Toy Poodle - "wolf in sheep's clothing"? Nope, lion in a powder puff! (Poodle)

Member Name: 2Quizzy

Product:	Poodle
Date:	24/10/03 (938 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very intelligent, great companion. One-man(woman) dog, small so not expensive to feed

Disadvantages: Stubborn opinionated dog, Will look down on you , Grooming is a big job

I was privileged to be owned by a toy poodle for ten years. Well.. at least that was how I'm sure he saw it!

I still remember the day I got him. He was such a small fuzzy blob of a pup he could fit into a slipper. He was so small we named him The Pip. Amazing to think that something that small would one day take over the entire house.

The first thing you need to know about toy poodles is they are NOT dogs! Toy poodles don't behave like other dogs. Basically you are getting the closest thing to a cat in the doggy family. Toy Poodles think you were invented to take care of their needs. They may learn to "sit" and even deign to do a few tricks, but basically these little guys are NEVER going obey you unless they think it's worth their while. As for sitting staring at you with drooling adoration the way most dogs do? In your dreams! If you want a grovelling fan and ardent admirer go for another dog breed. The American Kennel club sums up the perfect toy poodle character as: "Carrying himself proudly, very active, intelligent, the Poodle has about him an air of distinction and dignity peculiar to himself."

Originally all the poodles were working dogs and not pets. Standards were kept as for water birds - hence the name after "pudeln" in German meaning to splash about in water. Miniatures were used for hunting and as truffle hounds and the toys were the artistes to be found in circuses or used in shows as "dancing dogs."

Toy poodles are exceptionally cute and exceptionally aware of this fact. My toy poodle was the only dog I ever owned who would actually come over and pose for his photograph to be taken. How the heck he knew what a camera was is beyond my dumb human brain! Maybe he just knew it meant people were paying attention to you and goodness knows he LOVED attention! Just like a cat toy poodles will come and sit in the middle of your newspaper because they are annoyed at you
paying more attention to that stupid piece of paper
than to them. Just like a cat most toy poodles I have met will climb on furniture. We used to come home and find our little dictator sleeping in the middle of the dining table. Being aware of their short size they take every opportunity to reach your level and are most happy snoozing on tables/counters/handbags/chair backs and your bedroom pillow!

So what do you get out of owning (shhh, don't let "them" here the owning word!) a toy poodle? You get a pet that looks like an ornamental soft toy with the personality of ten movie stars condensed into one small fluffy body. They don't just have Class, they have Panache! They are bold, brave and remarkably charming. These little dogs are not your average "lap dog". They basically have the instincts of a terrier and are bright, high-spirited and adventurous. The males are both willing and eager to try their little paws at hunting and fighting. They WILL attack the postman and they WILL be convinced they can fight and beat up the pit bull next door so be aware that trips to the vet to see to war injuries will be probable. Ours totally loathed black dogs (little racist!). He once attacked a rottweiler who retaliated by throwing him around the room like a beachball. We dashed him to the vet -all he had was a bruised shoulder! He also regularly chased the neighbour's cowardly great Dane, which was rather embarrassing. Females are more gentle and sedate.


On the plus side unless provoked toy poodles aren't yappy. Why bother? They'd rather snub you than bark at you and usually keep their worst yappy moments for temper tantrums when they aren't getting their own way. Being very smart means they can easily be taught, but getting them to obey you is never easy. If you are weak-willed or unwilling to stand up and take the time to reinforce who is top dog in the family they will walk all over you ? literally!


On the minus side these dogs are cheeky and unruly ones do bite. Hardly a life threatening bite, but they really aren't keen on small children and are more a one-person pet than a rollabout fun family pet. Ours was constantly being grabbed up and away from small kids who didn't realise that he could leap and nip noses like a small fuzzy version of Sigourney Weaver's Alien! He never left any damage, but it was tough apologizing to mothers with screaming kiddies. When I was a kid a pawnbroker in town that was guarded by a minute white toy poodle. She sat on the jewellery display counter and eyed everyone up as potential shop-lifters. That little dog was constantly zapping customers who tried to lean over the glass counter to look at stuff on the far shelf.

Be warned - of all the colours in the breed spectrum the white ones are the most lethal for biting and also tend to be sickly. For some reason white poodles sometimes suffer from frail health. Maybe that's why they are all so irritable! Otherwise they are tough sturdy little dogs that can live up to 14 years or more. My gra's two poodles both reached 18!

Toy Poodles, like all poodles, come in a wide variety of colours. White, champagne/cream, apricot, red, brown, blue, silver and black. The apricot are really lovely. A soft pale peachy orange like a hazy sunset. Red?s are the dark auburn variation and browns are a deep rich chocolate. Blue is a Silvers are born charcoal and gradually this puppy grows out to a pale silvery grey. Pip was the offspring of a dapper silver father and a very loving gentle apricot mother. Like all silvers he started off a charcoal puppy gradually growing paler as he aged into the silvery grey coat of an adult.

In the past mixed colour poodles, called parti or harlequin, were frowned on by breeders and you rarely saw them. Parti is a mix of two colour patches/spots and harlequin is a mix of three colours. Horrible to say most breed
ers would simply put down these pups. They could be bought as pets, but never shown. Nowadays they are popular as pets and a
lthough still no use as show dogs you can find them online from reputable breeders. My mom owned a parti silver medium Poodle. He was a brilliant dog and to think he might have been destroyed simply because he had a white flash on his chest is really appalling. There are breeders now campaigning to get parti-poodles accepted as a show breed. As far as I know partis and harlequins are now shown in some European countries (I think Germany is one) so there is hope!

Average height of a Toy Poodle is anything under 10-11 inches.

Like all toy breeds, have small litters of sometimes only one or two pups. Basically we have messed with nature and dogs this tiny often have problems giving birth so prices for toy pups are usually pretty high. Some breeders will sell parti and harlequins much cheaper, which is worth bearing in mind. Please make sure you are dealing with a dealer with a good reputation. Getting a really cheap puppy from a dodgy dealer can be a disaster. My one friend bought poodle pup from a "backyard breeder". This little toy poodle was a gem. The sweetest nature and both loving and intelligent. She also turned out to have malnutrition and defects from bad breeding and was a sickly little doggy her whole life. Enduring many trips to vets and a lot of discomfort which she bore heroically.

Grooming: Poodles are high maintenance. Their woolly coats don't shed like most other breeds of dog so you won't find hair everywhere, but they do need regular grooming and clipping. We used to clip our poodle ourselves using a cheap pair of men's hair clippers. Be careful though. Poodles, being intelligent, are self-aware. When a friend once clipped her poodle badly and left him looking like a lawnmower victim he hid under the bed for a whole day. Many pet owners simply keep their poodles trimmed
to a sensible length rather than going for the more traditional, and rather daft-looking, show cuts.

Care: Poodles need the same basic food, water and care as any other small breed of dog. Poodles aren't fussy eaters unless you spoil them. Our one used to always save a bit of his dinner for breakfast so we never actually had to give him anything in the morning. He loved chicken and would not eat vegetables no matter how you tried to camouflage them. Otherwise he was a no fuss eater.

They like company, but they usually prefer to be with humans than other dogs. Toy poodles usually get along fine with cats but I'd be careful with rodents and small birds. Our poodle had hunter instincts and was forever trying to catch the pigeons in the back yard. He also viewed a friend's son's hamster with alarming interest. Of course my gran's toy poodle used to hide under the couch when my cousin brought her rabbit over, so you never can tell how other pets will view each other. Better to always be careful introducing pets to each other when there is a big difference in size.

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