Poodle Health:
Common Conditions & Responsible Breeding

Dental Health: Plan on Taking It Seriously

Dental disease isn't an obscure Poodle health concern. This is one of the things we would tell every prospective Poodle owner to plan for, particularly if you are considering a Toy, Miniature or smaller Moyen Poodle. Small dogs have the same number of adult teeth as much larger dogs packed into considerably less space. Crowding can make plaque and tartar management more difficult, and periodontal disease can become a significant problem if dental health is neglected.

In our own smaller dogs, we are proactive about dental care from the beginning. When one of our small dogs is spayed or neutered, we have a dental performed at the same time. This gives our veterinarian an opportunity to thoroughly evaluate and clean the teeth while the dog is already under anesthesia and address retained puppy teeth when necessary. It isn't intended to be the dog's one dental cleaning for life. Smaller Poodles may need professional dental care periodically throughout adulthood, and how frequently will depend on the individual dog.

At home, start brushing teeth when your Poodle is young rather than waiting until the teeth already look bad. Make having the mouth handled and the teeth brushed part of normal puppy life. Your veterinarian should continue monitoring the teeth and gums during routine examinations, and owners of smaller Poodles should be financially prepared for professional dental cleanings during the dog's lifetime. Some dogs accumulate tartar much faster than others even with good home care.

Smaller Poodles are also more likely to retain deciduous, or baby, teeth when the adult teeth begin coming in. Retained teeth can contribute to crowding, trap debris and interfere with the adult bite. When appropriate, these can often be addressed while the dog is already anesthetized for its spay or neuter and dental. None of this is meant to scare someone away from a small Poodle; it is simply one of the realities we think people should understand before choosing one. If you want a small Poodle, plan for dental care to be part of owning that dog throughout its life.

Developing Bites & Base-Narrow Canines

Another dental issue you may encounter while researching Poodles is base-narrow lower canines, also called linguoverted mandibular canines. This describes lower canine teeth that sit too far toward the tongue. In some dogs, the tooth may contact the gum or roof of the mouth instead of fitting comfortably into its normal position.

Puppy mouths are changing rapidly. Baby teeth fall out, adult teeth erupt, jaws grow, and the relationship between the upper and lower jaw can change as the puppy develops. What a mouth looks like at eight or ten weeks old isn't necessarily what that dog's adult mouth will look like, so we monitor developing bites rather than assuming every puppy mouth is a finished product.

Depending on the puppy, the tooth and the stage of development, veterinarians may recommend conservative approaches such as appropriately sized ball therapy to encourage an erupting canine toward a better position. If the tooth continues making traumatic contact with the palate, veterinary dental evaluation and treatment may be necessary. From the breeding side, we also pay attention to patterns. A developmental issue appearing in one puppy isn't the same information as repeatedly seeing the same issue within a family, which is another reason tracking what we produce matters.

Poodle Ears: Something Owners Should Expect to Manage

If you own Poodles long enough, you're probably going to learn more about ears than you ever expected to know. Ear infections are one of the most common everyday health issues we have encountered in our own dogs and in the dogs we've produced.

Poodles have drop ears and hair growing in and around the ear canal. Many Poodles also love water, and when you add swimming, bathing and regular grooming, moisture can become part of the equation too. That doesn't mean chronic ear infections should simply be accepted as normal for the breed, but it does mean Poodle owners should pay attention to their dog's ears.

Learn what your dog's healthy ears look like and, frankly, what they normally smell like. Redness, odor, discharge, excessive wax, repeated head shaking, scratching or tenderness are signs that something has changed. Drying the ears after swimming and bathing can help, and some Poodles grow much more hair within the ear canal than others.

You'll encounter strong opinions about ear plucking. We don't think every ear needs to be aggressively plucked simply because it belongs to a Poodle. Ear management should make sense for the individual dog, and if hair is obstructing the canal or your dog has recurring problems, talk with your groomer and veterinarian about the best way to manage it.

Most importantly, if infections repeatedly return, don't just keep treating the infection without asking why it keeps happening. Sometimes anatomy, moisture or hair contributes, but recurring ear infections can also be one of the first signs that something else is going on, including allergies.

Allergies: Sometimes the Ears Are the First Clue

Allergies would be next on our real-world list of health concerns we've encountered in Poodles, and they don't always look like a dog dramatically scratching its entire body. Sometimes the first thing an owner notices is another ear infection.

