People are so ignorant about poodles!

Out of the five that I have had, only one did. It was my male toy poodle. He was apricot colored. I understand that tearing is worse in the toys.

[ August 24, 2001: Message edited by: Pam ]

Pam, of course I can see the difference in cuts between show dogs and a family dog. Do you know what the purpose of those fancy cuts are that turn people off of poodles or mayby I should say a lot of people? Do they shave their bodies way down? I see Bella seems to have curly body hair etc and look how much more beautiful she is than those lolly pop looking poodles.
Jackie

Jackie as I type this Bella is having a haircut. :) I tried to groom her today and got about 3/4 of the way done and she was starting to fidget quite a bit. Hubby is finishing up and she is an angel for him. I will never understand that. :confused: I guess I need a deeper voice!

To answer your question about the purpose of the fancy cuts, I really am not sure. In my own personal opinion it may be to judge the quality of a poodle's fur. Some poodles are much woolier than others. In fact some poodles could not even be clipped that way because of soft fur or thin fur. It may be one of the ways the judges determine fur quality?? Anyone out there that is a breeder may know the answer to that one. One of my toy poodles, Pumpkin, had a horrible poodle coat. It was soft and thin and with him every day was a bad hair day. :D He came from a back yard breeder, just a family with a male and a female and seeking to make a buck. I actually can't be mad at them, though, because he was absolutely the most lovey dovey little guy and happily he lived to be 17!!! :) A professional breeder, though, breeds for conformation to breed standards, and coat is very important. I have been told (don't know how true this is) that the wooliest poodles are white and black. Our Whitney (who was black) and Bella (who is almost white) definitely have/had the best coats, so I guess there is some truth in that, at least from personal observation. Yes, we ONLY clip in the puppy clip. It is easy to maintain and looks more sensible. I loved the "topiary" comment! :D :D :D

Okay, Confession time, I never thought much of poodles either but since our "nice" neighbors moved in with Ruska, I see them as pretty neat dogs. Okay, Okay, Okay if I am going to truly confess and all of you promise never to tell Ricky, here goes..... I never ever liked Chihuahuas. I thought they were the most obnoxious, irritating, ugly little dogs in the world and look at me know. Shows you can't judge a dog by its cover or its haircut.
:) ;) :rolleyes: :p :) :o

I hate to admit it, but I hate the weido show hair-cuts! If they just have a regular pet hair-cut I think they look fine. When a poodle has a pet hair-cut I like to call them "Beauty and Brains." If they have the show hair-cut I just call them "Brains."

They are very intelligent dogs. If someone offered me a standard for free, I'd take it! They're really good dogs. Although for now, I think I'll stay with the shepherds! ;)

Pam

The purpose of the fancy hair cuts on poodles were to the keep the joints and the internel organs worm in cold water(the poodle was used alot liked labs)you'll notice by where the "puffs" of hair are located. Of course the hair cut in dog shows are exaggerated.

Here is one more comment about poodles hair cuts. Rita Rudner said: " I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult." :D

HOW did I miss this topic?!?!?!!?

I have always liked poodles, but I didn't understand their full personalities until I brought Reece home. A poodle wasn't at the top of my list in dogs that I wanted, but this little boy stole my heart. I have never met a more easy going dog than him. He just LOVES all people and animals. He's such a flirt. He thinks its his duty to personally greet every person we come across, no matter where we are. (People at drive thrus love him).

I know the lady that runs poodle rescue here in Austin. I went to her house one time and played with her 5 foster poodles. Each of them had wonderful personalities. I'd really recommend to anyone wanting a poodle that rescue IS the way to go. I got the most perfect, wonderful dog out of rescue :)

Leslie touched on an important point. Most of the people who are attracted to the breed spoil and baby them. They appeal a lot to older people who are retired and home with lots of time to coddle and spoil. This makes dogs with not so great personalities. the true tragedy with this situation is if something happens to the owners, it is near impossible to place a snotty dog into another home. While it may be acceptable for the people who are spoiling the dog, they never think about what if something happened and their dog had to go to a new home. I have seen stories exactly like this at a shelter conference I went to a few months ago. The dogs have to be put to sleep a lot :(

The reason for their poofy cuts, is when they were water dogs, those patches of fur would keep their joints warm. I think this cut just stuck in the show ring. I like looking at show poodles, but there's no way I'd ever put Reece into a cut like that. I like him the way he is :) My groomers always try to get me to put him in some sort of poodle cut other than the puppy, and I won't have anything to do with it.

