A new paper, just out, highlights the role of inbreeding in the Poodle's immune-mediated issues. It's published in a journal that the KC helps fund, but there is no mention of this important research anywhere on the KC's social media - including on the Discover Dogs link they give above.
As the paper says:
"Standard Poodles suffer from a long list of autoimmune diseases including immune mediated hemolytic anemia, immune mediated thrombocytopenia, Evan’s syndrome, immune pancytopenia, chronic thyroiditis, temporal-mandibular myositis, and chronic active hepatitis. However, the two most vexing autoimmune disorders are sebaceous adenitis (SA) and Addison’s disease (AD)."
Read the whole thing in Canine Genetics + Epidemiology here.
Still want a Poodle? Well, this is a fab, rather under-rated breed - and it's a proper dog outside of the silly show-grooming.
And, if you read the paper, you'll see that there's a new canine diversity test on the block - offered by UC Davis - that has the potential to improve the genetic lot of Poodles and other breeds. (More on that another time.)
But, at the moment, a well-bred Poodle cross - perhaps even a not-so-well-bred Poodle x - is almost certainly a better bet health-wise.