The 17th annual Santa Barbara French Festival was a tres bon party this year, with the Poodle Parade on Sunday afternoon drawing oohs and aahs all around. Even for some entrants who, according to the Santa Barbara News-Press, appeared to be somewhat less than poodle-ish.

That hulking 100+ pound Burmese Mountain Dog named Gunther didn’t fool very many parade attendees, despite his French racing cap or the fact that he was pulling a cartload of four toy poodles in the parade. Nor did Alan Fay’s Chihuahua named de Gaulle. Last year Fay entered his Doberman named Fifi, so he obviously believes his canines are French ‘enough’ to pass muster. That Chihuahua’s got “a lot of de Gaulle to get in this parade,” Fay joked. Joking has quite a bit to do with the Poodle Parade. It’s all in good fun.

“They say poodles are supposed to be smart,” said Allen Harrison of Burbank of a certain Winslow [a genuine poodle]. “But he made several mistakes on my income taxes.”

In the end there was general agreement that this year’s Poodle Parade was no more or less hilarious than any of the past parades. “To me, it was all just one endless stream of canine topiary,” remarked emcee and director Steve Hoegerman.

The second day of the Westminster Kennel Club dog show wrapped up last night (February 10), with a 10-year old Sussex Spaniel named “Stump” taking the Best of Show honors. For those like me who never heard of a Sussex Spaniel, it’s a medium-sized, short-legged, longish-haired dog with a saggy face and Prince Valiant ears that looks kind of cool – but not nearly as cool as the dreadlocked Puli, which could have masqueraded as a Wild Mutant Mountain Poodle in desperate need of a haircut…

At any rate, the standard poodle took Best of Breed Monday night in the Non-Sporting group. Ch Randenn Tristar Affirmation, a six-year old white lady-poodle of great grace and charm (not to mention big hairdo) took the gold, beating out the French Bulldog who took silver and Bulldog-bulldog who took bronze.

Here is the Video Link from WKC on the poodle-judging, and there are available videos on the site for all breeds and groups, so do spend some time if you missed the show on television. And while you’re at it, do check out that spectacular Puli. I just might have to consider getting me one of those one of these days. If I ever get really tired of poodle-shaving, that is…

Yes, we are now just over two weeks away from Halloween, so those costumes for the kiddies and their canine friends have become a pressing issue. I mentioned last week the best reasons for outfitting the dog (increasing the sugar take, upping the odds on your kids winning the contest at the mall, etc.), and linked a couple of good sites for pre-made costumes.

This week, I’ll share some wonderful photos of dogs in costume, of which the above is just one. They are to be found at the excellent Dog Guide blog, and many of them are imaginative enough to have you laughing out loud. These aren’t all poodles, of course, but they’re good costume ideas for those handy with a needle and thread. It’s not hard to squint your eyes just a bit and imagine your proud and meticulously groomed poodle in these costumes, knowing that even if other entrants in the costume contest sport similar costumes on their various mutts, your dog’s ever so superior breeding will shine forth to make the effect even more laughable.

Of course, my all-time favorite poodle costume was one I’d made originally for my 3-year old grandson, who didn’t stay that size for very long. The next year I simply cut two front leg holes in it and put it on the Pood, which actually managed to triple grandson’s booty that year because the neighbors were so delighted. It was your basic dinosaur costume (Simplicity, if I recall) stuffed with crumpled newspapers to give it a nice round shape. So do go on over to Hounds of Halloween 2008! 45 Incredible Costumed Canines and tickle your funny bone!

If your poodle family has poodle kids – or if you’re a grandma like me, and are too old to be embarrassed by childish things – then you’ll have a great deal of fun with a simple game from Yuckles called Mr. Poodle Head. Yes, there’s a fine black poodle head, and all sorts of nifty accessories to drag and drop into place. Various ears, eyes, noses, bow ties, mustaches, hats and sill mouths can turn Mr. Poodle Head into something a lot funnier than Mr. Potato Head! I foresee many hours of fun with this one.

And now that it’s officially October, you might want to consider what costume you’d like to have for your poodle while you’re outfitting the kids. A well-dressed poodle carrying one of those plastic Jack-o-Lantern goody containers can significantly expand your children’s take for the night of door-to-door begging. Most costumes come in small, medium and large, and some suppliers offer patterns if you sew as well as tiny tea size costumes.

In addition to the pictured pirate costume, Yuckles also offers the standard superheroes (Batman, Superman, Spiderman and Wonder Woman), the full range of Star Wars character costumes (Yoda is the best, just for the ears!), your basic princess and ballerina and harem girl costumes for lady dogs (or male dogs in drag), and a few pun-ny costumes like “Watch Dog,” “Hot Dog” and “Lucky Dog.”

