When breeders have been breeding long enough and often enough to get to really know our breed, we all encounter genetic issues. Most hide them, sweep them under the rug.This does not help the breed. It does not help research trace back where these issues are coming down from, and will not help any of us make wise breeding decisions.
We have Poodle Health Registry for both breeders and owners to register health problems so that we can all get a sense of high risk lines, moderate risk lines and low risk lines. The PHR was started with the idea of helping research trace things like Addisons, Sebaceous Adenitis, Epilepsy, Bone Cancer, SCC of the digit, etc back though the pedigrees and ancestry and perhaps be useful in finding marker genes and eventually creating DNA tests.
Most breeders won't use the PHR. We are proud to take part in PHR and list any problems we have seen over the years. We still have a low rate of genetic issues for the number of pups we have out in the world. I will never hide what we have encountered. We had Epilepsy in 1996, we retired all involved and joined the big research study on Epilepsy in Standard Poodles at Florida State University at Tallahassee. We got hit with Addisons in a red line a few years later, again, retired all related, and listed on PHR. We have several of our black poodles report in with toe cancer and we have joined the SCC research at NIH in Maryland. We encourage all our puppy owners to stay in touch with us.
Many of our poodles, in fact the majority, have reported in with full, 14 to 16 year lifespans and minimum health problems. We feel our diversity program is working, our poodles are healthy and happy dogs with excellent happy poodle temperaments
Check out this website for more interesting information.