Standard Poodle
The most carried tested variant is Degenerative Myelopathy, in 3.8% of 4,203 Standard Poodles tested (Donner 2023), then Pituitary-Dependent Hyperadrenocorticism (2.7%) and Von Willebrand's Disease, Type 1 (1.1%). Only 10 dogs stand behind the atlas figures here, so little is known yet.
Also known as Caniche Pudelhund.
What genetic diseases do Standard Poodles carry?
From a panel of 250 Mendelian-disease variants screened in 1,054,293 dogs (Donner et al. 2023), Standard Poodles carry 19 of them at observable frequency. Carrier frequency is not clinical risk. Most recessive variants require two copies for disease expression; many dominant variants show incomplete penetrance. Read this as a population fingerprint of what's in the gene pool, not a per-dog prediction.
SOD1what this gene does
SOD1 is a gene that helps protect cells from damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals.
For your dog: If your dog is a carrier of SOD1 variants, it's worth discussing with your vet, but remember carrier status doesn't mean your dog will get the disease.
PDK4what this gene does
PDK4 helps regulate how cells use energy, especially in the heart muscle.
For your dog: If your dog is one of the breeds known to carry this gene, it’s worth discussing heart health with your vet, but being a carrier doesn’t mean your dog will develop disease.
PRCDwhat this gene does
PRCD is a gene involved in the health of a dog's retina, the part of the eye that detects light and helps with vision.
For your dog: If your dog belongs to a breed known to carry PRCD changes, it's worth discussing eye health and potential genetic testing with your vet.
PNPLA1what this gene does
PNPLA1 is a gene involved in maintaining the skin's barrier by helping produce essential fats that keep the skin healthy and hydrated.
For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry PNPLA1 variants and shows persistent dry, flaky skin, it's worth discussing with your vet to understand if genetics might be playing a role.
FGF4what this gene does
FGF4 influences leg length by affecting bone growth, leading to shorter legs in certain breeds.
For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry this gene, it's worth discussing spinal health with your vet, but being a carrier doesn’t guarantee problems.
SLC7A9what this gene does
SLC7A9 is a gene that helps transport certain amino acids in the kidneys. It plays a role in how the body handles cystine, an amino acid that can form crystals.
For your dog: If your dog is a carrier, it’s worth discussing with your vet to monitor urinary health and catch any issues early.
DNM1what this gene does
DNM1 is a gene that helps nerve cells communicate properly by managing how they send signals during muscle activity.
For your dog: If your dog belongs to one of the breeds known to carry this gene variant, it's worth discussing EIC with your vet, especially if your dog is very active or shows signs of weakness during exercise.
NDRG1what this gene does
NDRG1 is a gene involved in nerve cell function and maintenance, helping keep the nervous system working properly.
For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry NDRG1 variants, it’s worth discussing with your vet, especially if you notice any mobility issues.
NHEJ1what this gene does
NHEJ1 is a gene involved in repairing breaks in DNA, helping maintain the integrity of genetic information in cells.
For your dog: If your dog belongs to one of the breeds known to carry this gene variant, it's worth discussing testing with your vet to understand any potential eye health risks.
RAB3GAP1what this gene does
RAB3GAP1 is a gene involved in nerve cell function, particularly in how cells communicate and maintain their structure.
For your dog: If your dog is one of the breeds known to carry this gene variant, it's worth discussing genetic testing with your vet to understand any potential risks.
FAM20Cwhat this gene does
FAM20C is a gene that plays a key role in the mineralization of teeth, helping them develop properly and stay strong.
For your dog: If your dog is from one of these breeds, it's worth mentioning FAM20C to your vet when discussing dental care, but being a carrier doesn't mean your dog will have problems.
COL11A2what this gene does
COL11A2 is a gene that helps produce a type of collagen important for healthy bones and cartilage.
For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry COL11A2 variants, it's worth discussing genetic testing with your vet to understand any risks.
ABCA4what this gene does
ABCA4 is a gene that helps manage the transport of molecules in the retina, the part of the eye responsible for vision.
