Barack Obama has been elected to be the next President of the United States! And, as is a standard question for all newly elected Presidents with a lovely wife and children to share the White House with, Obama was asked what kind of puppy he was planning to get for the title of “First Dog.”

And yes, it’s going to have to be a dog, because 10-year old First Daughter Malia has allergies she can’t escape with a cat, but could easily avoid with just the right kind of dog. Plus, as Obama mentioned, the family is going to want a shelter puppy…

“But obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me,” said Obama, in an apparent self-depreciating reference to his mixed race heritage. “So whether we’re going to be able to balance those two things, I think, is a pressing issue on the Obama household.”

Yet a surprising number of shelter dogs are purebreds. We got our beloved giant mutant mountain poodle Beau (pictured at top) at our county’s animal shelter when he was 6 months old, and his pedigree was a whole lot more impressive than mine! A size-large standard poodle with your basic kennel cut would make a delightful First Dog!

And poodles are, among all dogs, among the few that are certifiably hypoallergenic. The list includes breeds like the Maltese, Bichon Frise, and Shih Tzus, but these are what my daughter calls “yapper punting dogs,” small enough to be utterly unimpressive in a mansion the size of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Even better, there are poodle rescue outfits out there right now with poodles to spare, and some of ‘em are already housebroken!

And if the Obamas are serious about a “mutt like me,” there are a wide variety of poodle crossbreeds invented mostly because a good percentage of them get the benefit of hypoallergenic hair so people with allergies can have a canine companion to love. There are the famous bred-to-be service dogs known as Labradoodles, and an amazing list of other crossbreeds your imagination can run with…

• Saint Berdoodle
• Scoodle (Scottish Terrier + Poodle)
• Eskapoo (for non-allergenic dog sled teams)
• Pugapoo
• Doodleman Pinscher (too scary for the White House!)
• English Boodle (this might be a winner, just for laughs…)

So my advice to the Obama family is to put your feelers out right now to the poodle rescue societies and be open to an interesting poodle ‘mutt’ that looks a whole lot like Winston Churchill!

In this family of poodle-lovers the issue of grooming has always been a struggle of time versus money. Sometimes we’ve got enough to take the dog to a pro groomer and pay for the service, at other times we’ve been broke and end up having to do it ourselves. When we moved to the mountains – and our poods became “Giant Mutant Mountain Poodles,” grooming became a 100% in-house job. We purchased a couple of pairs of good electric grooming shavers and many blades, a blade sharpener system that never really worked well, and some attachable combs so we could regulate the length of hair being cut.

The combs never really worked either. So the twice-yearly operation became one of simply “shaving the poodle,” and our daughter took on the job as therapy for her emotionally stressful life. She’d tell her friends at work and on the softball team, as well as her then-current boyfriend, that she’d be unavailable for the weekend. She’d set up in a nice shady part of the yard with her comb and brush and shears on a blanket, and get to work.

She got pretty good at it, too. In the spring and again in the fall she’d shave the poodle down to practically nothing, trim the puffs on the tail and head and ears with scissors, clean out and disinfect ears, trim toenails and hair in between the toes. The poodle would be good for about 6 months (when the dreadlocks again had to be dealt with).

Here’s a cool poodle-grooming video that should help any poodle-lover out there thinking about shaving his/her own poodle for a change! Enjoy, and don’t forget that poodles do have particular issues with their feet and ears that require extra attention…

King of Dogs!

In deference to my new Russian friends, I’ll start off by mentioning that there is some disagreement about where, exactly, the poodle breed originated. Some say northern Germany, others insist they started in Russia or on the steppes of central Asia. I will say that about 90% the people I’ve ever known in the circus/performing world who work with poodles are Russian, and that they’re quite passionate about the intelligence, loyalty and talents of their dogs. Given the intriguing hints that it was Russians who suffered most of the battle scars from Napoleon’s War Dogs, if poodles weren’t originally a Russian breed those Russians were wise enough to appreciate quality when they met it!

That said, there is no disagreement about the specific job poodles were developed to do – they were water retrievers, and this job explains some things about poodles that people may not have known…

1. Poodles first became famous for their performing abilities in Europe with the Commedia del Arte’s Gypsies and Jongleurs in the Middle Ages, moving quite naturally into circus and Vaudeville over the centuries. It was Gypsies (the Rom) who made most creative use of manicuring their poodles’ coats into fanciful and outlandish hair styles to delight audiences, often mimicking the outrageous wig stylings of the pampered aristocracy. They dressed their poodles in costumes to match, too!

2. Poodle hair is thick and tightly curled (on adult dogs), effectively repelling water if it is not allowed to become corded into floor-length dreadlocks. Because their hair grows continually, hunters who relied on poodles to retrieve their prize learned to trim and brush their dogs’ coats to prevent drowning. The poodle breed is related to both Irish and Portugese water dogs, and is popular as a “Yacht Dog” among the wealthy.

3. Those odd poodle haircuts were designed originally for utility in the job of water retrieving. By leaving the coat long over the hips, chest and head, internal organs were protected from the effects of very cold water and helped to buoy the dog with trapped air. Shaving the haunches and feet allowed the poodles to more efficiently swim. By leaving “pom-poms” on the ankles protected these important joints from the effects of cold as well.

