An Enclosure Full of Trouble

When my beautiful Kenya was a pup, she was so full of rambunctious-ness that we’d often spend hours just watching her find things to play with, then shred into teeny tiny confetti-sized pieces. Here’s a video of poodle puppies – three black and three white – who are six times the shredders Kenya was!

Happy 4th of July to all, and don’t forget to let your poodle enjoy those fireworks too… just don’t let them bite the rockets as they go off!

Meet Creole and Gumbo

This video is a clip from my friends at Creole and Gumbo blog (listed atop the blogroll on the right). This is Creole and Gumbo’s first weekend together, a delightful video.

Now, just because these parti-colored poodles are intriguing to me, thought I’d post a video of them so you can see what they look like. I did a little research, and found PartiInfo, which informs that while the original sporting (and truffle-hunting) poodles were generally two-toned, the AKC and BKC decided sometime around the turn of the 20th century to limit show participation to solid color poodles only.

Still, parti colored poodles are registered by the AKC, and according to The Parti Poodle now sports champion show dogs with the Multi-Color Poodle Club of America in conjunction with the United Kennel Club. Go to this page and view the photos of these amazingly beautiful dogs! I’m thinking I might just have to have one…

Parti Poodle History shows the many paintings of early poodles. The striking similarity in markings with spaniels will make you do a double take!

This video is Jazmin’s Parti Poodles playing – poetry in motion!

Poodle Crossbreeds: Use Your Imagination!

Big Ras Bob our first black standard poodle was a beautiful dog. And among the many notable qualities of the breed – such as beauty, intelligence, non-allergenic coat, minimal shedding and a palpable love of humans – there is also a sort of pride in being what they are. I’ve always called that “Breed-ism.” They know they’re the cream of the crop, and comport themselves accordingly.

We were living in St. Augustine, Florida in a rented duplex near the airport for awhile. Until that house burned down due to faulty wiring in the vacant half, quite the traumatic family event even though the only life lost in the fire were three goldfish. Our next door neighbors had a beautiful purebred black chow they didn’t keep a tight leash on, so it was inevitable that when she went into heat the full roster of neighborhood male-mutts were going to do their best to get their sperm into the mix.

But that girl-chow had eyes only for Bob. She was completely smitten and determined to capture his qualities for her own offspring. She was surprisingly vicious to her other suitors, keeping herself exclusive to the love of her life, and sure enough was soon pregnant with a litter of… um… ChowDoodles? PooChows?

Continue reading »

How “Intelligent” Are Our Dogs… Really?

Imagine watching a Big Headline News story blaring the “shocking” news that scientists have discovered that dogs can tell the difference between red lights and green lights. Whoa, you might think, you guys believed they were red-green color blind? How did you make this earth-shattering discovery, the CNN interviewer innocently asks…

“Vell,” the white-haired egghead in the lab coat begins in his thick Austrian accent, “ve taught zem how to drive, and found zey stopped at all ze red lights while proceeding through all ze green lights!”

It’s the cognitive dissonance that makes a joke like this funny. But wait! There’s more, and no, it’s NOT a joke!

Continue reading »

“Go Fetch Gramps, Timmy’s In The Well!”

It it just “tricks” or is it real skill?

We “dog-people” have known for awhile that television’s classic “Lassie” was a series of purebred collies (mostly male), trained to do all the tricks dramatized in the long-running series and its spin-offs from the 1950s to the 1970s.

We “Poodle-People” are used to dealing with a particular breed of dog that is so famous for its intelligence and desire to perform that many people on the street see a poodle and think “Circus Dog.” Performer. Actor. “Trick” dog.

I found a great web page this week entitled What is a Trick? written by standard poodle owner and dog trainer Charlene Dunlap. It examines the question of whether what poodles can be trained to do qualifies as actual learned skill, or just “tricks.”

Continue reading »

The Flying Poodle and the Bear

Her AKC registration name was “Kenya Queen Reba Amelia E.” She’s the only giant mutant mountain poodle… er, Imperial-size standard that we ever actually bought. Got her as a black hairball puppy from a couple whose actual business was to breed English Bulldogs in Savannah. The mama was their house pet, an impressive black. Paid $550 for her, had our pick of a litter of 6.

We’d answered an ad for the puppies, checked first to see if there were any close relatives or cousins in her bloodline and Uncle Bob’s. We wanted them to be a pair, and they were quite the pair. Though they never managed to have any pups of their own.

The naming of Kenya was quite the ordeal in a family with strong opinions and favorites. My husband wanted to name her “Queenie,” but only because his parents never let him name one of their dogs Queenie, and he thought it was a great dog name. I thought it was right up there with “Rover” or “Fido” – awful.

Continue reading »

Pet The Poodle – $1

There’s something about poodles that automatically draws people. Not so much the toys, who are as notorious as any other way undersized dog for yapping and snapping. Or the prissy minis that so often sport the most outrageous of showy clips and puffed frizzy hairdos (when they aren’t also dyed to match their owner’s outfit). Of course, Poodle People never pass up the chance to admire a poodle, no matter what size.

Standards are something else. Unless they’re show dogs, the most popular of clips is the basic kennel cut – where the hair is cut short all over, a little longer on the top of the head and the ears. While you do have to clip a big poodle regularly no matter what hairstyle you like best, the all-over kennel cut shows off the dog AS a dog, and people generally do love to appreciate a fine looking dog.

Poodles get a lot of of attention in public that many other similar sized dogs don’t get, for some reason. When walking our poodles in public, at parks, on trails or on the beach, people will go out of their way to approach us and our dogs, and for some unexplainable reason don’t seem the least bit shy of reaching right out to pet them and stroke them and even (mostly kids) hug them. People will cross the street, run away from dining tables, climb hills or stairs to get to a poodle. Very strange.

Continue reading »

The Personality of Poodles

“They say poodles aren’t ‘real’ dogs. At least, that’s what I tell motel desk people when we’re on the road with our Imperials and they say dogs aren’t allowed. It almost always works. In truth, their intelligence is amazingly human-like. They learn quickly, are highly creative, and love to be stars.”

That’s from the ‘About’ page of this blog. It describes something every ‘Poodle Person’ knows, and it’s honestly isn’t that difficult to convince other people – like your average motel desk clerk – that it’s true.

For a young guy being set up with a blind date, ‘personality’ isn’t necessarily a strong recommendation. Parents attempting to deal with a high-energy, short attention span child who might be better off on Ritalin, ‘personality’ can be a descriptive defense mechanism. The word itself contains the noun ‘person’, which does seem fairly exclusive to human beings. Yet poodles are famous for having personality to spare.

Continue reading »