If your offspring are female, do consider the standard 1950s style Poodle Skirt with crinolines, sweater and scarf. That way all the poodle needs is a nice mask and matching scarf, those passing out treats will be delighted!

It’s been noted here and there in posts to this blog that some famous people have been poodle-lovers – including entire regiments in European armies. So in this post I want to set down the list of famous people and their poodles.

The first thing you’ll probably notice is how many of these Poodle People are famous artists, musicians, actors, comedians and such. Thus it’s not difficult to see the poodle as Muse, which might be a more high-brow role in history than just being notorious hunters and dogs of war!

• Winston Churchill’s poodle was named Rufus.
• John Steinbeck had a poodle named Charley, namesake for the book Travels With Charley.
• Jacqueline Susann had a poodle named Joe, who was the subject of her short story Along Came Joe.
• Andrew Wyeth’s poodle was named Eloise.
• Jane Goodall the famous chimpanzee researcher had a poodle named Gigi.
• Julie Nixon’s poodle was Vicky.
• Both Louis XIV and XVI had standard poodles around to pretty-up the palace, and Marie Antoinette had her own poodle who didn’t lose his head.
• Pablo Picasso was a poodle person, so was Prince Rupert of the Rhine.
• Billie Holliday’s beloved poodle was buried in her best mink coat.
• Sammy Davis Jr. named one of his poodles Bojangles.
• Marilyn Monroe received a poodle as a gift from Frank Sinatra. She named it Mafia.

Other famous Poodle People (grouped in no particular order to save list room)…

• Juan Peron, Omar Bradley and Grover Cleveland
• Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Grace and Katharine Hepburn
• Barbara Walters, Barbara Streisand and Barbara Eden
• Jack Lemon, Betty White, Bob Hope and Cary Grant
• Claudette Colbert, Helen Hayes and Vivian Leigh
• Tallulah Bankhead, Lucille Ball and Liberace
• Joe Garagiola, Patrick Swayze, John Mitchell and Kirk Douglas
• Mariah Carey, Maria Callas and Gypsy Rose Lee
• Ingmar Bergman, Doris Day and Joan Crawford
• Walt Disney, Michael Wilding, John Lehmann and Jack LaLanne
• James Thurber, John Forsythe, Red Buttons and Robert Vaughn
• Ed Sullivan, Robert Mondavi, Walter Lippmann and Oribe.
• Benny Goodman, Gary Cooper and Clare Boothe Luce

Of course, poodles of all colors and sizes are one of the most popular breeds of dog ever since people started breeding dogs for special qualities. This is a (partial) list of just those Poodle People who have earned some fame of their own so readers will recognize their names. If readers have any knowledge of other famous people who loved poodles, contribute in the comments! The poodles’ names if you know them, and any anecdotes you may know about them.

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!

For all you poodle people out there who are committed to physical fitness and energetic workouts, here’s the perfect workout video for you AND your poodles! It features Mariko Takahashi in a parody of Susan Powter’s first fitness video. It was created by Nagi Noda for Panasonic, one of 10 films made for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Enjoy, and try not to choke while you’re laughing!

Back when we’d first adopted our beloved Beau the black standard from the local animal shelter [A Poodle and His Clown] we were working as directors of a state funded after school program for at-risk and adjudicated young teenagers (12-14) at a local Jr. High school.

Beau was just 6 months old when we got him. He was about 9 months old when a volunteer from the local police force (good outreach) volunteered his time to help us with the kids. He turned out to be a great asset, kept most of the adjudicated kids out of trouble from then on by being their friend and mentor. One afternoon he brought a couple of beautiful German Shepherds – the ‘real’ shepherds that surprise people. Smaller than expected, low-slung in the rear. Seems he’d been promoted to K9 training and these were his babies. He’d trained dogs when in the military, our town was just starting a K9 program. His dogs were the same age as Beau, who as it happened had been to the vet that day so ended up at the school with us for the program that day.

We’d told our young policeman about Beau, of course, and he’d mouthed some platitude he’d learned in the Army about big poodles being excellent service/K9 dogs, but he’d never actually seen or met one. The moment he saw Beau – who was quite hairy at the time and already bigger than either of those shepherds – it was love at first sight. All that he’d heard about giant poodles suddenly clicked in his mind, and within 15 minutes he had Beau joining his pups in the “Obedience Show-Off Game.” He offered to include Beau in his training course for free, just wanted to work with him.

We politely declined, not really all that interested in having a K9 trained drug or attack dog around the house. But we were flattered, and our policeman friend went on to become a trainer for a service dog outfit (for disabled folks and search and rescue dogs in the civilian sector, said he wasn’t cut out to be a policeman anyway), finally did get to work with poodles, goldens, border collies and labs as well as shepherds. His dream job!