Thanks everyone for your compliments about Reece. I REALLY wish you could all meet him, because I can't even begin to put into words how smart, cute, and sweet he really is. Leslie, maybe I could take him to my grandparent's when I go to Michigan. We'd LOVE to have a chance to meet you :)

http://wsphotofews.excite.com/030/Ur/gu/ls/o394860.jpg

I'm a poodle fan from waaaaaay back! I dog-sit for two lovely black miniature poodles, and sometimes visit a feisty, tiny white toy boy poodle. I agree with the comments about the hair cuts, and love the topiary and religious cult comments! :D

To add to the discussion of pampered/ spoiled poodles, part of the problem is that poodles can be VERY VERY smart! They learn quickly and do well as performance dogs (remember the circus dogs jumping through hoops etc?) When people treat them like babies, they easily learn the expected behavior, and will play it TO THE MAX! But of course, being dogs, sometimes their canine side has to come out...giving the yapping or nipping or other behavior. And since the humans won't learn how to handle the dog properly, the poodle will manipulate the situation as much as they can. Once again, the problem is most often the human, NOT the dog. :mad:

Give your poodle pups a warm hug from me! They are special treasures!!!

I just wanted to post another pic that I took today of my poodles :D (Lolly is part poodle too)

Reece is getting pretty shaggy.

http://wsphotofews.excite.com/031/Ef/i7/SM/nJ75174.jpg

[ September 08, 2001: Message edited by: aly ]

Albea that's very funny! Maybe the cult they belong to is the hairy krishnas. :D

Aly I can't believe you missed this post either! We needed you to weigh in here and also post some pics, and by the way Reece is adorable, shaggy or groomed! I for one never get tired of seeing sweet Reece and Lolly! :)

Your comments about pampering these dogs is so true. I was in the mall a couple of years ago and a lady passed by me with a toy poodle in a baby carriage. The pup had painted toe nails and was done up to the max! I really got the impression that this carriage was bought for this dog and not a hand-me-down from earlier use with a child. I guess small dogs in general can fall prey to this type of coddling. I am thinking that yorkies and chihuahuas probably get similar treatment. Aly, you bring up a good point about what happens when a spoiled pup loses its human and must be placed in another home. I hadn't thought about that! AntiPam you are so right also! The problem with most any dog is very often the human!

Aly, that picture of Reece and Lolly is so cute, I think that's the best one yet. I love it.
I hate to admit this but you are all right about older people spoiling dogs to the extreme. We half way got there until I read a lot of posts to Don and we are turning over a new leaf. We let Perry and Daisy do about anything they wanted to do and we would put up with it and just kiss and hug them all the more.
A new day - when they get on the couch to bark at everybody including kids going to school we let them up there, but tell them no bark and they are getting the idea.
In the morning when they get treats, they do their thing, sit up, crawl, shake paws and lie down.
Any other time they get treats they have to sit before we give it to them.
When we get ready to go for a ride instead of jumping all over us, now Perry must sit before we put his harness on.
We still have to chase Daisy to put her harness on, but we're working on it.
Perry used to jump on Don ten or more times at night sitting in his chair, now he lets him up once if he jumps down he tells him no he can't come back up.
What I am trying to say is that all of you have helped us so much by your posts, we have picked up information here and there and tried this and that and it's working.
Thank you all for waking us up to what we should do and thanks to Carrie most of all
for having so much patience, Carrie I took your advice and looked Daisy straight in the eye and told her to come and I can't believe it she does. :)
Jackie

Aly, Reece and Lolly are so cute!!! I just love Reece's big round fluffy sweet face!

Ive always liked the poodles!
I grew up with an apricot poodle and a black poodle as neighbors. Their names were Captain and Seabass. Now they are moved to a different house, and i actually got to see them a couple months ago.... Seabass stil remembered me, but Captain has allways been skiddish around people and didnt come out much. I have a stuffed dog that i named Seabass a long time ago, and he has that curly fur and fluffy ears.. now he has lost his nose, it always used to fall off, but now we cant find it.. we always sewed it on.
And then there was this.. i think its called a giant poodle that this lady used to walk all the time... his name was Eddie. And everytime she came by id run out there and pet Eddie. He was a great dog. Ill admit i was a lil bugger and would pull on his ears and stuff, but he just stood there and put up with it.
Really, nothing is ever the dogs fault on how they act, it is always the owners. Just look we give our dogs the greatest love, and what do they give us back? Love, Joy and Companionship. People who beat their dogs, fight them (like pit bulls) the dog attacks and hates people. Dont you see the pattern? This goes for the old saying, Treat others like you want them to treat you! I wanna thank you all for being loveing Doggie owners.
;)

LOL! I have read every post, and now I want a poodle, a little one, that will sit in my lap! I think Bella, Reese and Fritz are just perfection. And it is so good to hear everyone's comments. I know they are smart dogs, but everyone that I ever knew growing up was very owner protective and spoiled. So I never even considered them as a potential pet for myself. Bella has convinced me that she can "hunt" with the best of them, and I know Honey and Lilly would have a blast with her.

Bottom line....I love all dogs, and can't tell you a single breed that I would refuse. But some of their owners are a different story! :D