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.

Poodle personalities can vary as much as any individual human’s personalities can, and it’s an interesting observation that – like other dogs – poodles will often reflect and compliment the personality of their human. Poodles can become easily spoiled. They’ve a certain presence and aura of superiority that no doubt comes from their pampered, high-class history. They hold themselves proudly, prance elegantly, and are amazingly intelligent, which helps to explain their affinity with nobility.

The intensive grooming that poodles require, along with the fact that they don’t shed like most other dogs do also helps to give people the general impression that poodles just aren’t all that dog-like. But it’s that famous intelligence that best recommends the poodle personality.

I’ve posted about working poodles to show how versatile these dogs really are. A sled poodle is no more or less intelligent than a circus poodle, who is no more or less intelligent than a guide poodle, who is no more or less intelligent than a hunting poodle… they start out with high intelligence and the ability to learn pretty much whatever their humans want them to learn. And they’re adaptable as well, meaning that they can serve different roles depending on the situation.

Standard poodles need more exercise than toys or miniatures, as they are bigger dogs. But they are fairly mellow, not jumpy or nervous. They love people, including children. When our grandson Josh was born, Uncle Bob the poodle loved nothing better than to lie happily on the floor and let that young’un crawl all over him or sleep snuggled against him. He seemed to understand that Josh might be frightened of him if he stood and towered over him, so he’d crawl along the carpet right along with him, making sure Josh was never more than a few feet away.

Josh also learned to stand and walk early – at 9 months – and that was all Bob’s fault. Bob would let Josh grab hold of his neck, ears or shoulder hair, then actually help him stand! They’d walk around the house looking for things Josh could get into, and the poodle never got tired of it. I’d never seen anything like that in all my life!

Poodles do not do well in cages unless you crate-train them early on. None of ours could abide a cage of any variety, but then, we’d never expected them to. Because we live in a rural area our poodles can come and go from the house at will during the day. We never had to specifically train them not to roam, because they’ve never shown any inclination to roam. They don’t want to be that far away from their humans. They sleep inside with us at night, always have. I’ve had outdoor dogs, but poodles just don’t fit the bill. When we lived in town we’d have to walk them, and standard poodles are big and friendly enough dogs to need leash training no matter where you live. You’ll be taking them places.

Those notorious sled poodles got their job because they love to pull. Standard poodles are strong animals, so if they aren’t properly leash trained you’ll definitely be sorry. Luckily, they care a lot for what you want and need from them, can read your mind, and will pretty much leash train themselves if you just let them know what you want.

And while it’s not strictly a personality issue, poodles take some serious upkeep. They love water, so regular baths usually aren’t a problem. Their hair grows like human hair – it doesn’t stop at a certain length, but will grow all the way to the ground if you let it. It’s curly and soft, so easily matted. You can do the fancy hairdo thing, but that takes brushing at least twice daily. I always liked the basic lamb cut – “shave the poodle” my daughter calls it. Take it all off except for the pom on the tail and some length on the ears and they’re good for two or three months.

Ears are an issue because poodles have hair that doesn’t stop growing in their ears, too. This has to be pulled out, the wax should be softened and removed, and mites find a happy home in there. Best to get your groomer or vet to do these jobs, but you can learn to do them at home.

Oh… and poodles love to go for rides. They’ll jump right into the back of the SUV or into the van, take a seat by the window and pay attention to everything going on. Our big male Beau loved to ride shotgun (that allowed us to strap him in with the shoulder belt), with the window down and goggle sunglasses. Really freaks people out at red lights, particularly when we’d be driving the little TR-4 with the top down, clown in the driver’s seat, human-size poodle with sunglasses in the shotgun position.

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Poodle Personalities

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