Selecting the right puppy

That is well said. Everyone needs to know this is a long term commitment, no impulse decisions ever.

Great article! I am Exhibit A for unrealistically describing my perfect poodle puppy to my breeder and reaped a whirlwind. Thank goodness, I’m retired and could afford the time and trainers. If you haven’t trained a super smart, athletic dog before, ask for an “easy keeper”, one of my favorite Lilly CD quotes.

I like the part where she talks about not discarding puppies who are more independent. Most of the puppies I have chosen were seemingly independent but became really good dogs. Those puppies might not be interested in strangers, but they do bond really well with their human.

Beckie is the perfect example. If I hadn’t had a lot of experience with dogs, I would have never picked her. She was totally uninterested in me. Not a glance, not a sniff, all she did was walk around.

She became very bonded to me and she now even likes strangers, as long as they don’t try to pet her on the head (which most people do).

Good Blog post. I had not heard of Anutta Poodles before.

The only one of our dogs who is an easy keeper is our GSD Peeves. In any test of temperament he always came out as a nice middle of the road sort. Both poodles came out as high in leadership drives, so neither an easy keep but what I actually wanted. For most pet wanting types easy keeper as Mfmst reminded me of having said is where to aim.


The commitment to a pup is long term and always dynamic, but mostly it should be fun.

We initially travelled to our breeder to pick up Peggy's sister. But Agnes, as they were calling her, had ZERO interest in us, whereas Peggy followed me when I trotted away from the group and eagerly crawled into our laps for cuddles.

In retrospect, I wonder if Agnes would have ultimately bonded more tightly to us, as she'd clearly bonded to the breeder. But it's nice to have a puppy that greets all adult humans like long lost friends.

(Children on the other hand........... Sigh. I hope that gets better.)

P.S. With our next puppy, whenever that may be, I'll be doing MUCH more research and letting the breeder participate in choosing our best fit. Thanks for sharing this very informative blog post.

PeggyTheParti said:

We initially travelled to our breeder to pick up Peggy's sister. But Agnes, as they were calling her, had ZERO interest in us, whereas Peggy followed me when I trotted away from the group and eagerly crawled into our laps for cuddles.

In retrospect, I wonder if Agnes would have ultimately bonded more tightly to us, as she'd clearly bonded to the breeder. But it's nice to have a puppy that greets all adult humans like long lost friends.

(Children on the other hand........... Sigh. I hope that gets better.)

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Maizie was like Peggy, friendly as heck with ALL, but not the most "bonded to one person" in the litter. She still loves everyone, but she is also fully bonded to me. This happened I think due to all the training classes we did together away from the other dogs, as well as maturity and spaying. I am exceptionally close to her.

PeggyTheParti said:

P.S. With our next puppy, whenever that may be, I'll be doing MUCH more research and letting the breeder participate in choosing our best fit. Thanks for sharing this very informative blog post.

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Selecting a good breeder (like Anutta) is so important. Both of my dogs' breeders matched me to my pups. I fully trust the process of breeder input plus the breeder trusting me to have the final say if I agree with the match.

My breeder had 2 males available, one that she recommended as an agility prospect. He came to me when I visited at 5 weeks, which I took as a positive. He has a tendency toward clinginess, but is turning into a super agility dog, and is proven in scent sports that also require working somewhat independently.

I was surprised by some of the info in this blog post — good thing I wasn’t picking on my own.

(I found Anutta during my puppy search 4 years ago—so many nice small-scale breeders out there and I appreciate how they share their experience. Most of the breeders that I looked at didn’t have litters at the time, but, I still follow them because of gems like this blog post.)