I appreciate your taking the time to explain how some of this works. As the founder of BetterBred, I have thought deeply about the quality of our data and whether poodles with Miniature and Toy ancestry skew the data.

First, let me say that the AKC recognizes all poodles as a single breed and that choice is governed by the Poodle Club of America. Mixing of varieties is generally frowned upon, but is not against the rules. Thus, the varieties, dependent solely on height, as all poodles are meant to fit the same breed standard, are split only artificially.

Second, prior to the mid century bottleneck, when the Standard Poodle gene pool was severely narrowed due to the inbreeding and proliferation of a single successful line based on ten dogs, the varieties were genetically more similar. That line became overly dominant because they were tall and elegant, and everyone with Standard Poodles bred to them, over and over, until much of the ancestral genetics were bred out. That line had both positive and negative effects on the variety, and about 20 years ago breeders became especially alarmed at the rise in autoimmune diseases, specifically Addison’s and sebaceous adenitis. They could not find any traditional ways to avoid these diseases, especially in otherwise well bred show lines. They also saw a rise in epilepsy and juvenile renal dysplasia. Breed away from one disease and you’d run into another. Through pedigree research the bottleneck was recognized, but breeding for low COI based on pedigrees did not offer any relief. At that time there were a handful of breeders crossing varieties with a range of success. It was no magic solution, though it did mitigate risks of the common diseases, it also became clear that a return to the Standard size and type now expected after the bottleneck would take generations of careful selection.

Starting in 2014, a large number of Standard breeders helped an effort to turn to DNA, and we worked with Dr Niels Petersen at UC Davis to develop a test that could help us breed for true diversity more accurately than we could with pedigrees. We discovered that while the breed still had much diversity, that diversity was found in a relatively tiny number of dogs.

We also found that dogs with unusual DLA haplotypes had lower risks of Addison’s or SA, and that two of the DLA haplotypes conferred more risk of those diseases. We were only able to do that because we had robust numbers of both affected and healthy dogs. We also could not say for sure whether those DLA haplotypes themselves were problematic or if they just coincidentally were carried in risky lines.

The handful of Standard Poodles that were genetically different from the bottleneck lines were different also in type and disease risk, not unlike the other varieties. Just as with intervariety crosses, they also needed selection to improve type, but they also retained traits that had become rare in the main population, such as good fronts.

Fast forward ten years, and those old Standard lines have increased in population, most breeders of all kinds are careful about not inbreeding too closely, and autoimmune disease incidence, anecdotally, has gone down. There are lines with mini behind them, but most lines used by conscientious breeders are now a number of generations away from those original intervariety crosses.

Selection is the most powerful driver of preservation for desirable traits, aside from inbreeding, and far less risky than inbreeding.

As for hidden Miniature traits or diseases cropping up unexpectedly, remember that all Standards have Minis far back in their pedigrees and vice versa. Any simple Mini diseases like PRA or CDDY can be tested for and safely bred away from. Any complex traits are far less likely to appear in very outbred dogs because outbreeding is the way to avoid them. You pick your best options from each litter and breed to a dog that has more of what your pick needs, and then select again. Return to type takes a few generations but it is perfectly doable while still retaining diversity. Of course you must test your dogs to be sure you aren’t losing the added diversity when breeding each generation, because pedigrees are no guarantee that you’ll retain any diversity.

As for whether the database is somehow skewed by adding intervariety crosses, when these dogs are now part of the Standard variety, and fit the height requirements, it’s not actually skewing the data. It is changing the population, but only very slightly, since there are relatively few of them and many thousands of full Standards.

Lastly, BetterBred doesn’t ever recommend that breeders select the most extreme numbers. Just because a dog has good diversity numbers doesn’t mean it’s a good dog, or one you should breed your bitch to. There are many great options to choose from, and your selection should be based on far more than diversity numbers.

I hope that clarifies some things. Feel free to ask any questions.