I never thought I'd own a standard poodle. Or any kind of poodle, for that matter. Maybe it didn't seem like a "manly" dog or something. Maybe it was the strange hair cuts. I'm not sure.
One day, I visited a vet client who had just acquired a Standard Poodle puppy. It was black, athletic and smart. In the course of giving it a check up and routine vaccinations, the client told me he was planning to use it for hunting waterfowl. I started to sneer a bit and he said, "That's what they were bred for, originally". When I got home, I looked it up and sure enough, that's what happened!
I don't hunt, but according to the article, the "strange hair cut" came out of the early days of hunting waterfowl. The fur was left on the chest, head and some of the joints that might be affected in cold water. Well, that's what the article said.
Many poodles, including my own, are athletic and extremely agile. Many are used in agility work.
Standard Poodles are great travelers. Very adventurous. Here's Duke and I in norhern Wisconsin.
My own poodle, Duke, doesn't do agility work (although he is extremely agile and athletic), doesnt have a weird haircut, doesn't hunt ducks, but he IS a star in my eyes (and apparently his own!).
4 comments:
As a rule, I don't really like poodles, but I think standard poodles are a different breed than the other varieties. All the standard poodles I've known have been pretty cool. Smart dogs.
I'm not a big fan of small, yappy dogs. But I've met some miniature poodles that were really solid dogs. It's the toy poodle and the teacup poodle which I find more, um, challenging......
Oh he's beautiful!
I never thought I was a poodle person, either, but man oh man, Isabel is the smartest dog I've ever known. And what a personality! She is very dear to my heart and now I can't understand my bias. I think it was the weird haircuts.
Duke is the first standard poodle I've known. He's a great dog.
Post a Comment