[nagdu] Question about poodle guides

Sat Mar 14 19:17:33 UTC 2015

Hi, Kerri.

I'm a poodle guide user, so I can tell you that poodles are. What they 
are remains a mystery to me, which is sometimes troubling, since I'm in 
the process of training my second one as my first is retiring. They're 
quite wonderful but complicated. This makes them very easy to manage and 
fiddling difficult to manage at the same time. I always have a hard time 
describing mine and what I've heard of others in basic guide dog user 
language.

Take distractability. They have a reputation for being highly 
distractable, and in some quarters poodle guide users have a reputation 
for being dangerously cavalier about their guide's total lack of focus 
or discipline or... That's because the poodle has a weird way of 
appearing to have its mind on everything but the job, while deftly 
maneuvering its handler around obstacles so that the handler never knows 
she's not skipping along the garden path... It can be startling to take 
the cane along a familiar smooth and easy route only to discover that 
one has a broken cane and bumped head and dented shins because it's a 
total minefield. I have to confess that I am one of those people who 
enjoys knowing what all is going on around me as I walk, so feeling my 
poodle's body language and head movement as she looks at absolutely 
everything makes going around with her a lot of fun. She's also saved my 
life dramatically at least 4 times that I know of because of her 
tendency to keep track of everything and respond predictively, including 
a car driving up onto the sidewalk where we were standing. I for sure 
would not have reacted in time on my own for that one. When I heard the 
engine noise change as the car prepared to move, I assumed it was making 
a right turn on the street where it belonged and filtered it out of my 
other traffic listening. Then I was elsewhere, preparing to lay into my 
horrible awful dog for yanking me around like that when I felt heat 
against the backs of my legs and realized the front of the car was an 
inch or two away. The rear of the car missed me by less than that. Mitzi 
had positioned me perfectly, body blocked me from falling down an 
embankment until I got my balance, then pulled me away by the leash, 
since I had dropped the harness handle and stuck her nose in the bushes 
she had been wanting to sniff there for the longest time. I'll always 
wonder if that was part of her plan, knowing how I would move towards 
her in response, which spared me being brushed by the car, or if she was 
just taking advantage of the opportunity. See what I mean about poodles? 
/smile/

The poodle gait is smooth and easy, especially compared to labs, so say 
those who have experience with both breeds. Poodles tend to be more 
likely to cut obstacle avoidance close, though their predictive guiding 
style makes it smooth enough the handler may not notice anything is 
there or that an obstacle has been avoided.

Poodles can be vocal, especially when startled. They also have a 
tendency towards separation anxiety, which they will tell the world 
about, so that can be difficult to deal with for apartment dwellers. 
They reach full psychosocial maturity later than the more traditional 
breeds, so that's something to consider. Some of the more extreme traits 
that get poodles labelled as difficult or worse do settle out eventually 
for the most part, but much patience and finesse is required to get to 
that point. They can be super easy to work with while being absolutely 
impossible at the same time, although figuring out what motivates the 
poodle and working from that angle makes things easier. Leash 
corrections and similar types of negative reinforcement has a bad result 
with poodles, so you do have to learn to keep the dog on the straight 
and narrow by other means, especially early on. This requires 
out-thinking the poodle, especially if it has its stubborn on, so that 
can be frustrating. The best approach does seem to be to remain calm and 
even cheerful while using subtle reminders and low voice commands, which 
can cause people who can't see what you're doing to believe you're doing 
nothing. JQ Public, I have discovered, will actually not notice anything 
is going on or will see a good, good dog who is just so wonderful to 
manage, so I found it easier to keep my equilibrium and deal more 
effectively with Mitzi's youthful antics once I figured that out.

Poodles can be vocal, apparently as part of their high-alert nature. So 
again, the key to dealing effectively is to remain calm and low-key, as 
I found out the hard way. Sigh. At least now I know of useful techniques 
to use with Loki, who at 10.5 months is learning to keep his mouth shut 
about many things. I think. /smile/ Now that I know a thing or two 
hundred I didn't with Mitzi, I'm happy to be working on it with him now 
as we prepare for eventual indoor public access training. He's quite a 
talker, so I'm also teaching him silent ways of letting me know what he 
thinks I need to know about, which I think will help.