Other dogs lick or chew their feet, develop redness between their toes, rub their faces, become itchy, develop hot spots or experience recurring skin infections. Some dogs have symptoms that seem seasonal, while others experience problems throughout the year. Not every itchy dog has allergies; parasites, bacterial or yeast infections and other medical conditions can cause similar symptoms, which is why persistent problems deserve veterinary evaluation rather than an assumption.

If your Poodle repeatedly develops ear or skin problems, allergies are one of the possibilities worth discussing with your veterinarian. This is also where grooming becomes part of health care. That beautiful, dense Poodle coat can hide irritated skin remarkably well, so when you bathe, dry, brush and groom your dog, look at the skin underneath the hair. Persistent redness, sores, unusual scaling, odor, hair loss or areas your dog repeatedly licks, scratches or chews deserve attention.

What About Sebaceous Adenitis?

While researching Poodle skin problems, particularly in Standard Poodles, you may encounter sebaceous adenitis, usually shortened to SA. SA is an inflammatory disease affecting the sebaceous glands associated with the skin and hair follicles and can cause scaling, changes in coat quality and hair loss.

There isn't a simple DNA test that allows breeders to eliminate SA from a breeding program. Skin biopsies can be used to diagnose the disease and have also been used to screen apparently healthy dogs because changes can sometimes be detected before obvious symptoms develop.

We do not routinely biopsy our asymptomatic Poodles for SA, and we have not had a clinical situation in our program that required us to pursue an SA biopsy. If one of our dogs developed unexplained skin or coat changes that warranted further investigation, we would pursue appropriate diagnostics with our veterinarian. For the average Poodle owner, the important takeaway isn't to look at every patch of dry skin and worry about SA; it is to know what is normal for your dog and investigate persistent or unusual changes.

Eyes: DNA Testing Isn't the Whole Story

Progressive retinal atrophy, usually shortened to PRA, is one of the inherited eye concerns you will probably encounter while researching Poodles. Some forms of PRA have identified genetic variants that breeders can test for, which gives us an incredibly useful tool when planning pairings.

PRA isn't one single disease caused by one single mutation, however, and it isn't the only eye condition a Poodle can develop. That is why genetic testing doesn't replace an actual eye examination. Our breeding dogs receive ophthalmic examinations in addition to genetic testing, and we repeat their eye examinations every two years.

As an owner, you don't need to diagnose eye disease yourself, but you should pay attention to changes. Persistent redness, squinting, cloudiness, unusual discharge, apparent discomfort or changes in how your dog navigates, particularly in dim lighting, deserve veterinary evaluation.

Joints, Patellas & Mobility

Poodles are athletic dogs. They run, hike, swim, retrieve, compete in dog sports and often remain active well into adulthood, so orthopedic health matters if we want them to keep doing those things.

Hip dysplasia is one of the orthopedic conditions you'll encounter while researching Poodles, particularly larger Poodles. Patellar luxation, in which the kneecap moves out of its normal position, is especially relevant in smaller dogs. There are precautions breeders can take, which is why we evaluate hips using both OFA and PennHIP, evaluate elbows, and evaluate patellas in our breeding Poodles regardless of their size.

The breeder isn't the only person influencing a dog's lifelong mobility. Keeping your Poodle lean is one of the most valuable things you can do for its joints, and appropriate exercise and conditioning matter too. A growing puppy isn't a miniature adult athlete, so while exercise is important, repetitive high-impact activities designed for a physically mature dog aren't necessary for a developing puppy.

If your Poodle develops persistent limping, pain, reluctance to exercise, repeated skipping on a rear leg or a noticeable change in gait, have it evaluated rather than assuming it's normal.

Addison's Disease: Something Poodle Owners Should Know About

If you spend much time researching Standard Poodles, you are likely to encounter Addison's disease, or hypoadrenocorticism. Addison's occurs when the adrenal glands aren't producing enough of certain hormones the body needs, and one reason it can be frustrating is that the symptoms can be vague.

A dog may experience vomiting or diarrhea, lose its appetite, become lethargic or weak, lose weight or simply seem generally unwell. Symptoms can disappear and return, while in severe cases an Addisonian crisis can become a medical emergency. There isn't currently a simple DNA test breeders can use to produce an “Addison's clear” Poodle.

In our own experience, Addison's has come up quickly when one of our Poodles or Goldendoodles has been at the veterinarian with symptoms that didn't have an obvious explanation. We have had two situations in which veterinarians specifically tested for Addison's because it was suspected, and both dogs ultimately tested negative. Our experience doesn't tell us how common Addison's is throughout the breed, but it demonstrates why Poodle owners and veterinarians are aware of it.

