Poodles

From r/l experience: full-sized poodles are generally nice dogs. It's toy poodles who are congenitally and irretrievably insane.

Get a REAL Poodle.

- What are you gonna do, when the world catches on?

Our toy poodle came to us via my best friend's daughter who'd fallen seriously ill within weeks of getting him. We were just supposed to be puppy sitting for a week or so but it turned permanent. I dot know his parentage, only that he was $3oo. I'm not sure if that's accurate or not. I just know he's a hyper, stubborn, smart, sweet little thing who loves people much more than other dogs lol




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Poor things - she AND the little doggie. Hard to properly express sympathy, when you don't know the people involved, or the exact circumstances.

I got 'Ernest' (Borgnine), my 'silver' guinea pig, as an adoptee from 'Petco.' It had been about a year since my last guinea pig, 'Margaret' (Dumont) had died. I asked the shop about adoptees, and it turned out that Ernest had just come back to the shop; he had been the pet of a little girl who had recently died of cancer.

Just like your little poodle, Ernest and I had a long and enjoyable relationship.

The only message, here?

There's Nothing Wrong With Used Pets.

So, if and when you seek out your poodle, please consider adopting a shelter pet, or a poodle whose owner can no longer care for it.

- What are you gonna do, when the world catches on?

She's okay now. After months of excruciating pain while doctor after doctor tried to diagnose exactly what was wrong with her, it was determined that one of the tubes from one of her kidneys was malformed but didn't cause any problems until after the birth of her second child, which was a particularly hard pregnancy. She'd gotten pup when her daughter was a baby and her son was only 2 1/2, not exactly a great environment for a small dog. She was so busy she really didn't have time for him anyway and didn't mind that we had him and let us keep him once her problem was dxed and she'd recovered from her surgery to fix it.

As for pup, it was quite an adjustment after only having cats my whole life. He's much needier than any cat we'd ever had but also much more fun. I really went back and forth over finding him another home for months before finally deciding he was just going to be ours, lol. Now he's a fixture and we barely remember life without him. Even the cat likes him but she hides it well.  he is a stinker. So far no health problems but we have always fed him high quality dry food with medium quality wet. Hoping that'll save him and us some problems down the road. He's really anti-grooming which sucks for me and he doesn't like baths or water. He still mouths us and anything that will fit in his mouth goes in his mouth although he doesn't swallow it. He still gets weird with treats and goes into this guarding mode but he's not like that with his food anymore. He knows his boundaries and doesn't really test them. He's a good doggie. We will never have another one, though. He is a lot of work.



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Growing up we had two white toy poodles and in my adult life I have had two black toy poodles. I will say that all of ours have been completely delightful and very well behaved. Often we don't even have to speak, we can snap our fingers and point and they will know exactly what we want them to do. Poodles are known for being one of the smartest breeds. Their understanding of the human language is amazing and if you spend a lot of time with them and pay attention you will notice how well they communicate with you on so many things.

They have a great sense of humor and love to play. You will notice things they do that it's obvious they are teasing you. They are incredibly curious, actually the better word would be nosey. While I've seen a few that can be grouchy, we've never had one.

People think that they are fru-fru dogs, but they were actually bred to hunt. Both of the ones I've had in my adult life lived to hunt squirrels. Although admittedly, on the occasions that they actually get within feet of a squirrel, for some reason they veer off acting like they've seen something more important to pursue.

They are considered water dogs with their webbed feet to aid in swimming. With both of our black ones we have to pay close attention to them around water as they will do whatever they can to get in the water. I like baths and often will wash my hair while sitting in the tub with my head under the faucet. There have been times when I got my hair rinsed and sat up, only to discover I was no longer alone in the tub.

The first black toy we had was so well mannered and we often thought his goal in life was to please. He was so good and patient with young children. The one we have now, started out as daddy's boy and gets away with more things, so there are things he does when he's good and ready. He's spoiled, but very sweet and everyone loves him.

You do have to have them groomed which is an added expense. We pay $45 once a month and our groomer doesn't express the anal glands which isn't the most pleasant chore. I usually have to do that about every two months. This is the only groomer we've used that doesn't do that. We use her mainly because she is located close to our home and we can drop him off and he will be ready in an hour and a half.

Our first one had seizures and was on Phenobarbital (sp?). Which in the end killed him with cirrhosis of the liver. He lived to be 11. Skeeter, the one we have now has a sensitive tummy, but he is on prescription food for irritable bowel and that works quite well. He is close to 12 years old now and people often think he is a puppy because he loves to run and is very playful. Toys and presents are very important to him and he loves to "sing", sometimes it's a little much, but it's obvious how important it is to him and you can tell he is really putting his all into it.

We paid $700. for him from a reputable breeder. You do need to be careful about that. I know some people think you should only get rescues. I think that is great, but we didn't have a great experience with that and for our family we choose to get them as a puppy. Many years ago when my son was small I got a tiny silver poodle that was a rescue. It was older and wasn't housebroken. It was a sweet little dog, but we never could get it housebroken. Ended up a friend took him. She didn't care that he wasn't housebroken as she didn't have small children and honestly she was kind of nasty, but nice. The dog lived many years and never was housebroken.

We have a friend that actually was a pioneer in training dogs to sniff out cancer. He also was partnered with dogs while in war and then later was over the K-9 division with our police and sheriffs department. He had extensive experience with all kinds of dogs. He told me that the absolute smartest and best dogs for working and family pets were poodles. He said he preferred the miniature poodles for a more even temperament, but the toys and standards were not far behind.

Poodles don't shed. Are considered hypo-allergenic. I kept mentioning our black ones. I personally think black is the prettiest. Often you see the white or apricot ones with brown rusty looking stains around the eyes, mouth and sometimes around their bottom. You don't get that with the black ones.

We've had other breeds throughout the years, but poodles and also Yorkshire terrier (which also don't shed) are our favorites. We travel a lot and little dogs work best for us. I think if someone was seriously interested they would be very happy with a poodle.