AKC recognizes 11 solid colors in the show ring. It also allows 22 more different color varieties and markings to be registered. Below you will find a list of those colors along with alternate colors and markings and their codes. You have probably read, here at FAMILY AFFAIR STANDARD POODLES we have the ability to produce all 11 solid colors listed on the OFFICIAL OWNERSHIP REGISTRATION FORM. We can also produce partis, tuxedos, phantoms, sables and brindles. Each of these color varieties come in combinations of the 11 solid colors. Coat color can be very confusing and you will sometimes get two or three different opinions of what color the same Standard Poodle’s coat is. This difference of opinion comes from the fact that all colors except true blacks and ice whites do fade at least to a small degree over the first two years and sometime even longer. This causes lots of different shades of solid colors. We are going to attempt, like so many before us, to give you an example of each coat color. We will also show how they fade and provide a written description for each color and its varying shades. These descriptions are our own interpretation and definition of the color. The descriptions are also our guideline for the color code we enter on the OFFICIAL OWNERSHIP REGISTRATION FORM that you use to register your puppy. AKC wants us to enter the color code that we think will best describe the puppy at its maturity. Some of the descriptions we developed completely on our own and others we got from other websites that addressed the issue of color and we felt it was a good description. We are in no way stating the information we have provided is the ABSOLUTE AND ONLY TRUTH. We have tried to address this color question to the very best of our knowledge and experience. In this matter, consider other explanations or descriptions as well. The multi-color Standard Poodle is a very controversial subject. Some Standard Poodle breeders/exhibitors have a unwavering opinion that Standard Poodles should only be only solid colors. However the history of the Poodle and the history of the Parti Poodle are actually one in the same. In the very beginnings of the breed, in either Germany or Russia (the Poodle is not French!), the Poodle existed as only three colors. Either solid black, solid white, or a black and white, known as the Parti-colored Poodle. The parti and phantom colored Standard Poodles are ABSOLUTELY beautiful and are Standard Poodles in ever since of the word. AKC doesn't write the breed standards, the parent club of the breed does that. In the United States that’s the Poodle Club of America. So, AKC isn't responsible for what colors are and are not accepted in the show ring, the Poodle Club of America is. Breed standards can be changed but those changes have to be presented to the membership of the parent club and voted on to be accepted. AKC has very little control over what the parent clubs choose to do with their breeds.