For breeders, Addison's is also a good example of why health testing alone isn't enough. When we cannot simply test a breeding dog clear of a disease, information about parents, grandparents, siblings, related dogs and previous offspring becomes especially valuable.

Thyroid Health

Thyroid disease is another health concern seen in Poodles, and thyroid evaluation is part of our breeding-dog health testing. Hypothyroidism can show itself in ways an owner might initially attribute to something else, including lethargy, unexplained weight gain, exercise intolerance and changes in the skin or coat.

Those symptoms can have many other causes, so noticing one doesn't mean your Poodle has thyroid disease. It means unexplained changes in an adult dog's normal condition or behavior are worth discussing with your veterinarian. It also demonstrates another limitation of health screening: a normal result in a young breeding dog does not guarantee that a disease can never develop later.

Epilepsy & Seizures

Epilepsy has been documented in Poodles, and familial epilepsy has been studied within the breed. There isn't currently one routine DNA test capable of telling breeders that a Poodle will never develop every form of epilepsy.

If your dog experiences a seizure, it warrants veterinary evaluation. Seizures can have many causes, and experiencing one doesn't automatically mean a dog has inherited epilepsy. From a breeding standpoint, this is another condition where family information becomes important. Affected relatives, age of onset, previous offspring and patterns appearing within a pedigree can give us information that isn't available on a DNA report.

Heart Health

Cardiac evaluation is part of our health-testing protocol for our breeding Poodles. Some heart abnormalities may be present from birth, while other cardiac diseases develop later in life. A normal cardiac evaluation before breeding gives us valuable information about that dog at that point in time, but it cannot guarantee that the dog or every puppy it produces will remain free from heart disease for life.

For owners, routine veterinary examinations remain important throughout adulthood and into the senior years. Changes such as unusual exercise intolerance, fainting, persistent coughing or breathing difficulty warrant veterinary attention.

Bloat: Standard & Larger Poodle Owners Need to Know This One

If you are considering a Standard or larger Poodle, you need to know about gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV), commonly called bloat. Large, deep-chested dogs are at increased risk, and Standard Poodles are among the breeds recognized as being at risk for GDV. The stomach becomes distended with gas or fluid and can rotate, compromising its blood supply and affecting circulation throughout the body. It can become life-threatening very quickly.

There are practical things families can do to help manage risk. Rather than feeding one very large meal each day, divide your dog's daily food into two or more smaller meals. If your Poodle tends to inhale its food, use feeding methods that slow the dog down rather than allowing an entire meal to disappear in seconds. Keep mealtimes relatively calm, particularly in multi-dog households where competition can encourage frantic eating, and avoid strenuous exercise immediately before and after meals.

You may have heard that large, deep-chested dogs should eat from elevated bowls to prevent bloat. Current veterinary guidance does not support elevated feeders as a GDV-prevention strategy, so we would not elevate a Poodle's food simply for that purpose. Normal access to fresh water is important as well. Rather than routinely restricting water, the concern is allowing an at-risk dog to rapidly consume an enormous amount immediately following vigorous exercise.

None of these management choices can guarantee that a Poodle will never experience GDV. Body shape, age, genetics and family history can also influence risk, and having a close relative that has experienced GDV is useful information for both an owner and a breeder. This is another example of why we care about what happens to our dogs and their relatives throughout their lives, not just what appears on their health testing when they are young.

Families with Standard and larger Poodles should also discuss prophylactic gastropexy with their veterinarian. During a gastropexy, the stomach is surgically attached to the abdominal wall to help prevent it from twisting. For some dogs, it can be performed at the same time as a spay or neuter. A gastropexy doesn't prevent the stomach from becoming distended; its purpose is to greatly reduce the risk of that stomach twisting into a GDV.

Even with thoughtful management or a gastropexy, owners should know what bloat looks like. Warning signs can include sudden restlessness or distress, repeated attempts to vomit without producing anything, excessive drooling, abdominal enlargement, panting, weakness or collapse. Suspected GDV is an emergency and requires immediate veterinary care, not something to monitor overnight or wait on until your regular veterinarian opens in the morning.

For a Standard Poodle family, the goal isn't to spend your dog's life worrying about bloat. It is to understand the risk, build sensible habits into everyday life, discuss prevention with your veterinarian and know what to do if you ever see the warning signs.

