10/25/2025
This is a long post written by a toy poodle breeder I would like to share. I’m sharing this because it perfectly explains why breeding isn’t as simple as picking a puppy to order. Especially with toy poodles, where litters are tiny (often just 1-3 puppies), every puppy is a unique combination of genetics, care, and luck. And there are no instant results.
Dear X
Let me let you in on the sad truth about toy poodle breeding. This will be long. I have a PhD in Molecular Biology and am a professor at Colgate University. I have published research on the genetics of dog body size. There are about 12 genes important to body size in toy poodles--each one has "small" versions and "big" versions. To look like a nice toy poodle, you can't have all small versions of those 12 genes--it would look like a chihuahua, with an apple head, short legs, etc. etc. So the proper toy poodle has a mixture of big and small versions at those genes. The consequence of that is that breeding two 10 inch dogs together doesn't assure you of getting puppies that will be that size, because the small and big versions will combine independently. I bred a 9.5 inch tall champion girl to a 9 inch tall champion boy. She had two puppies (more on that later). As an adult, one is 12 inches tall and 10 lbs and the other is 3.5 lbs and 7 inches tall. One got mostly "big" versions and the other mostly "small" versions. So, size is really complicated in toy poodles.
A second issue is that toy poodle litters are small. I am having a litter of four next week and I am praying they all make it. Most of my litters are 1 to 3 puppies. Toys at birth weigh about 5 ounces and moms are often only 5-6 lbs. That would be like a normal size (50 lbs) dog having 3 lb newborns--over 3 times their normal newborn weight--so difficult to get all the puppies out alive. In addition, the small litter size means that in a litter of 3 you may have one puppy predicted to be 9-10 inches (show size) as an adult, or zero. If you are lucky, two might be. More often, zero are (like the champion litter above).
So given that, show size puppies--particularly females--are usually kept to show. Because they are not common, and because at 1-3 pups per litter and 2 or 3 litters per female in their lifetime means they are needed to keep a breeding program going. If I'm not going to keep a show female I have show friends who need girls for their program. So unless a girl predicted to be in size has a problem that would eliminate them from showing (too long in back, undershot bite, round head) they are not going to a companion home. Fewer boys are kept, so getting an in size boy as a pet is easier. I just placed a beautiful silver-beige boy as a pet. He is predicted to be 9-10 inches as an adult and a really pretty boy--but I kept a boy earlier in the year so I just can't keep him.
There isn't a toy poodle breeder on this planet that gets all in size dogs. It just isn't possible. And with small litters, every filter you put on the puppy you want decreases the chance such a puppy will exist. Litter of 3. Has to be silver. OK, one silver. Has to be a girl. Whoops, that one is a boy. You get the picture.
How do I know what size pups will be? Birth weight isn't relevant (my students are just writing up a project showing that is the case). What I do is use size gene information in Embark DNA testing AND height and weight measurements at 5 to 10 weeks to come up with a prediction. So far I have been pretty darn close with my predictions. But a female pup predicted to be 9-10 inches is going to be kept unless I have three of them in the litter (that would be wonderful!). And even in that case, because I also breed for agility team mates, some of my puppies "need a job" and won't be suitable placed as a companion. I'll take one litter of three this May as an example. It had a blue girl predicted to be 10-11 inches, a blue boy predicted to be about 11 inches and a silver boy predicted to be about 10. I kept the girl for my program. The silver boy was WAY too busy for a pet home, so he went to an agility/show home. The blue boy could have been an agility dog, but wasn't as busy and I had a companion person who had been waiting two years for a dog either s*x any color so I offered him to her.
I hope these examples and the information were helpful in thinking about why it might be difficult to get the puppy you want. I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but I have to be realistic with people. Even having 7 litters this year (which was a HUGE time commitment on my part, considering I have a full time job to pay for my dog program) I'm not going to be able to get puppies to a quarter of the people who contact me. I can try, but biology is not on my side!
Best wishes,
Barbara
Barbara Hoopes
This applies to the mini and standard variety of poodles too, in that “ordering a dog” is not at all like placing an order on Amazon. Way, way more goes into the creation of that poodle than any regular person can even fathom.
