MEET ROSALINE - THE POODLE LADY

Since I am personally "a poodle lover" and have six, my best area of "pet expertise" is that of the poodle dog. I have the good fortune to know a breeder of poodles who lives in Texas and has fabulous toy and miniature poodles for sale. (There is a link at the bottom of this article to take you to her site should you happen to be in the market for a precious toy poodle.) Rosaline Pierce has been breeding poodles for thirty some odd years. I nicknamed her "poodlelady",and without her friendship and advice I promise I would not have ever attempted to own six such wonderful pets. One of my favorite things about poodles is their lack of shedding hair. Of course the down side of the poodle is grooming. They are high maintenance from that point of view. Now, I don't groom my poodles so they "look fru fru." I groom my poodles one a month because their curly hair gets matted if it is not maintained. One could say, "all dogs shed"...why tell us a poodle does not. Of course, a poodle sheds but the curls are so thick that this shedding hair remains on the dog until she is brushed. Isn't that wonderful? No hair on your clothes, furniture, or floors. Consequently this breed causes less allergy in humans. Also the poodle is recognized by vets and allergy doctors to have less oderous dander, a major allergy contributor.

Poodles have been often considered by animal trainers as being the most intelligent of the canines. In my humble opinion, if they are not the most intelligent certainly they are running side by side with the most intelligent! The poodle has a long and distinctive genelogy. Original poodles were large dogs. They were hunting and retreiving dogs. Dubbed Pudle by the Germans for their ability to swim and retreive fowl. Did you know that the "famous poodle hair cut" was originally created to help the poodle be bouyant while swimming? For many years AKC did not allow the poodle into the "working classification". Recently the poodle was allowed in this arena and proved his/her prowess in field and trial!

There are three poodle sizes by AKC defination: Standard, Miniature, and Toy. Poodles have been reduced in size by breeding small to smaller poodles rather than cross breed with another bred. Tiny toys and Tea Cup poodles are a misnomer given by breeders merely discribing their petitness rather than an actual classification. Don't make the mistate of thinking that birth weight has anything to do with the adult size of a puppy! I had one puppy in a litter who was 6ozs at birth and is now a 2 1/2 lb adult, and one pup at birth was 2 3/8ozs who is now 3lbs at 5 months. So don't be fooled by an unscrupulous breeder who tells you, "this is a teacup poodle" when that baby is 6-8 weeks old. the puppy has to be 3 to 6 months old before anyone knows what size it will be as an adult. Now, if you don't believe me, email the poodlelady at poodles@poodle.net and she will share her thiry years of toy poodle breeding experience!

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