[NAGDU] Poodles and doodles

[Tara Briggs]

 Hey Tammy! Thank you so much for your email! It made my day! I love your stories. I have also found those troubling times with my labs when I just don’t understand why they’ve stopped and I insist we go forward and then I find out. I was feel rather stupid when that happens. Thanks again and I hope other people will chime in!
Tara

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 1, 2018, at 11:31 AM, Tami Jarvis via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Tara,
> 
> I'm on my second owner-trained poodle guide, who just turned 4 last week. I got both from a breeder here in Oregon. My first, a female named Mitzi was 7 months old when she arrived on my doorstep. Loki, a male, was 11 weeks old when we picked him up to bring him home. They're the only guide dogs I've had, so I can only compare them to the other common breeds from all the anecdotes I've heard over the years.
> 
> Poodles are super smart, super high energy and super high alert. This can add up to really great work, especially if you like adventure and new places and challenges. Other times, it all adds up to a total PITA which must be managed with care. Just cracking down on a wound-up poodle makes things worse and can create ongoing problems, so they're not the dog for control freaks. On the other hand, they'll do anything, anything at all, if you just ask them to and let on that it will make you happy. It's very difficult for them to just be quietly out of the way when stuff is going on around them, and that's the part that drives me mad in training and in their early work. They're quite vocal, though they can learn to be quiet on the job. They tend towards separation anxiety. They need a lot of play and exercise to expend excess energy. I remember when somebody asked how much time people spend playing with their guide dogs every day. All the lab owners said about 15 minutes. A poodle guide owner said she plays at least an hour a day after a very busy working schedule. That, I could relate to.
> 
> The grooming does get expensive, especially if you like to keep the dog trimmed down and have it done frequently. I've also found that when my dog gets fluffy in the face, it is more irrestistible to the general public. It was a bit of a problem for Mitzi, who is a bit more standoffish with strangers and would get a little stressed from the extra attention. Loki loves the extra attention, though he's finally learned to manage his friendliness. Mostly.
> 
> One thing that seems to be very different is that the poodle can appear to be totally distracted from the work while guiding their handler quite safely through impossible obstacle courses. The handler won't know the obstacles are even there unless some panicked member of the sighted public brings it to their attention because it looks to them like the dog is out to get the handler killed. Both of mine are really predictive and like to make decisions way ahead of time. I really like that, but it's confusing when there's an obstacle a block or two ahead that I can't detect, so I have a long argument with the dog over its insistence that we need to detour. Every now and then, I decide it's time to put my foot down and make that obnoxious dog do what it is supposed to do. I've been wrong every time and gotten us into big trouble. Mitzi took great delight in saying "I told you so," but Loki just sort of sighs and gets on with extricating us from whatever mess I insisted we get into.
> 
> hth,
> 
> Tami
> 
> 
> 
>> On 04/30/2018 06:57 PM, Tara Briggs via NAGDU wrote:
>> Hi all! I am wondering about poodles and poodle lab and poodle retriever mixes. If any of you use those dogs as guides? What was your experience like? Where did you receive the dogs from? Thanks for any help!
>> Tara
>> Sent from my iPhone
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