Abbe gails Mom

just wanted to say hi, and to let you know that I have 5 dogs. 4 are poodles. 1 a little min pin. All are rescues. The poodles from a kill shelter, the min pin from a lady up the street, the little dog was sick and dieing and she was going to put her out with the trash.Yep. thats right , out with her trash.So I got her. All of them are loving, sweet little babies.Thers no risk, just love and understanding .They know and they give all that love right back. Go to the albums. and you can see there picks.

:-)

Brilliant idea and one I should already have thought of! I will definitely be doing this, thanks for the advice.
and only 3 or 4 repetitions...WOW!

:-)

HerdingStdPoodle, having seen Belgians working I'd love to hear any more differences between training and working them compared to spoo's. I too have gone for the poodle over others (collies, shepherds etc) due to their reputed good nature and ability to make you laugh! So sounds like I'm on the right track

stealthq

Depends on the individual dog, and what you mean by smart and easy to train.

Mine is plenty smart and I haven't found anything that I couldn't teach him. And as long as he's having fun, he's quick and snappy with his commands.

But once he gets bored (and he gets bored easily), or just plain decides he doesn't like trick X today, then you might as well forget it. He'll still obey, because if I give a command he knows, then he's learned that either he does it himself or I will put him in the correct position and he's not so find of that. But, first he'll pull his dumb as a box of rocks act ("Down? Huh? What's that?", and when start to take a step towards him, "Ohhh ... you mean down.") and then he'll be as slow as molasses. It's taken him 5min to sliiiide into a down, for example, when he doesn't want to do it.

If I were you, I would look more into the breeds that were bred to work closely with people. I think for what you want, people-pleasing is even more important than raw smarts. Look at the herding breeds, for example. Most of them live to make their people happy and will turn themselves inside out to do it.

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Nicole

brownlikewoah

Well, I'm new to poodles, we just got our puppy a month ago. She's currently 16 weeks. I also own a 9 year old Aussie, another typically "really smart" breed. So far the poodle has out done the Aussie... Don't get me wrong, my Aussie is a REALLY smart dog- too smart. He's neurotic, pushy, bossy, and in his younger years had a very hard time focusing because his mind was just all over the place- making it harder to train him. Now our poodle puppy, she really concentrates. It's great, because she is eager to learn while you're training her, but doesn't have the same ridiculously high energy that my Aussie has. So far she's learned... sit, down, stay, out, come, kennel, and hasn't had a potty accident in 3 weeks. Go with the poodle- you won't regret it!

Indiana

That's so true, Stealthq; I have been trying to put my finger on why my dogs are not the easiest ones I've ever trained, even though they are indisputably the smartest. I haven't really had a lot of dogs but my old pittie would just stare at me with her beautiful almond eyes, uncomprehending, over the course of days or weeks until after about 200 repetitions and then suddenly I'd see the light dawn on her, you could just see by her face when she finally caught on to what I wanted. From then on, she'd do it on my cue, always, for the rest of her life. But with my two standard poodles now, you can see that they catch on extremely quickly, maybe after 3 or 4 repetitions; but they're not that reliable because it has to be worth the trouble for them to actually DO the thing! I love them to death, and they love me, but that's my experience with poodles You have to make it fun and interesting.

lily cd re

For a poodle you have to keep things interesting and mix things up. I find that if I have Lily repeat something too many times, she decides she must be doing something wrong so she will change what she does. I find her very eager to please. Poodles generally really like being with their people and if you are challenging them to think in the time you spend with them they will be very trainable. Of course, standards have a silly streak in them so you have to be prepared to cope with the fact that when they get tired or stressed they will just goof around (zoomies, etc.).

There are of course differences between lines and between individuals, even litter mates can be very different. I would look for a dog that has good drives and think that if you are going to go the rescue route that the suggestion to take treats and work the dog a little before deciding on it is a great idea. If you end up going to a breeder, go to some obedience trials and watch the dogs there to see if there are spoos you like and talk to the handler or look up the kennel from the information in the catalog.

Good luck finding the dog you want. I personally will always have spoos (and GSD). I think they are great working dogs.

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Catherine
Lily AKC: CGC CD HIT CDX RN RA RE RAE NAJ; APDT: RL-1; CPE: CL1-R, CL1-H
Peeves AKC: CGC BN

stealthq

Yep.

I feel badly now, but I had myself convinced that Kohl was lacking something upstairs because I compared him to my last dog, Casey, a Sheltie. I realize now, that's not so. My mere existence is just not nearly as motivating for Kohl as it was for Casey . For Casey, all I had to do was look at him and he was ecstatic.

I have to say, Casey was the best of both world as far as trainability goes. Just as quick (OK, quicker) to pick things up, and practically begging me to tell him what to do next so he could get more attention. Of course, he had other drawbacks, which is why I don't have another Sheltie.

Kohl wants attention too, but that's not enough. Food is not enough after the first handful of treats. Play works the best right now, but it needs to be high energy, exciting play and I can only keep that up for so long.

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Nicole

mom24doggies

I agree with everyone....if you can keep things interesting enough, a poodle will be perfect. Yes, they really are as smart and trainable as everyone says. And they have enough energy to last for whatever you want lol! However, they do a lot of thinking and sometimes that gets them into trouble!! If they decide it isn't worth it for them to listen, they won't do it. That is my biggest issue with Trev, he is as smart as a whip and can learn anything, but if he decides he doesn't want to do something, he won't. Usually it's after I've told him to do something one too many times, or if he thinks I'm leaving and so won't come inside. If I wanted, I could totally do obedience with him, he knows his obedience commands perfectly. However, that doesn't mean he is going to do them lol. I do have one thing working in favor of me with him though: he cannot stand to be separated from me. I use that fact quite frequently. If he understands that no obedience=I leave, he will listen.

I would not necessarily rescue if I were you. You are looking for a very specific dog, and I would be concerned you won't get that in a rescue since you don't know the dog's background, pedigree, etc. I would find a breeder who is breeding for performance as well as conformation (which is very important for agility) and temperament. But that is just me.

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"Love is the emotion that a woman feels always for a poodle dog and sometimes for a man." ~George Jean Nathan

caroline429

Really interesting thread! I've been coming to the same conclusions as have been mentioned here and was wondering if it was just me. LOL Cali is smart as a whip, learns really quickly but gets bored equally quickly. Since I have no aspirations to compete and just want a relatively well-behaved pet, it's not a problem. I think it takes a very talented trainer to get the best out of a poodle.

I had Rotties before and they were smart and very trainable but just that bit slower than a poodle that they didn't question whether they really had to do it or not. I have a friend who's just put a UD on her Rottie and she said she sees lots of poodles in the obedience ring. She says they are unbeatable when they decide to work but she's also seen some of those unbeatable poodles occasionally decide that they've been too long in the "stay" and would rather go for a run around the ring!