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Miniature Poodle — BetterBred Breed Page – BetterBred.com
BetterBred Breed Profile

Miniature Poodle

Temperament: Lively, biddable, and quietly funny. Miniature Poodles are compact versions of the working Standard - smart, highly trainable, and eager to engage with their people. They are good with children and other dogs, do well in apartments given adequate exercise, and have high grooming needs. The non-shedding coat is often tolerated by people with dog allergies.
Height: 10-15 inches (25-38 cm)
Weight: 10-15 pounds (4.5-7 kg)
Life Span: 13-16 years
Outlier Index ?
0.33
Born before 2016: 0.31 Born after 2024: 0.33
Avg Genetic Rel. ?
-0.01
Born before 2016: 0.00 Born after 2024: 0.00
Internal Relatedness ?
0.03
Born before 2016: 0.04 Born after 2024: -0.08
Miniature Poodle
#NameGender OIAGRIR
1 Moonstruck Kayekids Heartbreaker F 0.32 -0.03 0.16
2 Kayekids Heavenly Body F 0.37 -0.04 -0.03
3 Kayekids Hang the Moon F 0.24 0.04 -0.10
4 Reliford's Chente M 0.57 -0.11 0.01
5 Kayekids Fun With Friday F 0.22 0.05 -0.02
6 Kayekids Fuzzy Ruckus M 0.39 -0.03 0.06
7 Kayekids Gimme Shelter M 0.34 -0.02 -0.02
8 Kayekids Essential Magic M 0.31 0.02 -0.15
9 Kayekids Everything At Once M 0.31 -0.03 0.05
10 Kayekids Fire F 0.27 0.04 -0.09
The Poodle is an ancient European breed with landrace roots - meaning the dogs developed over centuries in response to the needs of their environment rather than through planned breeding from a handful of founders. The size varieties (Standard, Miniature, Toy) emerged as distinct categories by the 19th century. The genetic evidence supports the theory that Miniature Poodles were bred down in size from the larger Standard, rather than arising independently. The AKC recognized the Poodle as a breed in 1887. Miniature Poodles became internationally popular as companion dogs in the 20th century and have remained a widely bred and well-maintained breed.
Progressive retinal atrophy (prcd, DNA test available), patellar luxation, Legg-Calve-Perthes disease, and epilepsy are the main concerns. Cushing's disease and hypothyroidism occur at elevated rates. Some lines carry health variants that the breed community has actively tracked through DNA testing programs.
VGL has reported Miniature Poodles carrying an average of around 9.06 alleles across the 33 STR loci, with an effective allele count near 4.25. Those are among the stronger numbers VGL has reported for any breed, reflecting the breed's long history, large population, and comparatively diverse founder base. A subset of common alleles still dominates, but the rarer ones are present in real numbers and deserve continued preservation. VGL testing has found Miniature Poodles with observed heterozygosity slightly below expected, giving a small positive inbreeding coefficient. The breed carries the marks of dominant historical lines but retains more overall diversity than many breeds, thanks to a large worldwide population and active breeder community. Individual IR values still vary and breeders have room to keep pulling the breed toward less related pairings.

Average metrics by birth year for dogs with recorded birthdates in the BetterBred database.

A 3D genetic map of enrolled Miniature Poodle dogs in the BetterBred database, based on allele-sharing distance across 33 STR loci. This is not a complete picture of the breed — it reflects only dogs whose owners have enrolled them. Drag to rotate · scroll to zoom · hover for dog names (public profiles only).

Historical founders — oldest 25% of enrolled dogs     Current gene pool — most recent 50% of enrolled dogs
Building plot… this may take a minute for larger breeds.

The Dog Leukocyte Antigen (DLA) region controls immune function and is the most polymorphic portion of the canine genome. Every dog carries two sets of DLA haplotypes — one from each parent — which almost never recombine across generations. Frequency percentages reflect how often each haplotype appears across all allele copies in the breed, not the percentage of dogs carrying it.

