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The Schnoodle is a delightful mix of small-breed favorites Miniature Schnauzer crossed with Poodle.

Development of the Schnoodle

The earliest occurrence of the Schnoodle form was most likely a breed developed in England known as the Truffle Dog. General consensus of the literature is that white Toy Poodles (developed by breeding the larger German or French white corded Poodles with the Maltese) were crossed with a small terrier breed to create the Truffle Dog. The sagacious intellect and keen sense of smell common to both the Poodle and terrier breeds, combined with the determined digging skills inherent to most terriers, resulted in a breed that was essentially perfect for sniffing out and unearthing the very valuable “gourmet fungus.”

Because truffles are found in the soil closely associated with only certain species of trees in the wild, truffle hunters had to go wherever such trees were located, often involving trespassing onto (and digging up) restricted property. The white Truffle Dog was especially useful for this task, since “hunting” had to be conducted at night under the cloak of darkness to avoid detection by land owners—and other truffle poachers!

A renaissance in popularity of the Poodle-terrier form came about on the other side of the Atlantic in America in the 1980s. At least one professional dog breeder purposely began crossing pure-bred Miniature Schnauzers with pure-bred Toy or Miniature Poodles to produce first-generation (F₁) Schnoodles and later bred unrelated pairs of these hybrids to produce subsequent multi-generational (F₂, etc.) breed lines. Although no documentation can be found in printed form regarding the origin and development of this crossbreed, we believe that the first selective breeding of Schnoodles occurred in Minnesota.

The Lagotto Romagnolo is a modern-day Truffle Dog developed from water dogs in Italy.

Regardless of where the professional breeding and record-keeping of Schnoodles first occurred in the United States, the original goal among the breeders appears to have been to develop an allergy-friendly, mid-sized, long-lived and intelligent dog that was not prone to the health disorders found in many of the pure-bred lines of the Miniature Schnauzer and Poodle. By the late 1990s, Schnoodle popularity had grown noticeably as the Schnoodle was considered to be one of the up-and-coming new “designer” Poodle-mix breeds.

Intelligent, alert and adorable—just a few of the traits that endear the Schnoodle to many.