“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.”

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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.

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Working Poodles: What They’re Best At

I’ve spoken a bit about how our family troupe of circus-style performers happened to be gifted with a standard poodle and fall so in love with him that we’ve had standard poodles as members of the family – and the troupe – ever since. I’ve even posted about one of our most successful poodle acts, Championship Poodle Wrestling.

But poodles weren’t actually bred to be delightful performers of tricks on command under the big top (or on the Riverwalk). Poodles originally appeared in Germany rather than France, working in the swamps as water dogs trained to retrieve fallen birds for hunters. They may have developed from rugged Asian herding dogs, and still make excellent herders today. Captured by the Berbers of North Africa, they also held a reputation as lion hunters with excellent tracking skills.

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Poodle History

Ah, poodles! The official national dog of France, beloved of old ladies, punks who love pink and purple hair dye, and talented circus performers ever since people figured out that kids and dogs will earn tips on the street, in the square or under the big top.

The first official notice of poodles appears on Roman and Greek coins from ~30 a.d., though suspiciously poodle-like hunting dogs are found in the detailed pictorial histories on tomb walls in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Where, legend has it, they were lion-hunters. When they weren’t the pampered pets of the ruling and priestly classes, that is. These would have been the big guys – “Imperials” – that Napoleon favored so highly.

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