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Genetic Diversity |
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Many poodle breeders are concerned about maintaining diversity in the standard poodle gene pool. In the past, breeders often bred dogs that were related because that is one way of fixing desirable traits in a breeder’s lines, and thus producing structurally correct champions. This practice is not entirely absent today. However, research has suggested that some health problems in standard poodles may be related to breeding close relatives and over-use of popular sires. UC Davis has recently developed a genetic test and guidelines that poodle breeders can use to maintain and increase genetic diversity. For more information on this important issue, please see the following presentation by Natalie Tessier: http://poodlesdegrenier.com/geneticspresentation
COI (coefficient of inbreeding) is a measure of how inbred the dog is. A COI of 6.25 would be the equivalent of breeding first cousins, with no other inbreeding. Most reputable breeders today try to avoid inbreeding and choose to breed dogs that are not closely related to each other. A dog with a low COI is likely to be healthier and live longer than a dog with a high COI. Dr. John Armstrong found that standard poodles with COIs of less than 6.25 lived for an average of 4 years longer than standard poodles with COIs of over 25! If you know a poodle's registered name, you can look him/her up on poodledata.org or phrdatabase.com and see the COI.
% Wycliffe is a measure of the extent to which the genetics of an individual dog can be traced to 5 specific dogs from the Wycliffe kennel that were born in the 1950’s. Wycliffe is a Canadian kennel that used inbreeding to select for the qualities that they wanted. They were successful in producing many champions, and they are credited with influencing the way poodles look today. Today, most black or white standard poodles can trace more than 50% of their genetic make up from these 5 Wycliffe dogs. The % Wycliffe for individual poodles is listed on phrdatabase.com.
For information about COI and Wycliffe, please see the following pages:
Standard Poodle Project—Wycliffe
The following page is about breeding cats, but it provides a good description of the effects of inbreeding. Inbreeding and Its Effect on the Immune System
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