Guided learning path

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Thirty-nine articles is a library, not a lesson plan. This path takes you from absolute beginner — what a locus even is — to making real breeding decisions, in an order that builds. Work it top to bottom; each stage assumes the ones before it.

Stage 1

Foundations: learn the vocabulary

Before any genetics, you need the words breeders use and the one piece of math behind every litter prediction.

  1. Poodle Colors and Patterns: The Complete GuideStart with what you can see: the 10 solid colors, the 9 patterns and markings, and the vocabulary for all of them.
  2. How to Build a Punnett Square for Poodle Coat ColorThe single piece of math behind every prediction you will ever make. Learn it once, use it forever.
  3. Which Poodle Colors Are AKC Conformation-Eligible?A quick reference for what the show ring allows — worth knowing before you plan any breeding.
Stage 2

The core color loci

Coat color is decided locus by locus. Work through these in order and the "impossible" puppies start making sense.

  1. Understanding the E LocusWhy some poodles are always red or cream, no matter what else they carry.
  2. The B Locus Explained: Black vs. BrownHow two black poodles can produce a brown puppy — the moment of confusion every breeder has had.
  3. Phantom Poodles: the A Locus and Tan PointsThe two-tone pattern and the locus behind it.
  4. Reading the Modern ASIP HaplotypesThe A locus is mid-transition from the old four-allele story — here is the modern reading.
  5. What Is the Greying Gene?Why a puppy born jet-black can be silver by eighteen months.
  6. KITLG and Coat IntensityWhy one red poodle glows mahogany while her littermate fades to apricot.
Stage 3

Patterns and complications

Merle, white spotting, sable, and the coats that change with age. Read these after the core loci — they build on them.

  1. Merle in Poodles: The Genetics and the ControversyThe flagship guide: M-locus mechanics, double-merle risk, and the health data every breeder must know.
  2. Parti Poodles and the S LocusWhat causes white spotting — and what the 50% rule actually means.
  3. Sable Poodle Color GeneticsWhy two puppies from the same litter can look so different.
  4. Whitehead and Irish Spotting: A Working HypothesisWhere no test exists yet — labeled honestly as hypothesis, not conclusion.
  5. Silver Beige vs. Café-au-LaitThe same greying event at two different doses, on brown-based coats.
  6. Clearing, Fading, and HoldingThe three ways a poodle’s coat actually changes as it ages.
Stage 4

From knowledge to breeding decisions

Now put it to work: testing, reading results, and making the actual pairing call.

  1. Your First Poodle DNA PanelWhat to decide before you order a single test.
  2. How to Read a DNA Color PanelThe most useful tool a breeder has ever had — and the most routinely misread.
  3. From Genotype to DecisionTurning copy counts, pedigrees, and scores into an actual pairing call.
  4. The Breeder’s First Health-Testing PanelA practical checklist before your first litter.
  5. Coefficient of Inbreeding: What the Research ShowsWhat a DNA panel cannot tell you about a proposed pairing.

Bonus track

Breeding or buying doodles?

Every doodle is half poodle, and the poodle half drives the coat. These four read after Stage 2.

Finished the path? Put it to work.

Reading about loci is the start. Modeling real pairings — and going deeper than any article can — is the rest.

Try the calculatorsModel any pairing across every locus at once — color, merle, and health risk. Free.Go deeper with the booksThe three-volume series: every locus, full pairing matrices, and health genetics in 1,140 pages.

Prefer to explore freely instead? Browse all 39 articles.