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Years ago a group of people decided to create a new breed of dog. They were looking for an intelligent, easy to train dog, with a keen sense of smell. To this point they had used pigs to hunt the highly prized truffles, problem: pigs ate truffles. So they selected several breeds known at that time, interbred and created the Pudle. Today we know them as the Poodle.
Many of the dogs used as the parent foundations, had coats of 2 or more colors. Many of their offspring were "parti" colored.
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Picture courtesy of Rivermist Labradoodles |
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As this breed gained favor, those serious breeders decided that the poodle should be of only solid colors, and as a result many parti babies were euthansized, their parents were never bred again.
Over the years these delightful parti patterns seemed to disappear.
In 10 years of breeding and showing poodles I saw only 2 parti poodles, they were spay/neutered. I was fascinated with the patterns and set out to find some more. I did not have a computer in those days and with limited resources the search was long. I finallly found a breeder in the U.S. who also found the color patterns interesting. I purchased a female parti miniature poodle from them, this is my "Dilly" who you can see on my site.
As Labradoodles emerge we discovered that many of the old poodle lines still carry the parti genes. These lines were added (perhaps not intentionally) and, mis-marks and complete parti patterns were being seen, more often.
Spaniels were infused into the labradoodle early breeding program; many of these dogs also carry genes for parti patterns.
These color combinations: parti, sables, phantom, tuxedo, etc. are so refreshing, and add a new dimension, to our wonderful labradoodles.
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