Class I Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
1018
27.0%
1013
10.1%
1012
8.4%
1009
8.1%
1031
8.0%
1005
5.6%
1105
4.5%
1036
4.3%
1016
3.3%
1107
2.9%
1028
2.9%
1106
1.8%
1109
1.6%
1001
1.4%
1068
1.1%
1108
1.0%
1111
0.8%
1014
0.7%
1003
0.7%
1011
0.7%
1032
0.6%
1040
0.6%
1250
0.6%
1004
0.6%
1045
0.4%
1025
0.4%
1020
0.4%
1168
0.3%
1110
0.3%
1008
0.3%
1006
0.3%
1002
0.3%
1021
0.1%
0
0.1%
1112
0.1%
1054
0.1%

Class II Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
2003
51.5%
2012
9.6%
2008
8.1%
2025
4.8%
2021
4.7%
2014
3.3%
2015
3.2%
2016
2.9%
2066
2.2%
2001
1.6%
2053
1.1%
2009
1.0%
2032
1.0%
2037
0.8%
2024
0.8%
2011
0.7%
2002
0.6%
2028
0.6%
2040
0.4%
2050
0.3%
2067
0.3%
2022
0.1%
2017
0.1%
2004
0.1%
2013
0.1%
2007
0.1%
2131
0.1%

Class I & II Combinations

Class IClass IIFrequency
1018 2003
27.2%
1013 2003
10.3%
1012 2003
8.4%
1009 2008
8.2%
1031 2012
8.1%
1005 2003
5.3%
1105 2021
4.6%
1036 2025
4.3%
1016 2014
3.3%
1028 2015
2.9%
1107 2016
2.9%
1106 2066
1.8%
1109 2012
1.7%
1068 2053
1.1%
1108 2032
1.0%
1111 2024
0.8%
1011 2011
0.7%
1003 2001
0.7%
1001 2001
0.7%
1001 2009
0.7%
1040 2028
0.6%
1250 2025
0.6%
1004 2002
0.6%
1025 2037
0.4%
1032 2066
0.4%
1045 2040
0.4%
1014 2037
0.4%
1168 2003
0.3%
1020 2015
0.3%
1110 2067
0.3%
1014 2050
0.3%
1008 2009
0.3%
1002 2001
0.1%
1112 2003
0.1%
1006 2004
0.1%
1006 2007
0.1%
1018 2013
0.1%
1054 2022
0.1%
1020 2131
0.1%
1032 2021
0.1%
1021 2017
0.1%

The Canine Diversity Test from UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory is the foundation of BetterBred’s breed management tools. Testing your dog adds to the breed database and gives you access to the full suite of breeding analysis tools.

Order from UC Davis VGL →
OI
Outlier Index

The Outlier Index (OI) measures how unusual a dog’s allele combination is relative to the tested population of its breed. A higher OI means the dog carries alleles at lower frequencies across the breed — genetic variants that are underrepresented in the population as a whole.

Dogs with high OI are genetically valuable because they carry diversity that most other tested dogs don’t share. Breeding them thoughtfully into the broader population helps redistribute lower-frequency alleles rather than allowing them to become even rarer over generations.

The breed average shown here reflects all dogs tested in the BetterBred database. The senior and youngster comparisons show whether diversity is trending up or down in recent generations.
AGR
Average Genetic Relatedness

Average Genetic Relatedness (AGR) measures how similar a dog’s DNA is, on average, to every other tested dog in the breed. It reflects the dog’s mean kinship — how closely related it is to the population as a whole.

A lower AGR means the dog is more genetically distinct from the majority of the breed. Dogs with low AGR carry alleles at lower frequencies across the tested population, making them higher-priority candidates for inclusion in a well-managed breeding program.

AGR is conceptually related to mean kinship used in conservation genetics for managed species populations. A declining AGR average in younger dogs suggests the breed is successfully redistributing genetic diversity across generations.
IR
Internal Relatedness

Internal Relatedness (IR) measures how much identical genetic material an individual dog inherited from both parents. IR is a useful indicator of inbreeding: lower IR generally reflects lower inbreeding, and it is widely used and reported in the scientific literature.

A high IR is not the cause for alarm it might appear. Elevated IR can often be resolved in a single generation by pairing with a dog whose ancestry is less represented in the breed. It is a signpost, not a sentence.

BetterBred reports IR for reference, but it is not our primary breeding guidance tool. OI and AGR together give a more complete and actionable picture of a dog’s genetic value to the population.

AGR tells you which dogs are genetically unusual relative to the population. OI tells you which dogs are most valuable to preserve. OI specifically weights mid-frequency alleles, identifying dogs whose ancestry is underrepresented in a way most likely to benefit the breed.