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What are Moyen, Klein and Intervariety  Poodles?

The American Kennel Club states, "Poodles come in three size varieties: Standards should be more than 15 inches tall at the shoulder; Miniatures are 15 inches or under; Toys stand no more than 10 inches. All three varieties have the same build and proportions." (https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/poodle-standard/ )

Moyen means "medium" in French and refers to a fourth size of poodle which was created and is recognized in Europe. You will also hear this size referred to as Klein, which is the German term. Here in the states we consider Moyen poodles to be about 15" - 20" at the shoulder, and about 15-35lbs. 


Since the AKC calls any poodle over 15" at the shoulder standard poodles, if you purchase a Moyen poodle and register them with the AKC, they will need to be registered as a standard. The AKC calls poodles one breed with three varieties. Intervariety means you are breeding a mini to a standard, a mini to a toy or a moyen to a standard. Intervariety poodles are NOT a mixed breed! They are still 100% poodle!

First generations moyens are often created by breeding a mini to a standard (intervariety). When this happens, there will not be a complete uniformity in size, meaning some puppies will be bigger and smaller than others. It takes about 4 generations before they will produce "true to type" and be considered moyens.  We are trying to be clear that our intervariety moyens are "first generation" moyens, meaning we are not sure EXACTLY how big the puppies will grow to be. Our plan is to keep some females back from the mini/standard pairing and breed them back to a true moyen from Europe. 

One additional plus of breeding a mini to a standard is that the co-efficiency of inbreeding (COI) will be zero. The Poodle Club of America recommends keeping the COI to 5% or under. You can read about COI here: https://www.instituteofcaninebiology.org/blog/coi-faqs-understanding-the-coefficient-of-inbreeding   Introducing new bloodlines in the standard and mini gene pool is a very good step toward diversity and improving the overall health of the poodle breed. 

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We look forward to tracking the growth of our intervariety first generation moyens! 

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