Goldendoodles come in a variety of coat colors and textures. Textures can be curly, wavy. straight, or have “improper” flat coats and smooth faces like Golden Retrievers. It’s Important to note that a Goldendoodle of any generation can present any of these coats. The look of your Goldendoodle is not determined by the generation, but rather due to three genes. These are: Coat Curl, Coat Length, and Furnishings.
Coat Curl (Curl Gene – KRT71)
Goldendoodles can have straight, wavy or curly hair, depending on what type of curl gene they inherit from each parent. Even if two parents have wavy coats, they can still carry a curl gene and have curly pups in a litter. It’s important to ask your breeder what the coat possibilities are and if they’ve tested for curl.
Coat Length (Long Hair Gene – FGF5)
Since Poodles and Golden Retrievers both carry long hair genes, all Goldendoodles have longer coats, unlike a Labradoodle which can carry a short coat length given by the Labrador Retriever. Long coat length is a recessive gene, meaning you need both copies to produce a long Doodle coat – which you find in all Goldendoodles, but not in all Labradoodles.
Improper Coat Gene (Furnishings IR IC Test – RSPO2)
This gene causes the greatest variation in the look of a Goldendoodle. The term “furnishings” refers to the longer hair on the face, i.e. moustache and eyebrows, which give the Goldendoodle that “scruffy dog” look.
Furnishings are a dominant trait, so you only need one copy from one parent to get the look. However, a breeder first needs to carry out DNA testing of the parents to ensure they don’t get pups that are minus furnishings or affected with “improper coat”.
Coat Colors
Goldendoodles come in a variety of colors. Some of the common ones include cream, apricot, and red. All of these color coats are actually the same gene, it’s just a matter of how much pigment gets into each coat, and follows the variation in colors with Golden Retrievers. Because of this, it is common to have a litter with lots of variations of this gene.
In addition to different coat colors, Goldendoodles can also carry different coat patterns, such as parti. In order to be classified as “a parti”, a dog must be partially white (at least 50%) and the white can accompany any other coat color. Some Goldendoodles just have patches of white on their coats and these are classified as “abstracts”.
The Texture of the Coat
Goldendoodles have four main coat types: flat, straight, wavy, or curly.
The flat coat is also called the “improper coat”, where the dog does not have furnishings.
If a Goldendoodle gets a non-curl gene from each parent, it can have a rather straight coat. Unlike the flat coat, this is accompanied by furnishings and a “fluffy” texture.
When a Goldendoodle gets one curl gene from one parent and a non-curl gene from the other, he or she will have a wavy coat.
When each parent of the Goldendoodle throws a curl gene, the offspring will have a curly coat.
