Julie Borst, Breeder of the Tiara Standard Poodles

Part 2 of "An Interview With the Dog Breeders' Guild"

I will start by writing a big thank you to like-minded Breeder, Arlene Mills for discussing her over-sized, apricot miniature bred to small blue standard breedings with me.  My new litters (Tiara D and Tiara E) are a bit different being all black and the bitches I used are 22 and 23 1/2 inches tall and the sire 15 inches tall.  This size difference was the only real concern most of us had going into the breedings here.  Also, a huge thank you to Pirkko Ranta-aho, for sharing her experiences with her beautiful dogs. I wanted these other ladies to discuss their own experiences with their intervariety breedings publicly and I am glad they wrote about their poodles recently, during a time when my discussions of the mini/standard breedings were under much scrutiny and debate as suspicious and unusual by other poodle fanciers, most of whom were not very interested in lowering the COI in standard poodles.   My boyfriend, Kirk Reed, met with Pirkko and her lovely poodles in person at her place in the city of Helsinki two years ago.  His report of her dog, Paavo, the result of intervariety breeding, as being a handsome poodle and a gentleman at that, helped me finalize my plans to go ahead with the combination mating in November 2001.

"Miniature poodles should have ophthalmologist exam for PPMs* at 6 weeks to 8 weeks of age, before leaving for new homes."  I was told this by a miniature poodle breeder when inquiring to my poodle club membership as to what testing I should accomplish differently then I do with the standard/standard pairings.  I had the findings registered as I do all my eye examinations on my poodles (all 19 puppies of the D & E litters showed no problems with their eyes).  Every poodle in my care is tested and registered yearly with CERF. New owners will be encouraged to do the same.   Optigen runs a DNA test for the most common PRA in poodles.  The test does not have to be run for the D & E puppies here, nor would I think it be permitted as these are (small) standard poodles.  The test is for miniature and toy poodles only at this time.  The sire is Optigen A rated (genetically clear of the prcd form of PRA).  He is a carrier for vWD according to VetGen and the dam and all her VetGen vWD tested relatives are clear (@ 30 tested to date).  Of the 8 puppies I selected to run the VetGen vWD DNA test, ALL have tested clear.
Note: it was known that none of the puppies of this litter would be
affected, as the dam is DNA clear. The genetic testing is registered with the OFA.  The D & E puppies testing clear is a blessing.  I truly wanted only the clears to be considered for the next generation.  With all 8 puppies submitted testing clear, this gives us a lot more from which to select.  Using the Volhard Personality Profiling aids in selection at this time as well. Details of the profiling may be seen at:
http://www.tiarapoodles.com/temperament.html
The profiling has also been an article subject in the AKC Gazette magazine issues: March 1979, March 1985 and February 1987.

The D & E litter puppies had complete physical examinations and health certificates issued including patella palpation.  The D and E litter were deemed totally healthy and clear of patella luxation at this time, and the E litter proved to be just a bit tighter in that joint, if the veterinarian had to choose. The E litter also proved more evenly sized as well as testing just a squeak better on the Personality Profiles, not one puppy had their mouth on the tester, the D litter had a few more pushy individuals, although still testing very high for performance with excellent work ethic traits.  One of the D litter males looks forward to a retriever trialing career.

The 10 puppies average weight of the E litter at 58 days of age was 5 3/4 pounds.  One pup at 5 lbs and one pup at 6.5 lbs and the rest very evenly sized at 5.5 and 6 lbs.  The 9 pups of the D litter showed more variance with a 4.9 lb and a 6.9 lb puppy and variations in between with an average of 6 lbs at the same age. This is about 1 1/2 lbs behind the average weights of my standard/standard litters (weighed on the same digital scale at the same approximate day of age). These puppies are lighter-framed than my recent (3) litters with the Latvian sire (two in summer of 2000 and one in summer of 2002; the last least related standard male I could locate).  Goal is to find more miniatures with the test clearance criteria already in place and to incorporate and to utilize the Latvian influence as well.

All my dogs are fed an entirely raw food diet and those puppies staying with me will be vaccinated for rabies only.  Vaccines are sent home with puppies: a distemper/measles for 12+ weeks and a killed Parvo for 16+ weeks of age; this schedule is from my homeopathic veterinarian for people that must vaccinate their pets.  No heartworm or flea preventative will be/has been used ever here.  Nothing posted as to this is how everyone has to do things. It is posted to share with those interested, how these puppies are raised and the results.

The bodies of the D and E litters here are very well-proportioned and the eye and shoulders are noticeably improved over the dams.  I was getting a larger eye opening in my current breeding generation than I think ideal. These mini/standard litters have gorgeous eyes.  The dams have very nice shoulder angulation, but the improvement is noted, as is tail-set a bit more ideal.  Tail carriage seems a bit loose compared to my standard/standard litters and this was really noted starting at about 6 and 7 weeks in the litters.  Coats are superb and should stay very black from indications compared to other standard poodle litters I have raised (since 1976).  The low inbreeding litters are noticeably calmer (Latvian and mini sired litters), than even litters at 9 and 11% COI (100/9 and 100/10).  The mini/standard pups have individuals that do indeed have drive above and beyond what has been seen in the standard/standard litters here.

Both sire and dams have performance (as well as champion) titled relatives laterally in their pedigrees.  The dams are notably athletic and very fit. One has won agility titles, the other, a half sister (shared sire), has proven that no pen without a top, no matter how high, is an obstacle.  To tell on her: she used to open all the kennel doors and let her friends out where she lived with a co-owner from the time she was a teenager to 3 years of age.  Talent? Well, definitely a thinking poodle.

Hope this helps give a more detailed presentation of my current goals and how they are progressing.  My deepest thanks to Arlene Mills of Crabapple Downs and Pirkko Ranta-aho of Sir Ascot Poodles, for writing about their mini/standard litters and for also sharing a little about our common mentor and supporter, Dr John Armstrong to an e-mail list of (mixed-level) poodle fanciers.  The variety is in real need of new genetic material.  More can be studied about the effects of the Popular Sire Syndrome, which has wreaked havoc to the standard poodle gene pool selection at:
http://www.magmacom.com/~kaitlin/diversity/genetics.html

Julie Borst
Tiara Black Standard Poodles
La Jolla, CA
www.tiarapoodles.com

*"Persistent pupillary membranes, PPMs as they are often called are common findings on CERF examinations." to read more about this condition, see these fine sites presented by Breeders:
http://www.dogstop.com/povrlrd/clickher.htm
http://www.basenji.org/african/brown794.htm
http://www.labbies.com/eye.htm

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