[NAGDU] Poodles and doodles

Tue May 1 21:20:02 UTC 2018

My Holly iis exactly this way. Older now, she is still curious but, not as 
rambunksious. She is a labradoodle and quite smart and very loyal. Didn't 
bark much until I got the eskie. I knick name him Sir Barks a Bunch. He 
taught Holly to sometimes join in.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Tara Briggs via NAGDU
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2018 2:50 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Cc: Tara Briggs
Subject: Re: [NAGDU] Poodles and doodles

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
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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/thflute%40gmail.com

_______________________________________________
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/lkeeler%40comcast.net 