AdoreMyDogs and SheltieLover234,

Thank you for the wonderful info! Sheltielover has previously mentioned her(?) friend's papillons as wonderful dogs and it's fantastic to hear about more from AdoreMyDogs.

I agree with the woman at the agility class that "it's a shock that more people don't own them." Papillons are the number one toy breed in obedience competition as well as doing extremely well in agility. They love to have fun and love to please; after all, fun and pleasing their owners means that they get more attention! The breed is very well known breed in both obedience and agility circles. There is even a popular series of obedience books and videos by Gerianne Darnell and Barbara Cecil titled "Small Dog Fun: Competing with a Small Dog" that has a papillon on every cover (same dog, all different topics). There are many papillons that have multiple titles including conformation (beauty), obedience, agility, and tracking. I don't have time to take Sophie through all of that (and she couldn't do conformation because she is a rescue without a confirmed pedigree), but I have no doubt that she could do it all.

Papillons have even become service dogs for the disabled! Some of you may have seen the television special that highlighted a serice papillon that assisted a woman who was confined to a wheelchair. The dog did all kinds of daily chores including taking her clothes out of the washer and dryer.

They are incredibly smart and wonderful dogs. They are good with kids (as long as the kids don't try to break them) and people, they don't have a high-pitched "yappy" bark, they fit in your lap and want to be there,...wow, I could go on for hours singing their praises!