4. Poodles can only be shown in English Saddle, Lion or Continental clips unless they are being shown in stud classes. Most pet poodles are trimmed for ease of maintenance, usually a single length all over, slightly shorter on the neck, longer on head and ears, face and feet shaved. Despite the “non-sporting” classification, the acceptable show clips are specific to the sporting function poodles were bred to perform.

5. Poodles do not shed like other dogs do, thus are a good choice for people with allergies to dog hair or who just don’t like to clean up after a shedding dog.

6. While some breeders do offer parti-colored poodles, these are not recognized by show breeders or allowed to compete in kennel club shows. Acceptable poodle colors are black, white, apricot, silver, chocolate or cream.

7. An artist’s favorite subject for hundreds of years, poodles appear in more works of art than any other dog breed.

8. All sizes of poodle are recognized as being a single breed. The standard is the oldest of the three varieties (standard, miniature and toy), which is why it’s called “standard!” In France and elsewhere, very large standard poodles (in the 90-120 pound range) are called “Imperial Poodles.” Imperial is not recognized as a separate variety by the kennel clubs.

9. Poodles are considered among the three breeds of highest intelligence among all dogs. While there is some disagreement about which breed is the smartest, poodles get a lot of votes! Ranking #2 in the top 10, the top 4 (because #3 is disputed) are: Border Collie, Poodle, German Shepherd and Golden Retriever.

10. A team of standard poodles competes in the Alaskan Iditarod dogsled race every year.

11. Torch singer Billie Holiday’s beloved standard poodle was cremated after his death in Billie’s best mink coat.

12. According to Tammy Bruce’s article, current Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero declared the Poodle to now be Spain’s national dog. This might be political hyperbole.

Links:

Historical Information About Poodles

Rick London: Good Things To Know About Poodle History

Alaska, where women win the Iditarod and men mush poodles!

Real French Poodles from the Languedoc

Poodle People spend a good deal of their time grooming their friends, and even more time running their fingers lovingly through those soft, curly locks with great delight. An owner can spend a small fortune on professional haircuts, or do what my family’s done – buy a good trimmer and a set of blades and combs. There’s always the ‘extra’ grooming that needs doing (nail clipping, ear hair removal, bathing and brushing), but a basic kennel cut isn’t that hard to accomplish. Poodles are used to the attention, even enjoy it if you are fairly competent.

After a “shave the poodle” weekend at our homestead I’d end up with a couple of brown paper grocery bags full of soft, curly poodle hair I always wanted to spin into yarn for scarves and hats, but I don’t know how to spin. So it was that our poodles’ hair ended up as a flattened felt-like foot-wide mat covered with bark chips from the wood chopping block marking the garden fence line. It’s a pretty good mulch to keep weeds down, it eventually biodegrades, and is a surprisingly effective deterrent against deer, foxes and rabbits getting through the fence to raid the veggies.

After surfing around this past week, I am delighted to report that there are instructions for spinning poodle hair out there on the web, along with more than one enterprise that will spin your poodles’ hair into yarn for you, even do the knitting, crocheting and weaving for a fee!

Annie’s Attic has a page answering obvious questions and supplying instructions for collecting the hair, picking, carding and spinning all on one page. The International Parti Poodle Gazette offers an entire page devoted to spinning poodle hair into yarn.

Instructions are what I lacked for my dreams of a nice poodle scarf (I’m not much of a knitter, just the basics). Some states’ animal protection laws forbid any trade made from the hair of domestic pets, and these can be interpreted broadly enough to prevent buying yarns made of clipped or shed hair. These are the “Cruella DeVille Laws,” so check your state’s codes if you want to get someone else to spin the yarn for you.

VIP Fibers offers a good overview of the process of getting the best hair from your pet, and will spin hair that you provide into a variety of yarn types and blends. Woofspuns will not only spin the yarn for you, but offers to create mittens, scarves, sweaters, vests, teddy bears and even dream catchers out of it!

Handspun Hats offers a variety of hat styles and blending yarns for use with your poodle’s hair. They also have hats made with the soft hair of Malamute, Great Pyrenees, Samoyed and Afghan hound, mixed with llama, mohair, linen or silk.

If you like to curl up with your poods on the couch during long winter nights putting quiet energy into knitting or crocheting, saving your best friends’ clippings is something to be considered. The yarns aren’t cheap, though you could also get a spinning wheel and make friends with some poodle groomers who would love to give you their week’s clippings, go into the expensive yarn-spinning business yourself!

Just imagine how completely jealous all your friends will be when you show up at the luncheon wearing a spectacularly soft, well-cabled sweater [$895 and up] and tam [a mere $98] that exactly match your prize poodles! Or even a long, luxurious poodle scarf, only $345 knitted, $325 woven.

Or – my Dream Item – this Poodle jacket (thick-and-thin spin knit panels on leather or wool) that costs more than my car did. [Sigh...] I’ve just got to get a spinning wheel for Christmas, could make this for myself practically for free by the time I retire!

Links:

Annie’s Attic: Putting on the Dog

Detta’s Spindle: Woofspuns

What Not to Crochet: Poodle Hair Hats

VIP Fibers: Facts About Pet Fiber

Doggie Hats

Intl. Parti Poodle Gazette: Spinning Poodle Hair