The thing that impressed us that day watching Beau play with those two extremely well-trained pups was how he took his cues from them on what the commands were and what they meant, and figured out for himself how to rig the system – with that impish poodle talent for doing something funny just for laughs, while at the same time beating those shepherds at their own game. Did I mention that poodles have big egos?

See, we aren’t good trainers. In fact, we generally don’t spend any time training our dogs. They’re expected to figure out what’s what using their own brains, and so far they always have. The poodles of course figure it out quickly (took Big Ras Bob exactly 2 hours to figure out exactly what we needed in a dog after walking into our home). They are that smart, and they do genuinely want to please. Plus, living with clowns is great fun for them – we always laugh at their jokes.

So yesterday I was surfing around for details and pretty pictures of standard poodles in training as service dogs. I happened upon a very cool blog from Dogviews, Roxi: Service Dog in Training. One recent post on that blog talks about the dog training methods of Cesar Milan – that guy with the popular “Dog Whisperer” television show on the National Geographic channel. Milan boasts that he “rehabilitates dogs, trains people.” Yet as Hansen points out in her blog post, he’s come in for a lot of criticism from professional dog trainers as well as some humane society spokespersons.

I’ve watched Milan’s show, and his methods are not materially different from those our policeman trainer used with his pups. He emphasizes body language and mind-dominance, which (along with generally reasoning with a dog smart enough to want to understand) is pretty much the ‘natural’ way of things for all the dogs we’ve ever owned and NOT formally trained. Dogs are smart, they want to love and be loved, and they want to have a real place in their family’s life.

Of course I’m quite sure there are dogs that don’t fit this profile, but I just don’t know them personally. To be our dog, you’ve gotta find a way to fit in, and our dogs have all managed that. The poodles have taken more interest in doing an actual job than the mutts have, but the mutts have their jobs as well – like letting us know when someone’s on the property and keeping deer out of the yard. They bark at bears too, but are smart enough not to try and chase ‘em away. At any rate, all dogs and dog breeds have their particular talents for which they were bred (or in the case of mutts, can pick and choose to display). And all individual dogs have their personalities and issues, just as people do.

It seems to me that to be a good trainer, you’ve also got to be a good “Dog Person” – able to connect and communicate with a dog on a real level the dog understands and respects. But then, it seems to me that Dog People need that skill all around, whether or not they actually do any serious dog training. A truly smart dog is going to do what his or her family requires and expects, will readily respond to body language, voiced disapproval and praise, and will organize for themselves how that translates by way of behaviors in home and out in public.

Do check out some of the links below to information about service dog training programs, and what they require of their dogs. One company – apparently quite successful – even teaches the dogs to read! And yes, they prize those standard poodles on that particular skill! I’ll be writing more about this training later, so stay tuned!

Links:

Assistance Dogs International

Assistance Dog Institute

American Poodles at Work

Canine Partners forLife

CPL TeamTraining: Marie and Showbo

Snowflake Foundation

National Service Dogs (Canada)

In my post 12 Nifty Things About Poodles, I mentioned those standard poodles who ran the Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska for John Suter from 1988 through 1991. He’d begun mushing poodles in the mid-1970s, competing in the 1976 Chungiak Sled Dog Race. In 1992 Suter’s daughter Esther tackled the 154-mile race with her poodles, and other mushers are adding poodles to their teams.

For a grueling race in ice and snow, the dogs need boots even if they’re regular Alaskan Huskies or Husky-Hound crossbreeds. Mushers can be downright snobby about their sled dogs, as is clear from Mark Hamilton’s opinion in the newsletter of the Inuit Sled Dog International, Dog Sled Racing vs. Sled Dog Racing.

Still, as reported by Angus of Alaska in the It’s an alaskan dog’s life, poodles can not only be great sled dogs, they’re also really good for impressing the ladies for their owners down at Koot’s in Anchorage, so they’re definitely double-duty dogs!

As january goes on and on and on, and February’s foreshortened period of white stuff still looming, thinking about poodles who love the snow is good. If ever I take up skiing I’m going to use my poods to get me to the top of the run so I don’t have to pay for a lift ticket!

Check out this article on how to keep those poodles warm during winter.

Links:

Poodle Sled Dog History [John Suter's site]

Poodle History: Draft/sled dogs

How to Train a Winning Dog Sled Racing Team

It’s an alaskan dog’s life

CrazyUnclePaul: The Iditarod Dog Sled Race

Wikipedia: Sled Dog

Now I’m going to try to post this in Cyrillic…