Longevity: We Want More Than a Long Lifespan

One of the wonderful things about Poodles is their potential for longevity. Smaller Poodles generally live longer than larger Poodles, a pattern that occurs across dogs more broadly, but we don't think lifespan should be reduced to a simple statement such as “Poodles live 12–15 years.”

We care about healthspan as well as lifespan. A dog reaching 14 is certainly long-lived, but we'd also like to know whether that dog was still mobile, comfortable, mentally engaged and enjoying life at 12, 13 and 14. That is why longevity within a pedigree interests us. How long did the parents live? What about grandparents? Are older siblings still healthy? What did relatives die from? Is the same disease appearing repeatedly within a family? Are dogs remaining active and healthy well into their senior years?

A health test performed when a dog is young gives us important information about that dog at that moment. Seeing that dog's mother thriving at 13 gives us different information, and both matter when we're trying to understand the health of a family of dogs.

What Can You Do to Help Your Poodle Live Well?

The breeder has an enormous responsibility before a puppy is born, but eventually that puppy goes home and someone else becomes responsible for the next decade or more of its health. Start with the things you're most likely to manage: take care of the teeth, pay attention to the ears and skin, keep your Poodle lean, and provide appropriate exercise and conditioning.

Get your puppy accustomed to tooth brushing and mouth handling early. Learn what healthy ears look and smell like and dry them after swimming and bathing. Look beneath the coat when you're grooming rather than only looking at the hair. Keep your dog at an appropriate body condition, and remember that exercise needs change from a developing puppy to a conditioned adult and eventually to a senior dog.

Stay current on routine veterinary care, vaccination and parasite prevention based on your dog's lifestyle and your veterinarian's recommendations. As your Poodle ages, talk with your veterinarian about routine bloodwork and senior wellness screening. Establishing normal values for your individual dog can make changes easier to recognize later.

Most importantly, know what is normal for your dog. You are the person most likely to notice changes in appetite, thirst, weight, energy, movement, coat, bathroom habits, sleep or behavior. Preventive care isn't separate from longevity; it is part of giving your Poodle the best opportunity for a long, healthy life.

What Can a Responsible Breeder Do?

Health testing doesn't make breeding risk-free. It gives breeders information that can be used to reduce avoidable risk and make better breeding decisions before puppies are produced.

Different Poodle varieties have different minimum health-screening recommendations. At Oregon's Legendary, we have chosen to use the same comprehensive testing protocol across our Poodle program regardless of size. Our breeding Poodles receive OFA hip evaluation, PennHIP evaluation, elbow evaluation, cardiac evaluation, eye examinations repeated every two years, patella evaluation, thyroid testing and genetic disease testing. We would rather have information available to us than skip a screening simply because it isn't required for that Poodle's size.

We generally complete our breeding health testing between 18 and 24 months, and our females are not bred before their second birthday. But completing the tests and getting acceptable results isn't the finish line. Health testing is one source of information within a much larger picture of the dog, its family and eventually the offspring it produces.

DNA Testing Is Only as Good as Today's Testing

Genetic testing has transformed responsible dog breeding. For diseases caused by known variants, we can identify dogs carrying those variants before breeding, choose compatible mates and, for many simple recessive diseases, prevent affected puppies from being produced.

But a DNA panel is only as complete as the science available when it is performed. New disease-associated variants continue to be discovered, new tests are developed, panels change and our understanding of genetics changes. A dog with a “clear” genetic panel has not been proven genetically free of every inherited disease it could ever develop or produce; it means that dog tested clear for the variants included in those tests at that time.

Genetic testing also doesn't replace physical health screening. A DNA result cannot tell us what a dog's hips actually look like, what its PennHIP distraction index is, whether its patellas are stable, what an ophthalmologist sees during an eye examination or what a veterinarian hears during a cardiac evaluation. We need both types of information.

A Carrier Isn't Automatically an Unhealthy Dog

The word carrier can sound alarming when families first begin looking at genetic results, but for a simple recessive disease, a dog carrying one copy of a disease-associated variant may be completely healthy. When appropriately bred to a genetically clear mate, that pairing will not produce puppies affected by that recessive disease.

It can sound appealing to simply eliminate every carrier from breeding, but breeds have finite gene pools. Continually removing otherwise healthy, valuable dogs solely because they carry manageable recessive variants can unnecessarily reduce genetic diversity and potentially concentrate other problems.

Responsible breeding isn't about collecting the greatest possible number of results that say CLEAR. It is about understanding what those results mean, knowing how a particular disease is inherited and making a pairing that does not produce affected puppies.

