# How do you measure a poodle?



## faithj (Aug 10, 2009)

Hi, so any one who saw my other posts already knows I adopted a little cutie from the dog shelter. I was told he was a mini but I measured him I think he is only 9 inches tall so does that make him a toy poodle? Also where would you measure to re AKC standards? I tried to find a diagram but could not.... is it to the highest point of his shoulder from the ground? Thanks!


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## roxy25 (Dec 18, 2008)

faithj said:


> Hi, so any one who saw my other posts already knows I adopted a little cutie from the dog shelter. I was told he was a mini but I measured him I think he is only 9 inches tall so does that make him a toy poodle? Also where would you measure to re AKC standards? I tried to find a diagram but could not.... is it to the highest point of his shoulder from the ground? Thanks!


Yes its from the floor to the shoulders if you measured your dog and she is 9 Inches at the shoulder she is a toy.


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## cbrand (Aug 9, 2009)

The easiest and most accurate way is to get a meter stick, a ruler and a level. It may help to have 2 people. Put the dog on a table and stand it up straight. Put the ruler on top of the shoulder blades and put the level on top so that it is well... level. Put the meter stick up to the side to measure height.

Technically anything 10" or under is a Toy, 10" to 15" is a Mini and anything over 15" is a standard.

In practicality, though, this is not true. We may be all the same breed, but there are big differences in the type of each variety. You could not for example blow up a Toy to 24" and expect it to look like a Standard and it is the rare Mini that looks like a Standard Poodle in perfect miniature.

I have found that a 12" Mini is probably an over-sized Toy and that a 16.5" Standard is really an over-sized Mini. Looking at the pedigree usually confirms this. It does get fuzzy because puppy mills have for years bred Mini and Toys together and now there is a huge market (especially among the Doodle breeders) for the "Moyen" poodle produced from breeding a Mini to a Standard .


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## Harley_chik (Nov 7, 2008)

Shelters aren't usually that accurate on things like that. If she truly is under 10" then she's a toy. I recently saw a poodle on Petfinder that was listed as a "regular" poodle. At first I figured they must mean standard, but the dog looked pretty small. Go figure!


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## alwayson (Dec 24, 2013)

*Wicket*



faithj said:


> Hi, so any one who saw my other posts already knows I adopted a little cutie from the dog shelter. I was told he was a mini but I measured him I think he is only 9 inches tall so does that make him a toy poodle? Also where would you measure to re AKC standards? I tried to find a diagram but could not.... is it to the highest point of his shoulder from the ground? Thanks!


 Usually show people have a thing called a wicket, you stack you dog and you put the wicket over the dogs back on the shoulders and they will have different height wickets or a ruler on the wicket they have a lot of different kinds , I use the kind that is pre-measured and had the age and inches on it , We have lots of charts that say the age of the puppy and how tall it should be at that height and if it is going to stay in size of go over .
It will be hard to judge your darling baby if he is not pure poodle , You might have other breeds in his back ground that could influence his size too and knowing how old he is would be great help too . 
Hope this help you


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## Carley's Mom (Oct 30, 2011)

harley, that "regular" poodle made me laugh out loud. I would think it was not a doodle of any kind, but who knows. I am always amazed at how many in rescue don't know the dog breeds...one of my friends called me all excited about her Poodle mix she got at the shelter. The dog is a terrier ! I would guess a terrier , maltese mix, very cute, but not a poodle, husky mix as she was told...lol


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

Oh gosh! I've been doing it all wrong. I've been measuring to the highest point of the withers like you do a horse. So, it's not the withers but the highest part of the shoulder?


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