Health Testing:
Why we DNA health test our French Standard Poodles...Testing the parents  prior to breeding them can help to eliminate certain diseases. Test can be broken into two categories, genetic test that will definitively predict if a puppy will have a disease and, those that are a health screenings.  A true DNA genetic test can help a breeder eliminate a disease so that a Poodle puppy will never develop it.
All of our Poodle parents are tested for Genetic Diseases, to ensure our puppies will never have one of these diseases. VWd, DM, NEWS, and PRA-PRCD.
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Genetic Tests that can eliminate the chance of your Poodle puppy developing a disease:​

These disease are recessive,  which means that each Poodle parent would have to pass a copy of the gene to a puppy. If a puppy does not receive two copies of it they will never develop the disease. A Poodle with only one copy (carrier) will never develop the disease. It is important to test the parents to determine if they are carriers prior to breeding them. Standard Poodle Breeders can easily prevent the disease by never breeding a carrier to a carrier.
  • Degenerative Myelopathy (DM)  – An inherited neurologic disorder with an average onset of 9 years.
  • Neonatal Encephalopathy with Seizures (NEWS) is a neurologic disease that usually results in the death of a puppy by the time they are seven weeks old.
  • Progressive Retinal Atrophy, Progressive Rod-Cone Degeneration (PRA-PRCD, PRCD) – Late onset eye disease, it affects vision in both dim and bright lights.

Poodles should be tested for Von Willebrand Disease (vWD) Type 1.  vWD requires only one gene to be affected. This disorder is inherited as a dominant trait with incomplete penetrance, which means that not all dogs that have the vWD mutation will present signs of the disease. Standard Poodles with 1 or 2 copies of this mutation may be affected and may develop  vWD. Since we can’t predict which Poodles will be affected all of our French Standard Poodle Moms and Dads will be clear and non carriers of vWD.
  • Von Willebrand Disease (vWD) – Is uncommon in standard poodles but can be life threatening. Your French Standard Poodle will never develop vWD because we DNA test and only breed negative dogs.

Health screenings evaluate a dog at the time of testing to see if they have a health issue. Until there are definitive test, no breeder can guarantee a puppy will not develop a health issue.  Breeders don’t have crystal balls, some diseases are genetic, others are environmental and many are multifaceted. Research is ongoing, we will test for genetic diseases as more test become available.
Just like in human beings the Standard Poodle body is constantly changing, responding to the environment. A Poodle that has OFA or PennHip healthy hips at 2 years of age, may develop hip dysplasia later in life.We find that health screenings may be misleading to Standard Poodle parents.  What you need to know is that these screenings can not predict if a Poodle puppy will develop one of these issues. Two Poodles with OFA excellent hip scores can still produce a Poodle puppy with hip dysplasia. Many of these issues develop later in life, well beyond the age a dog has produced puppies.  Hip dysplasia is a multifaceted health issue that breeders do not yet know how to eliminate. Responsible Standard Poodle breeders health test their mothers and fathers to select the healthiest Poodle parents possible.  Read more on Hip Dysplasia
  • OFA Hips – This is an x-ray of the hip to visually check for hip dysplasia. May be preliminary checked as young as 4 months of age.
  • PennHip – Another way to look at hip heath, it measures hip laxity for hip dysplasia screenings.
  • Bloodwork to screen for Addison’s Disease or Thyroid Disease.
  • Eye CERF – This exam is performed by a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist.
  • OFA Heart exams – an exam by a veterinarian.
​CLICK HERE TO SEE ANGIE'S DNA ON FILE WITH EMBARK