Color breeding my red toy poodle

Question
QUESTION: Hi Kim,

First off, let me say that I am not, and do not intend to be a professional breeder. Just as a background info: We are a big family of dog enthusiasts. Having fallen in love with my red toy poodle, my mom now wants a toy poodle for herself as she hasn't had a pet since her beloved shih tzu passed away a few years ago. The same with my sister, who wants one to live with her when she moves to her new house next year. I myself would love to have at least 2 more.

I was going to have my puppy spayed at 6 months, but we are now considering letting her have one litter first when she matures. Call it silly or sentimental, but we all love the idea of her own babies being part of the family. Plus we all know that purebred toy poodles can be a bit pricey...

So, after making sure that she's healthy and physically ready to breed, how do I find the perfect stud for her? I do find partis and phantoms really lovely. She comes from a long line of reds, with some brown and black lineage. Would it be okay to breed her with a parti or a phantom, or should I stick to solids? Whether she produces partis, phantoms, or solids doesn't matter to me that much, but I want to make sure that I don't screw up their genetics.

I hope my question makes sense. All the advice you could give me will be truly appreciated. Thank you!

ANSWER: Hello Mitzi,  
I don't mind someone breeding their dog as long as they are doing so with the mindset that you are bettering the breed or at least staying with the Breed Standard.  
She will need to be at least 1 1/2 years old before being bred and needs a Pre Breeding Health Check by your Vet to insure that she is ready to be bred.  When that is done, then you will need to find a quality stud that you can use with her.  

You will first decide what color you want.  You mentioned Parti colored dogs, but since she doesn't have any color in her background, your chances of getting colored dogs from her will be low.  I would look for a good solid line bred Red if you can find one, meaning it has been bred with Red dogs for generations back.  You could also use Apricot if you wanted Apricot and Red puppies.
Next you will want to look for a quality breeder.  You can search for Red Toy Breeders in your area.  Here are some sites that will help you.
American Kennel Club Breeders Page  https://www.apps.akc.org/apps/classified/search/landing_puppy.cfm?breed_code=701
PuppyDog Web Toy Poodle Puppies  http://puppydogweb.com/caninebreeds/toypoodle.htm
PoodlesOnline.com   http://www.poodlesonline.com/

When you find a breeder that you like, contact them and let them know what you are looking for and if they Stud out their males.  If they don't , ask them if they can recommend other Breeders to you.  Find out about their dogs, if they do anything with them (such as Conformation, Obedience, Agility, etc), testing (if you are interested).  Then see if you can go and meet their dogs.  Take your girl along and let everyone meet.  
Make sure that the male is compatible to your girl.  The breeder should be able to help with this.  
You may want to see if the breeder will get the male checked from the Vet for a Pre Breeding exam also, just to make sure that he won't pass anything on to the female.  

I hope this helps you some.  If you have other questions about this or any other Poodle questions in general, please feel free to ask me.  

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Kim,

Thanks for the response! Just a quick follow-up question to make sure I understand. Should I take it to mean that it's okay to breed my dog with a parti or phantom poodle? Even if the chances of producing colors other than solid are low, I MIGHT give it a try if there is no harm in doing it.

The reason for the question is an article that I read way back, but I can't seem to find it now. It warns against breeding this color to that, liver points to black points, fading to non-fading, etc - due to the risk of producing poodles that don't conform to color standards. If I had known that time that I will be breeding my little girl, I would have paid more attention to it. Unfortunately, I don't remember it now - and it seemed really important!

I would also like to mention that I tried asking some seemingly reputable breeders, even the one where I got my puppy from. They have NO IDEA WHATSOEVER what I was talking about. But in this country where I live, I should have known better. No bashing intended - just the truth.

Thanks again in advance, and I look forward to your response :-)

Mitzi

Answer
Hello again Mitzi,
You could try breeding your girl to a Parti male and see what you get.  It would depend on what is in the background of your female whether you would get any "colored" puppies out of the litter.  What you would probably get would be Abstract colored pups, or pups with splashes of white of them, but nothing significant.  
If you do look for a Parti colored Male, please make sure its a quality male.  The Parti colored dogs tend to not have the quality that the solid colored dogs have because people go more for the color than correctness.  The article that you read does still stand.  You need to pay attention to what you are breeding with on the whole.  It would be better if you knew the dogs that were present in your dogs background and the background of the male.  That way, you would know what body types, colors, temperaments, etc are present in both the male and female.  Then you could pair 2 dogs that were similar in their breed standard.  
You almost never want a brown nose on a Poodle.  Sometimes you will come across one on an Apricot or Cream dog, but its undesirable.  Also, if you breed any color to a Black, you will be diluting the Black color because Black is the only Non-Fading color.  All the other colors have the fading gene.  That is not necessarily a bad thing though, for without the fading gene, we wouldn't have any other Poodle colors.

If you are on any Social Media sites (Twitter, FaceBook) you can check out the Breeding Forums on there.  They will help new breeders have a better idea of what they are doing.  Be careful though because some of the people tend to bash new breeders, thinking they don't know what they are doing.  Its best to take what you read with a grain of salt.  

You can post an ad that you are looking for a Stud Dog.  Be sure to spell out specifically what you are looking for though.  Ask for Pedigree's, Pictures, and if possible go out and visit the stud before committing to anything.  Your dog is young yet and you have time to find that perfect "Man" for her.  If you have Dog Shows in your area, visit them and talk to the Judges and Breeders there.  Let them know what you are looking for and what you want.  
Do Not become depressed or discouraged though if they won't talk to you or try to talk you out of it.  Some breeders are very biased and will cut a small time or first time breeder down because they think that BackYard Breeders can't have quality dogs or know what to look for like they (the breeders) can.  

Again, I hope this helps some.  Please feel free to come to me with other questions or concerns you may have.  

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim