Home / Breeds / Pyredoodle / Health testing
The recommended tests for Pyredoodle breeding dogs, what each test screens for, when it is done, and the questions and red flags that separate careful breeders from the rest. Full profile: the Pyredoodle breed profile.
This page is general information drawn from the published guidance of the organizations listed under Sources below. It is not veterinary advice, and it does not replace your own veterinarian, who knows your dog. If your dog is unwell, contact your veterinarian, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center on (888) 426-4435, or the Pet Poison Helpline on (855) 764-7661 for urgent concerns. A consultation fee may apply on the helplines.
The Pyredoodle, the Great Pyrenees and Poodle cross, has no parent club and no registry testing program of its own. The standard a careful breeder can actually meet is the pair of programs its parent breeds already have: the Pyrenees parent tested to the Great Pyrenees club list, and the Poodle parent tested to the Poodle club list for its size variety. This page sets out both, because a mixed file that borrows half of each is the commonest way crossbreed buyers are misled.
The Great Pyrenees side is short and non negotiable: a hip evaluation and a patella evaluation, the two items the parent club requires, aimed at the joints of a giant livestock guardian. The AKC DNA recommendations also list a test for Glanzmann thrombasthenia for the breed, a platelet clotting disorder. The Poodle side depends on the variety used. A Standard Poodle parent brings the Standard list as the AKC publishes it: an eye examination, a hip evaluation, a DNA test for neonatal encephalopathy with seizures or clear by parentage, an autoimmune thyroiditis evaluation and a DNA test for von Willebrand disease type I. If the Poodle parent is a Miniature instead, its list swaps in a patella evaluation and a PRA-prcd DNA test; ask which variety the parent is and hold the breeder to that variety's list.
Size is the silent variable in this cross. Pyredoodle puppies are usually large, often giant framed, and every joint claim should be read with that adult weight in mind: hip films graded before two years, or a Poodle parent's file offered for a litter whose other parent is an untested guardian dog, both fail the standard this page sets out. Ask for the two files separately, named dog by named dog, and check the Pyrenees parent's hip grade with particular care, because it is the document the puppies' working joints most depend on.
These are the tests the sources listed at the foot of this page set out for this breed. Tests are done on the parents before breeding, not on the puppy you take home, and the point of every one of them is the same: to lower the chance of puppies inheriting a condition that testing could have flagged.
| Test | What it screens | When it is done |
|---|---|---|
| Great Pyrenees parent: hip evaluation (OFA or PennHIP) | Hip dysplasia: poor fit of the hip joint and the arthritis that follows, the central structural risk of a giant breed. | Final OFA grading at 24 months or older. |
| Great Pyrenees parent: patellar luxation evaluation (OFA) | Kneecaps that slip from their groove, recorded in this giant breed and required by its club despite its size. | In the adult dog before breeding, from 12 months or older. |
| Great Pyrenees parent: Glanzmann thrombasthenia DNA test (listed for the breed in the AKC recommendations) | An inherited platelet disorder in which clotting cells cannot grip properly, so affected dogs bleed more than expected after surgery or injury. | Once in a lifetime, at any age. Reports clear, carrier or affected. |
| Poodle parent (Standard): hip evaluation (OFA or PennHIP) | Hip dysplasia, required for Miniature and Standard Poodles in the club list the AKC publishes. | Final OFA grading at 24 months or older. |
| Poodle parent (Standard): eye examination (CAER, by a board certified veterinary ophthalmologist) | Inherited eye disease across the Poodle varieties, the one item every Poodle list shares. | Before breeding and repeated while breeding; certification runs twelve months. |
| Poodle parent (Standard): neonatal encephalopathy (NEwS) DNA test, or clear by parentage | A fatal inherited brain condition of Standard Poodle puppies, preventable when at least one parent is clear. | Once in a lifetime, at any age, or documented clear by parentage. |
| Poodle parent (Standard): autoimmune thyroiditis evaluation and von Willebrand disease type I DNA test | Immune mediated thyroid destruction, screened with a full panel, and an inherited clotting factor shortage, screened by DNA. | Thyroid panel in the adult dog before breeding and repeated periodically; DNA test once in a lifetime. |
The breeder pays for testing, not the buyer, but the bill explains why a missing test is a choice rather than an oversight. The ranges below are estimates, not quotes: typical US ranges modeled from published clinic and breeder health clinic price lists and OFA registry fees, checked in November 2026. Prices vary by region, and breeder health clinics at shows often sit at the low end.
Testing both parents to their own breeds' full programs costs an estimated $700 to $1,400 for the pair. The Pyrenees side is cheap because its club list is short; there is no economy argument for skipping any of it.
Hip and patella records for both parents can be checked in the free OFA database under their registered names, eye and thyroid records sit there too, and each DNA result arrives as a laboratory report or a registered result. Work through the file variety by variety: confirm whether the Poodle parent is a Standard or a Miniature, then judge its file against that variety's list, not against a blend of the two.
Two habits protect you in every breed. First, match names: the dog on the certificate must be the registered parent of the litter, permanently identified, not a relative with a similar name. Second, respect dates: joint grades have minimum ages, eye certificates expire, and heart results in at risk breeds age quickly. A result that was true three years ago may say little about the dog being bred today.
None of this replaces meeting the dogs. Watch the parents move, breathe and settle, ask how long their parents and grandparents lived, and take the paperwork home to check before money changes hands. A careful breeder expects exactly that. Back to the full Pyredoodle profile for size, temperament, costs and care.
Parent breed guides on this site: Great Pyrenees health testing and Poodle health testing.
There is no Pyredoodle program. The Great Pyrenees parent should have a hip evaluation and a patella evaluation, its club's required pair. The Poodle parent should complete the Poodle club list for its variety: for a Standard, an eye examination, a hip evaluation, NEwS DNA status, an autoimmune thyroiditis evaluation and a von Willebrand disease type I DNA test.
Yes. The Poodle club lists differ by variety. A Miniature Poodle parent's list includes a patella evaluation and a PRA-prcd DNA test in place of the Standard's NEwS, thyroid and von Willebrand items. Ask which variety the parent is and judge its file against that list.
It is an inherited platelet disorder listed for the Great Pyrenees in the AKC DNA recommendations. The platelets are present but cannot grip together properly, so affected dogs can bleed excessively after surgery or injury.
No. The cross has no parent club, registry program or CHIC number of its own. Only the individual parent dogs can hold records, each under its own breed's program.
Ask for two separate files, one per parent, and check the recorded hip, patella, eye and thyroid results in the free OFA database under each parent's name, with laboratory reports for every DNA test claimed.
Last updated: November 2026. Every test listed on this page comes from the sources above. How we work: our methodology.