We have a 6 months old miniature poodle and hope to breed with him at some point. Which genetic tests do you recommend?...
The lab I recommend most is
Paw Print Genetics. It's owned and staffed by vets and Ph.D's, their site is very informative including their blog, and it's easy talking to the head doctor/vet about questions.
It does all five of the DNA tests available for poodles and testing for other dog breeds. Here's the
direct link for the Miniature Poodle. They currently have a half price sale off the listed $275, so the cost would be $137.50 thru July. If you miss it they'll probably run a 30 or 40% discount in August. Just type in the code word from their home page for the discount. The test is a simple cheek swab.
DDC Vet DNA Center offers nearly the all the same tests on their Poodle Disease Panel, except the one for Skeletal Dwarfism, for $98. They also run discounts from time to time.
Tests for Colors
Both labs also test for color inheritance, which will give you an idea of what colors the puppies might be depending on the female.
You mentioned all three generations were black, I'll assume on both sides. Black is the BB gene, but your boy might be a carrier of the brown color, which is the Bb gene. He might also be a carrier of Ee the yellow gene (white, apricot, red) and if bred with a black female who is also Ee, or one of those colors just mentione which is the ee gene, some or all of the puppies could be a lighter color.
Some blacks turn to blues or a steely-grayish black, but this isn't reflected on the pedigree b/c it didn't happen until the dog was a older.
This short but concise article,
Black Poodles, is excellent for understanding this, i.e., "All blue Poodles are born black and then "clear" within 1 to 2 years. For this reason, many blue Poodles are registered as black. So there may be a gene going back into the 4th or 5th or 8th generation that pops up in a puppy that causes it to later turn blue. I've read black poodles in the UK and Europe tend to stay a rich inky black, but don't quote me on this.
Here's a good article on Blue vs Black.
If you use DDC, select the 4th option,
Full Color Panel for $168, no blood test required.
If you use Paw Prints, it'll be less expensive this month, and they prefer a blood sample. You'd want to call them to ask which tests to run. My guess is
A locus (Agouti)
B locus (Brown)
D Locus (Dilute)
E Locus (Yellow/red/white/apricot, etc)
Eg Locus (Grizzle, Afghan Hound Type)
Em Locus (Melanistic Mask)
K Locus (Dominant Black)
To find out more about dog color DNA, also see these sites:
Written for the layman:
Dog Coat Colour Genetics
More advanced, but still interesting:
Genetics of Coat Color and Type in Dogs
Same site, topic on poodles
Breeding
Please make sure before you breed your male that the female has a recent test for
Brucellosis. It is highly infectious, incurable and will leave a dog sterile. It also poses a serious health risk to humans.
Also at bare minimum, make sure the female has had the PRA-PRCA eye test. No need bringing in blind dogs or carriers of blindness into the world, it's too traumatic on their owners. If the owner of a dam says they can't afford the eye test or Brucellosis test, then they really can't afford to breed poodles.
Good luck in the show ring and send us pictures!