Another thing to consider is that poodles get noticed. I can't go 
anywhere without hearing the word "poodle" floating about or being 
yelled by kids playing basketball, as happened just yesterday. Poodle! 
There's a poodle! It's a poodle! /lol/ They tend to be seen as expensive 
fashion-accessories, so it doesn't occur to folks to respect the poodle 
as a dog. It was really difficult for Mitzi at first, since she is 
fairly reserved and didn't want to be petted by every single human in 
the greater Metro area. We managed to find a way to deal between the two 
of us, but I do wish people wouldn't rush to stick their hands in the 
curls so much and I especially wish they weren't so likely to get down 
in her face. She's learned to deal graciously and then to sort of fade 
behind my leg so I can run interference, but still! I've spent years 
telling myself next time I was getting something that looked a lot more 
dangerous. So I have another poodle... He's going to be a much larger 
dog, so I'm curious to find out if that affects the number of people who 
mug him. He's super friendly, so I think attention will be less 
stressful for him.

Poodles watch the face of their human, so I have learned to walk around 
with a big fat smile plastered in place. Things go much more smoothly 
than if I forget and walk around pondering the meaning of it all with a 
furrow in my brow. As Mitzi got older, she was less affected, but in her 
younger days, she would slow down due to depression if I wasn't cheery 
enough. Now it's just habit to look down and smile periodically even if 
I'm worrying about the end of life as we know it, so it's all good. /smile/

Obviously, I like my poodle guide enough to be working on a second one. 
Sometimes it might be nice to have something a little more settled 
without the nonsense factor and excessive energy to deal with. The 
intelligence is awesome, but being reminded 17 times a day that my dog 
is so much smarter than I am isn't healthy for the ego. I like not 
having to micromanage as we go along, just sort of giving executive 
approval to Mitzi's good decisions, but if I do need to step in and be 
the boss... Well, I've learned never to go head to head with her in a 
battle of will and wits, but there have been days when having to 
outthink my dog and failing was a bit much. She grew out of most of 
that, and I guess I learned winning strategies to keep us in balance. I 
like her fast, zippy guiding style, though I have been assured that it 
would make a lot of people crazy. /lol/ Loki will be easier, I think, 
once we get through his adolescence.

Sorry for the novel. Hope I managed to fit in some information you find 
useful. Maybe someday I will find a more terse way to describe the 
complicated curly ones. /smile/

Tami

On 03/14/2015 05:23 AM, Kerri Stovall via nagdu wrote:
> Hi list,
> I don't write much so I thought I'd come out of my mousehole for a little while. lol
> I have been following some of the posts on here about dog schools and different breeds, which peaked my interest. I wanted to ask for some feedback and more info on a certain breed of dog, and if keeping a thread about a certain breed is not acceptable, that's ok, I'll give my email address at the end of the post here, so that you all can respond to me off list.
> I have read where some of you either know someone with or have a poodle for a guide yourself. This is what I'm on the waiting list for, and that's why it's taking forever and a day. lol. So I'm trying to read up and get as much info from people who have them as to their character, temperament, caring for them, etc. I have checked out grooming fees, and $60 or a little more seems to be the average price for a bath, nail trim, ear cleaning, and a short whole body clip, which is what I would want for easy maintenance.
> So, I just basically want all the juicy details about poodles that you all might have. Are they focused? Distractable? Easy to control or train new things? What are their eating habits? Size and weight? Stuff like that.
> Thank you all for your responses in advance, and I hope and pray that Pilot doesn't make me wait another year before I hear from them. lol. I've been waiting since November or so and I'm missing the feel of a harness. Here's my email for those of you who'd like to respond by email off list.
> spedangel84 at gmail.com
> Thank you for all of your info ahead of time.
> Kerri, patiently, well not so patiently, waiting on her poodle
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nagdu:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/tami%40poodlemutt.com
>