For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry ABCA4 variants, it's worth discussing eye health with your vet, especially as they age.
What these results mean for a Standard Poodle
3.8% of Standard Poodles in the Donner 2023 cohort carried it (n=4,203).
- DM is a loss of function in the spinal cord that begins in adulthood and progresses to paralysis of the back legs. There is no treatment that stops it.
OMIA 000263-9615
“This is an adult onset degeneration of the spinal cord that progresses to paraplegia and tetraparesis. There is no successful treatment. A genetic test is available.” OMIA 000263-9615
- Two copies of the SOD1 variant mean at risk, not affected. Some dogs with two copies never show signs.
OMIA 000263-9615
“some homozygous mutant dogs had no signs of degenerative myelopathy, which suggests incomplete penetrance or other causative loci” OMIA 000263-9615
- One copy makes a dog a carrier. In the study that found the variant, every affected dog tested had two copies.
OMIA 000263-9615
“All affected dogs tested were homozygous mutant.” OMIA 000263-9615
What to do
A DNA result is not a diagnosis. Take the result, and any change in how the dog walks, to a veterinarian.
No test, or a mix
Without a test nobody can say how many copies a dog has. A breed's carrier frequency describes the breed, not this dog.
Other names
The Standard Poodle is also recorded as Caniche Pudelhund.
Identified as Standard Poodle (VBO:0201056) in the Vertebrate Breed Ontology (Mullen et al. 2025, CC-BY 4.0) · registry IDs iDog 269 · VeNom 14594.
For researchers Population genetics, disease models and every recorded condition Open the research detail for the Standard Poodle
In the atlas, the Standard Poodle clusters consistently as Standard Poodle (100% of the 10 dogs here). Genetic diversity is high (mean heterozygosity 0.4363), reflecting either a mixed-breed cluster or breeds with broad genetic backgrounds.
Mean heterozygosity is 0.436, notably high, indicates broad genetic background. High breed predictability score (5.31), individual dogs of this breed reliably cluster together genetically. Only 10 dogs of this breed in the atlas, modestly sampled.
What the atlas genotypes say about Standard Poodle
Computed from the 14,478 CanVAS dogs in the Atlas, on an imputed genotype backbone: 77,215 directly typed sites per dog, imputed to 9.67 million variants.
The confidence below counts dogs, not reads: it is the size of the sample, and it is separate from how the genotypes were measured.
Not enough dogs in the atlas yet (n=10) for a reliable diversity figure. It fills in as more are added.
What does genetic diversity mean?
How varied a breed's gene pool is — the share of gene spots where a typical dog of the breed carries two different versions rather than two identical ones.
How to read it: Higher = more diverse. Among well-sampled breeds it ranges roughly 0.22 (least diverse) to 0.33 (most diverse).
Diversity is a strength, not a verdict on any individual dog. Lower diversity means it's worth paying attention to recessive-risk testing — not that a dog is doomed.
Not enough dogs in the atlas yet (n=10) to resolve cluster structure. It fills in as more are added.
What does within-breed variation mean?
How much individual dogs within the breed differ from each other genetically.
How to read it: Higher = more internal variety among individuals of the breed.
Sensitive to how many dogs of the breed we've sampled.
Standard Poodles are a natural model for human disease
Because the same genes cause the same conditions across species, the inherited conditions documented in Standard Poodles help researchers understand, and work toward treating, the human diseases they model. This is the dog advancing human medicine. The breed models the human disease; it does not have it, and this is not a prediction for your dog.
- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis type 1, modeled by the breed's Degenerative myelopathy via SOD1, the same underlying biology.
- narcolepsy 1, modeled by the breed's Narcolepsy via HCRTR2, the same underlying biology.
- amelogenesis imperfecta type 1B, modeled by the breed's Amelogenesis imperfecta, ENAM-related , the same underlying biology.
- OMIM:254780, modeled by the breed's Myoclonus epilepsy of Lafora , the same underlying biology.
