““Let’s Talk Merle (Kindly, Honestly, and With Receipts)””

Every time we post a Merle Poodle, we see the same comments:
•   “Merle doesn’t exist in Poodles.”
•   “If it’s merle, it’s not purebred.”
•   “AKC doesn’t allow that, so it must be mixed.”

And listen—I’m not trying to be a smarty-pants.
There’s a little truth inside what people are saying… but it gets turned into a conclusion that isn’t always accurate.

So let’s just talk Merle… openly, kindly, and honestly.

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First: Merle is a pattern, not a breed

Merle is simply a coat pattern—a look.
You’ll see it in many breeds today, and that’s why it’s familiar to people.

It’s not “a breed,” and it doesn’t automatically mean “mixed.”

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Second: AKC isn’t the final word on what a dog is

This is the part most people don’t realize:

AKC is a registry with rules.
Those rules include what colors are allowed in the show ring, what’s considered “standard,” and what gets disqualified for conformation showing.

That does not mean AKC is the ultimate authority on genetics.

A dog can be:
•   purebred by genetics, and still
•   not accepted in a specific show standard because of color rules.

Those are two different conversations.

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Third: How Merle got into Poodles (the simple version)

No, Merle was not always common in Poodles.

At some point decades ago, Merle was introduced into some Poodle lines—yes, through an outcross somewhere back in history.

Then what happens next is what people leave out:

Breeders kept breeding back to Poodles generation after generation until the dogs were overwhelmingly Poodle again—just with the Merle pattern carried forward.

That’s how a lot of “new” traits get established over time in many breeds.

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Fourth: The “5th to 7th generation” fact (without the math)

If you breed back to Poodles over and over again, the dogs become more and more “Poodle” each generation.

By around the 5th to 7th generation, the dogs can be considered back to the breed again in practical terms—because they’ve been bred repeatedly into that same breed line for so long.

This is not some crazy concept—this is literally how breeding programs work when developing and stabilizing traits.

(We’re doing something similar in principle with projects like our Baby Doll sheep work—starting somewhere, then refining, stabilizing, and breeding forward.)

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Fifth: Why being a “pure purist” can create health problems

Here’s something else people don’t talk about enough:

If you are an extreme purist and never introduce any new genetics, you can accidentally stack the same hidden recessive traits on top of each other.

That’s how many “purebred health issues” become common:
•   because the gene pool gets tighter
•   and the same problems repeat

So responsible breeding isn’t just about “purity.”
It’s about health, temperament, structure, and making wise decisions over generations.

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Sixth: Our Merle Poodles are DNA tested—period.

We don’t expect anyone to “just believe us.”

We test.

Here are our parent dogs, DNA tested 100% Poodle:

✅ Prada — 100% Poodle (Standard)

✅ Rembrandt — 100% Poodle (Standard)

✅ DaVinci — 100% Poodle (Small)

And yes—our results also show the Merle pattern gene present, which is exactly why they look the way they look.

So when someone says, “They can’t be purebred,” our answer is simple:

We have proof.

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Last thing (because this matters): We breed responsibly

Merle is beautiful, but it needs to be handled responsibly—just like any other trait.

We care about:
•   pairing dogs carefully
•   health testing
•   and being transparent

We’re not here to argue—we’re here to educate and raise healthy, happy dogs.

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If you’re curious, we welcome kind questions

If you’ve wondered about Merle and Poodles, I hope this cleared it up.

If you came here to fight in the comments… we’re not doing that. 😊
But if you came here to learn, you’re always welcome.