Keeping Poodles As Pets

The cotton candy beauty of this dog is associated with the Parisian décor. Recently the French origin of the breed has been contested by the international community. It is now suggested the breed has a Germanic origin.

No matter the breed’s country of origin; dogs similar to the Poodle can be seen on the roman and Greek tomb fresco paintings next to their masters. These historical proofs testify to the dog’s ancient origins.

Nowadays the Poodle is known and loved throughout the whole world. The ancestors of the breed were water dogs, and the Poodles were successfully breed and used as waterfowl hunting dog.

They were trimmed to improve the hydrodynamic under water during swimming; keeping only the hair around the articulations for protection. The hairstyle developed through time, becoming more aesthetic that functional.

The Puddle is robust, but in the same time it also has an elegant allure. Its head is round, with long floppy ears and big dark eyes with a lively expression in them.

The hair is fine, curly and dense; in some dogs the fur clumps together forming swirls. The coat color is available in several variations of black, white, gray, brown and apricot.

In the breed standard, beside the standard size; the small and toy variations of the breed are also accepted.

The dogs belonging to this breed are intelligent, alert, active and happy; and its specific walk is dignified and elegant. The Poodle is very attached to its owner. It is very sensitive to any changes in the mood and will be happy to do almost anything to please its owner.

It rarely gets more attached to one of the family members; usually it equally splits its affection between all the family members. When the bond is stronger with one of the family owners, the dog will develop anxiety when separated by its primary owner.

Poodles are not really friendly with other animals or small children, but it can learn to tolerate them. Repeated exposures to other animals and a proper socialization in puppyhood will prevent conflicts within the household.

The inborn intelligence combined with its willingness to learn and please, makes the Poodle easy to train. Thanks to these abilities, Poodles have been frequently used in circus shows to perform acrobatics and tricks.

The dog belonging to this breed needs daily exercise. If this need is satisfied, the Poodle can live in an apartment. The need to exercise can be satisfied through long walks, jogs and swimming.

The Poodle has a short shedding period; even so their coat needs constant grooming. You should trim and brush your Poodles coat often, to maintain a healthy skin and coat. If you are not showing your dog, you don’t need to trim it according to the standard breed trims.

You should also focus on the ear cleaning; this breed is predisposed to ear infection and inflammation. The large amount of hair inside the ear canal increases the humidity, facilitating microorganism proliferation and ear infections.

You might be tempted to pull the hair from the ear canal as done with other dog breeds. This procedure is contraindicated as it is very painful; due to the large amount of hair. If the hair is plucked, the resulting inflammation could lead to infection. With this breed it is recommended to carefully trim the excess hair with a scissors without damaging the ear.

Special care should be given to the oral care of your Poodle. Enzymatic tooth paste for dogs, dental sticks or specially formulated diets can be used to keep your dog’s teeth clean.

Although the breed has a long life expectancy (about 15 years), the Poodle has a lot of genetic inherited disorders. Some of those are: eye related pathology, epilepsy, hip dysplasia and thyroid disorders.

For some of those disorders the parents can be tested before breeding. An animal carrying the disease gene does not have the disease, but when it is mated with another carrier or with a dog with clinical signs, the resulting puppies will have a high disease incidence. Although this method does not exclude the possibility of gene mutation and disease among puppies; testing the parents will considerably lower the risk.