Learning More Everyday: The Importance of Continued Education in Dog Breeding
From the very beginning, Reino & Julie have prioritized education in the dog breeding industry. In this field of genetics and breeding advancements, everything is constantly evolving. The goal of every breeder should be to produce healthy, high-quality puppies. With new research and techniques being discovered so regularly, it’s so important for us breeders to stay up-to-date and informed.
Health-Testing
It’s so important nowadays to have a thorough understanding of genetics within this industry. Because of the advancements that have been made in genetic testing, breeders can identify and eliminate certain inherited diseases or conditions that may be common in the breed. Who wouldn’t want to eliminate that? By staying informed, we can make informed decisions about which dogs to breed and improve the overall health of future poodle-kind.
In Idaho Jewels Poodles’ infancy, Julie prioritized health-testing and genetics in a time where breeders had thought inherited diseases like PRA-PRCD & DM had been eliminated from the Poodle gene pool. Because of her persistence and continued education, Julie tested some of her breeding program’s poodles, and found that they were in fact carriers of those diseases.
In order to better poodle-kind, Julie decided to only breed those who were clear to eliminate those traits from the gene pool. Her influence on the breeding community has been very evident as many poodle breeders come to us for advice and interpretations of genetics, and which companies are the best to use.
Color Genetics
Color genetics is a field in the breeding industry that can be so frustrating to try and learn, but once you understand it, it can make all the difference to your breeding program. This is something that we get questions about from our fellow breeders all the time. If you want help interpreting and identifying your dogs’ color panel and what they are able to produce in the future, go ahead and reach out to us. We’re here to help educate!
It’s so important to know what kinds of colors your breeding program can produce. For us, we prioritize the red coloration, which focuses in on the E-locus. In recent years, we’ve also been prioritizing the Phantom coloration, which focuses in on the A and K loci. These two genes specifically can be very tricky to the untrained eye, but with many years of experience we can easily identify what pairings can give us reds, and which pairings can give us phantoms. For future reference, all of the puppies in this gallery below were sired by the same father— More on our Murphy later.
Market Changes & Trends
Keeping up with market changes feels like such an impossible task sometimes, but it is essential for breeders to note where demand lies for specific types and characteristics of poodles. This demand can fluctuate over time, so it’s also important to keep variety within your program, but it’s important to ensure we are producing puppies that are desirable to potential buyers. By remaining knowledgeable about market trends, we can select suitable breeding pairs and produce puppies that meet the demands of the market (and our waiting lists)!
Within the last 6 years or so, we saw a huge increase in the popularity of Tri-colored (Phantom/Parti) poodles. Some of you reading this may recognize the following name: Idaho Jewels Red Parti Magnifico Murphy! This boy was in high demand for stud service during the Tri-Boom because he was actually a Hidden Phantom (His red coloration masks his phantom markings). This meant that he brought new bloodlines into the phantom gene pool, and was able to produce a variety of colorations within the Tri-Market!
“Idaho Jewels Red Parti Magnifico Murphy”
Murphy was a Red Parti (Hidden Tri-colored) Mini boy. He bred to many of Bernedoodles, red poodles, phantom poodles, and his bloodline can be found in so many breeding programs!
Unfortunately within the last couple years, Murphy’s pedigree has become over-used with how much stud service he had been used for. With so many off-spring in the world, the demand for Murphy-babies had been met, and it was time to start prioritizing other blood lines, so that poodle-kind could continue on. We retired Murphy earlier this year, and he is happy to be living in his forever home! The people who adopted him are so proud of his accomplishments for poodle-kind.
On that note, CDDY/IVDD has been a big trait people look for in purchasing a breeding dog. We are still seeing this as a trend, and if you’re a breeder your eyes are totally lit up when you see a dog that’s listed as CDDY/IVDD CLEAR! It’s so rare to see in the toy/mini poodles because it’s generally in 90% or more of them, making that gene so hard to eliminate without causing a huge disturbance in the gene pool. I won’t get into the specifics on CDDY/IVDD, but if you’re a breeder, make sure you’re breeding toward clear without harming the overall health and in-breeding of your program.
Learning from Others
Continued education allows breeders to expand their network and learn from other experienced breeders and experts in the field. Dog breeding associations, conferences, and seminars offer opportunities for breeders to share knowledge and exchange valuable information. By participating in such events, breeders can stay connected to the latest breeding advancements, gain insights into best practices, and build relationships with fellow breeders.
“We are so blessed by your determination and hard work. Thank you for everything. You all have helped me so much and we are so thankful for our dogs we have gotten from you”
It is so important for dog breeders to consider their fellow breeders as teammates in the greater effort to better the breed as a whole. If we didn’t work together and introduce new bloodlines, the poodle would be incredibly in-bred and unhealthy as we would start to see those traits get watered down and demand could no longer be met.
Puppies of the Week
Canary’s litter is the featured litter of the week because of their unique colorations. In our post, we discussed the great “Tri-Boom,” and with it came such unique colorations like these. These sweet pups have the best personalities! They are so goofy, love to play, but also love to cuddle up and get all the loves and attention.