- OMIM:123811, modeled by the breed's Neonatal encephalopathy with seizures, ATF2-related , the same underlying biology.
- OMIM:174500, modeled by the breed's Polydactyly , the same underlying biology.
Every condition recorded in the Standard Poodle
Beyond the testable carriers above, OMIA's literature catalogue records 11 genetic conditions in the Standard Poodle, 10 of which have a known human equivalent. This is the documented landscape across all Standard Poodles ever studied, not a prediction for any one dog.
- Degenerative myelopathy Autosomal recessiveHuman equivalent: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis type 1
- Narcolepsy Autosomal recessiveHuman equivalent: narcolepsy 1
- Amelogenesis imperfecta, ENAM-related Autosomal recessiveHuman equivalent: amelogenesis imperfecta type 1B
- Myoclonus epilepsy of Lafora Autosomal recessiveHuman equivalent: OMIM:254780
- Neonatal encephalopathy with seizures, ATF2-related Autosomal recessiveHuman equivalent: OMIM:123811
- Polydactyly Autosomal dominantHuman equivalent: OMIM:174500
- Retinal atrophy - Rod-cone dysplasia 4 Autosomal recessiveHuman equivalent: retinitis pigmentosa 54
- Retinal atrophy, cone-rod dystrophy, SPATA7-related Autosomal recessiveHuman equivalent: OMIM:604232
- Squamous cell carcinoma of the digit MultifactorialHuman equivalent: OMIM:184745
- Urolithiasis Autosomal recessiveHuman equivalent: OMIM:220150
- Myopathy, mitochondrial Mitochondrial
Where every number on this page came from.
This page draws on three primary data sources. Carrier frequencies for the Mendelian section come from Donner et al. 2023 (CC-BY-4.0). We grade these data at evidence Limited because the cohort is a direct-to-consumer ascertainment, which biases toward owners who chose to test their dogs. The panel also uses tag-SNP proxies for some variants rather than direct causal-variant assays. Limited is a study-design grade, not a quality grade: the Donner cohort is the largest open canine-genotype dataset in existence and we are grateful for it. We rate the confounding MEDIUM.
Population-genetic dimensions (heterozygosity, intra-breed PCA distance, nearest neighbors, trait-locus frequencies) come from CanVAS (Brundage 2026), harmonized through the Sniff Atlas. The exact release date and verification commit are pinned at the bottom of the page so a researcher can trace a number back to a specific snapshot. The disease-gene-variant graph comes from OMIA (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals; Nicholas, Tammen, and the Sydney Informatics Hub at the Sydney School of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney; retrieved April 2026, DOI 10.25910/2AMR-PV70).
What this page does not yet have. Inheritance modes and per-disease penetrance evidence from Donner 2023 are in the structured data for every variant the panel covers. Mondo, OMIM, Ensembl, and HGNC cross-references live on the gene and disease pages this page links to, rather than being repeated here. What is still absent from this breed page is anything not in the cited panel, and each such gap carries its cause where it appears.
How to cite this page. The computed dimensions on this page are derived from the open Sniff Atlas v1.0.1 (Gehring 2026, doi:10.5281/zenodo.20566358, CC-BY 4.0). Full citation formats including BibTeX, RIS, and CITATION.cff at sniff.world/cite.
Some things about living with a standard poodle never make it into a database. Add what you know as a Keeper, in your words →
Lived experience, kept beside the science.We have 10 standard poodles. We do not have yours.
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- Donner J, Freyer J, Davison S, Anderson H, Blades M, Honkanen L, et al. (2023). Genetic prevalence and clinical relevance of canine Mendelian disease variants in over one million dogs. PLOS Genetics 19(2):e1010651. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1010651
- Brundage DM (2026). CanVAS: A Harmonized and Imputed Canine Variant Atlas. bioRxiv. doi:10.64898/2026.04.13.718238
- Nicholas, F.W., Tammen, I., & Sydney Informatics Hub. (2026). Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA) [dataset]. The University of Sydney. https://omia.org. doi:10.25910/2AMR-PV70 (retrieved April 2026).