I dont own poodles,but am very interested in the genetics of the coat colours - am I right in thinking The silver/grey coat is a dilute of the black? and the apricot is a dilute of the brown ? do you notice any skin problems in these colours if that is the case ?
Thamks a million

My last Toy Poodle was a silver.  Born jet black, she looked really odd when she had her face shaved to leave the breeder!  It looked like she was wearing a silver mask.

I lost her last year at 17 years old, and had no skin problems whatsoever.

Silver in Poodles is not a true dilute which would be born "blue" and have a grey nose. They have a gene which causes progressive greying (or clearing) as they get older.
Apricot is not dilute of brown (dilute brown would be Weimaraner colour) it is it's own gene, which I believe is the recessive red gene but I may be wrong!
The "silver" gene may act upon the brown colour though, then you would get a silverish brown which I think is known as Cafe au Lait (at least it is in the USA)

This is a great site telling you about colours
http://arpeggiopoodles.tripod.com/colorbreedinginpoodles.html

Thanks guys - I dont own Poodles,i own Newfoundlands, and wondered if the silver / blues were similar to the greys we get in our breed - our greys are caused by the dilute gene which litterally dilutes the black colour,Black is dominant in our breed,brown is recessive,if a brown on brown carry the dilute gene the brown is diluted to a cappuccino colour - cream