have you ever heard of such a thing and what might cause it?  Thank you, Susan


Smoke and Cajun   ANSWER: Hello Susan,
I have never seen a natural mark that looked like that on a dog.  Does his hair GROW in like that or did you only see it after he came back from the groomer.  

It could be a type of pen mark, but I don't know why a groomer would  mark the dog up like that.  If its natural, it could be like a birth mark, but again, I have never seen anything like it.  

Your dog is very handsome by the way.  I will attach a pic of my 2 Pups (18 months old) Blue and Silver colored.  

I hope this helps some.  If you have other questions, please feel free to help.

Kim

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Perry   QUESTION: Thank you Kim.  I appreciate your taking the time to answer this.  It is very much a mystery.  I have taken a careful look now at the stripe and it is black hair that is growing in. The skin looks perfectly healthy.  The groomer definitely did not do it.  She has groomed Perry since he was a puppy and was as surprised as me.  She thought maybe I was using a halti (which I have never used). The only thing that has changed with Perry is that 2 months ago he had a MRI and spinal tap after he had a seizure and some strange behaviors.  Luckily, it all came back normal.  While I cannot imagine that that could cause hair to grow in black, it did make me wonder.  Maybe they put a band around his nose while under anthesisia?  But again, why would that make the hair turn black.  So, I can only think that perhaps it is some sort of birth mark that just now is expressing itself like you suggested.  Smoke and Cajun are beautiful. Is Perry a silver too?  I am not familiar with the coloring of poodles.  I will attach a full body picture of him (from before he had the stripe).  We adopted him when he was 2 1/2 from a woman that could no longer keep him.  We were not "poodle people" at that time, but sure wanted to give Perry a good home.  Both my husband and I are now fully converted and proud poodle people!  Thanks again, Susan

Answer
Hello again,
Perry is a very handsome boy.  Yes, he is a Silver or he could be a Blue.  Blue is just a Dark Silver, sometimes with brown highlights.  No Matter which color, he is a good looking dog.    

Silvers are born black and they turn Silver as they age.  If your dog gets a cut or scrape that leaves a scar, sometimes the scar hair will grow back in the color that it originally was.  If your dog started out black, then if he gets new hair growth, it will start out black.  If Perry had any kind of injury to his nose in that location, then that would be why the hair is growing in black there.  
Talk to you later,
Kim