The Problem with Silver Standard Poodles

There is a real problem within silver standard poodles at the moment; in that there is very little genetic diversity and therefore very few viable options for those wanting to breed.

My search for a stud dog that met all criteria I wanted began over two years ago; at this time I believed my own girl Edna to have a unique and interesting pedigree. Unfortunately since then, certain dogs in her line have been used over and over again thus de-valuing her pedigree significantly.

Being an ethical dog owner and hopefully future breeder has led me to conduct many hours of research into the use of studs and I have now discovered that there exists a phenomenon, aptly termed Popular Sire Syndrome.

In short, the problem with Popular sire syndrome is that a dog's genes are spread rapidly and widely - without any evaluation of the long term effects of his genetic contribution. Therefore by the time the dog's genetic attributes can be successfully evaluated, his genes are possibly too wide spread to easily correct any issues that are now within the gene pool.

This led me to consider and question the following, in my own search for a suitable boy:

* At what point does a stud dog owner determine that their stud dog has been bred enough?

* What is the stud dog owner trying to achieve, other than (the obvious) financial gain?

* Does the stud dog owner have foresight for where the issues within the breed currently lie, and how do they think their dog will contribute?

and of course my biggest concern of all -

* Is the dog health tested and will it produce genetically healthy puppies?

In some countries, the use of stud dogs is restricted to them siring 6 litters. I truly believe that our Kennel Club, here in the UK should do similar as this would prevent small-scale repeats of The Wycliffe Factor from happening again.

So what is the Wycliffe Factor? Well, Wycliffe is the name of a Canadian Kennel who bred Standard Poodles in the 1950's and 60's. The dogs that were produced were line-bred (inbred) and a very large quantity of puppies were produced (over 130 litters, each with an average of 8 dogs). These puppies were then exported all over the globe and because there were so many they ended up being used against each other for breeding purposes and thus a genetic bottleneck occurred. This means that even today, many of our standard poodles still have a high % of Wycliffe genes; something that is very hard to break away from.

Inbreeding causes many issues, not just in terms of physical health but also psychologically. I am terrified that this will happen again within my beloved breed and am keen to take the small steps that I, as an owner of just one breeding dog, can take to prevent this.

My Future Plans

The issues that I have very briefly mentioned above, as well as my reflecting on the evident poor morals from a small number of other breeders and stud dog owners has certainly shaped my future plans, but has not by any means prevented them.

I am fortunate in that I believe I have now found a perfect future stud dog for Edna. He has not been over-used and is beautiful in terms of both conformation and temperament. He is also genetically diverse and his owner has completed some health testing on him, of which the majority of results have already been received and are fantastic.
Edna was mated to this boy on both Feb 7th and Feb 9th.
So watch this space!

I also intend to import a nice silver boy later in the year. He will NOT be made available at public stud, but should he fulfil all of the criteria I require of a stud dog and produce satisfactory results when he is health tested, I may well use him against Edna or a bitch puppy that I will keep from her first litter.

By limiting my future stud boy to personal use only, I will hopefully be able to help protect the longevity and health of the breed that I love.