Hi everyone! I'm new here and I joined because I'm (finally) approaching a dog-friendly stage of life, and I want to start researching. I am pretty well married to the Standard Poodle as the appropriate breed for me. I'm energetic and I love the outdoors, and I consider myself to be no-nonsense. I've not had a dog of my own before, but my cat was obedience trained.

I'm a lifetime Horse Girl too, and I believe that my experience with horses effects the way I interact with dogs.
I'd be very interested to learn about how to tell good breeders from less reputable; wheat-from-chaff and so on. In a Standard Poodle I am interested in the following qualities:
* 100% mental soundness (non-neurotic, balanced)
* 100% physical soundness (no allergies, no skeletal or skin/eye conditions)
Color, "typiness" (if you guys call it that!) are not priorities.
What tools do you recommend? Can you help me kinda cut to the chase (ie, "If a breeder professes to be breeding for ___, they are probably lacking professionalism.")
I understand that in dogs, as for horses, German breeders' societies tend to have some rigorous health standards and selection processes. Is this done for poodles as well? If so, to what degree to American breeders follow these protocols?