Genetic Diversity Is Part of Health

Purebred dogs exist because humans selected dogs from relatively limited populations and bred them toward particular characteristics. Over generations, breeds can experience genetic bottlenecks and popular-sire effects that reduce diversity, and Poodles are no exception.

That creates a balancing act for responsible breeders. We want to reduce inherited disease, but if our response to every genetic finding is to remove every carrier, every imperfect dog and increasingly large portions of the breeding population, we can create another problem by narrowing the gene pool. That doesn't mean ignoring health problems or knowingly producing affected puppies; it means looking at the whole dog and the whole family.

Health testing, genetic disease risk, temperament, structure, longevity, relatives, previous offspring and genetic diversity all contribute information to a breeding decision. There isn't one DNA panel, health score or certification that replaces all of them.

What Does a CHIC Number Mean?

While researching Poodle breeders, you may see dogs advertised as having a CHIC number. CHIC is the Canine Health Information Center, administered through the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals in partnership with participating breed parent clubs, and it provides a useful framework for breed-specific health screening and public reporting of results.

There is an important distinction for puppy buyers to understand: a CHIC number means the required screenings were completed and the results made publicly available; it does not mean every result was normal. That's intentional, because transparency itself is valuable. When evaluating a breeder, don't stop at seeing the letters CHIC on a website. Look at the actual health results and understand what was tested.

Health Testing Isn't a Health Guarantee

Two fully health-tested parents can still produce a puppy that eventually develops a health problem. A dog can have excellent hips and produce a puppy that develops hip dysplasia. A breeding dog can have normal eyes and produce an offspring that develops an eye condition later in life. A dog can have an enormous clear DNA panel and eventually develop a disease for which science hasn't identified a useful genetic test.

That doesn't make health testing pointless. Testing gives us information that allows us to reduce risks where we can. When something cannot be tested for, we use the information available from pedigrees, relatives, previous offspring and our own experience, and then we continue paying attention as those dogs age.

This distinction matters when evaluating breeders. Be cautious of anyone suggesting that health testing makes their puppies genetically perfect or guarantees they will never develop a health condition. Responsible breeding is risk reduction, not the elimination of biology.

Health Tracking Happens for Life

One of the most valuable things our puppy families can do for our breeding program is stay in touch. We want to hear that a 12-year-old dog is still hiking, swimming, stealing socks and ruling the household, but we also need to hear about the difficult things.

If one of our dogs develops epilepsy at six, Addison's at eight, significant orthopedic disease, an unusual cancer or another important health condition, that information matters. One dog doesn't necessarily establish a genetic pattern, but you cannot recognize a pattern if nobody is keeping track.

We can look at siblings, half-siblings, parents, grandparents, previous offspring and related litters. Sometimes information that arrives years after a breeding changes how we think about a family of dogs and influences a future breeding decision. Health testing happens before breeding, but meaningful health tracking continues for life.

What Should You Ask a Poodle Breeder?

You don't need to become an expert in veterinary genetics before choosing a breeder, but you should be able to ask reasonable questions and receive understandable answers. Ask what health testing was performed on both parents and whether you can verify the results. Ask whether the breeder follows the health and longevity of dogs they've produced and what they know about parents, grandparents, siblings and previous offspring.

There is another question we think is particularly useful: What health problems have you actually seen in the dogs you've produced? Breeders working with living animals over enough years and generations will eventually encounter things that aren't perfect. A breeder who can explain what they've seen, what they learned, what they monitored and whether it changed a future breeding decision may give you considerably more useful information than someone whose entire health history is simply, “We've never had a problem.”

Responsible breeding isn't demonstrated by pretending problems never happen. It is demonstrated in part by what a breeder does with the information when they do.

Our Approach to Poodle Health

At Oregon's Legendary, we don't believe responsible breeding means promising families that nothing will ever go wrong, because no breeder can honestly make that promise. What we can do is use the tools available to us: health test comprehensively, use genetic testing appropriately, study pedigrees and relatives, follow the puppies we've produced, pay attention to longevity, listen when families report a health concern, continue learning as veterinary medicine and genetics advance, and change a breeding decision when new information tells us we should.

Then our puppy families take over the next part. They care for the teeth, pay attention to the ears and skin, maintain a healthy weight and conditioning, provide appropriate veterinary and preventive care, and learn what is normal for their individual dog.

Our goal isn't simply to produce a healthy eight-week-old puppy or a breeding dog with an impressive list of health clearances. We are trying to produce dogs that have the opportunity to live long, healthy, functional lives with the families waiting for them.