The Poodle is a formal dog breed that comes in three varieties: Standard Poodle, Miniature Poodle, and Toy Poodle. The origin of the breed is still discussed, with a prominent dispute over whether the poodle descends from Germany as a type of water dog, or from the French Barbet.
Ranked second most intelligent dog breed just behind the Border Collie, the poodle is skilful in many dog sports and activities, including agility, obedience, tracking, herding, circus performance, and assistance dogs. Poodles have taken top honours in many conformation shows, including “Best in Show” at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in 1991, 2002, and 2020 and at the World Dog Show in 2007 and 2010. They are recorded as the seventh most popular dog breed in the United States.
Toy Poodles won “Best in Show” at Crufts in 1966 and 1982. Standard Poodles achieved the award in 1955, 1985, 2002, and 2014. The 2002 winner came from Norway and was the first overseas exhibit to win the Crufts best in show award.
History
The poodle is a breed that has been present in Europe for centuries in some form or another, and it first debuted on the Continent long before heading to the British Isles let alone North America or East Asia or Australia. Drawings by German artist Albrecht Dürer established the popular image of the breed in the 15th and 16th centuries. Further appearances in the art are recorded by Rembrandt in a self-portrait he created in 1631, with his pet poodle in the foreground. The breed would not have been a dog of the common man, but of the wealthier gentleman or royalty, evidenced by its role as a water spaniel and retriever from early on: these were not the pursuits of peasants and farmers.
It was the principal pet dog of the late 18th century in Spain, as shown by the paintings of the Spanish artist Francisco Goya. France had toy poodles as pampered favourites during the reign of Louis XVI at about the same period, and there are definite records of them being present at Versailles even before Goya was active: Louis XVI’s grandfather is recorded as having a favourite dog named Filou, a poodle, and there is potential evidence the Sun King kept them as well,
The FCI the international organization of which both France and Germany’s main kennel clubs are members, claims the breed descends from the French Barbet. When the breed was officially recognized by the FCI, in order to avoid any possible dispute between two founding members, Germany recognized the Poodle as a dog originating from France. The progenitor of the breed might have also been crossed with the Hungarian Puli. The French name Caniche comes from the word cane (the female of the duck) since this type of breed was used as a water retriever mainly for duck hunting thanks to its swimming ability.
The British Kennel Club states that the breed originates in Germany, as do the American Kennel Club and the Canadian Kennel Club, stating: “Despite the Poodle’s association with France, the breed originated as a duck hunter in Germany…” The Oxford English Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary both trace the etymology of Poodle to the German Pudel, which itself comes from Pudelhund. The word Pudel, in turn, comes from Low German pud(d)eln meaning “[to] splash in the water,” cognate with the English word puddle.
The poodle has contributed to many other dog breeds, such as the Miniature Schnauzer, Standard Schnauzer, and dogs of the Bichon type in order to either save those breeds from extinction, reduce the size, or by dog fanciers to improve their appearance. The Poodle also is believed to be an ancestor or potential ancestor of the Irish Water Spaniel, the Curly Coated Retriever, and the Pudelpointer, all of which are hunters of birds.
Work and sport
Traditionally the Standard Poodle, the largest of the breed, was a retriever or gun dog, used in particular for duck hunting and sometimes upland bird hunting. The breed has been used for fowl hunting in the US and Canada since the early 1990s, in and out of hunting tests. The modern Standard retains many of the traits prized by their original owners: a keen working intelligence that makes the dog easy to command, webbed feet that make it an agile swimmer (all of the poodle’s ancestors and descendants had or share the love of water) athletic stamina, and a moisture-resistant, curly coat that acts like a wool jumper in damp conditions. Towards the second half of the nineteenth century, their use in hunting declined in favour of their use in circuses and status symbols of the wealthy so that by the 20th century they were only found as companions or circus dogs.
However, in the past 20 years to 2008, some breeders in the United States and Canada have been selecting for dogs with a drive for birds in order to revive the breed for hunting, with some success. The Canadian Kennel Club admitted the Standard Poodle for hunting trials in 1996 and the American Kennel Club in 1998, respectively.
As of March 2019, the end results of 30 years of breeding to reawaken the hunting instinct have been a success, with more dogs appearing in the field each year with increasing prowess. Most British or North American retriever breeds and nearly all the spaniels have shorter legs than a Standard Poodle which gives the dog an advantage of speediness. The clocked speed is only just behind the Whippet, a breed that is used for coursing and thus the Standard Poodle leaves the Labrador in the dust with its average speed closer to 20 mph, or 32 km/h. The final result is that of dogs that are very eager to please their masters. The outcome is a gun dog with extreme intelligence, a relentless drive to catch its quarry, and strong swimming skills that require special training: their aptitude is second only to the British Border Collie and thus the hunting Standard Poodle requires the gunman to be quite specific as to what he wants and how he wants it done and to avoid becoming too repetitive doing training drills so the dog does not become bored: it likes to be challenged.
Unlike other spaniels and retrievers, Standard Poodles will attempt to solve a problem independently and need to be told specifically what is wanted when tracking and retrieving a bird. This is very important when working the dog in a contest as well as an environment with guns: a trained poodle will not scare easily at the sound of gunfire, but it is wise to make him abide by his master’s instructions in trials so he does not fall foul of danger and ignore the set course while attempting to “solve” how to get the duck. Because they are highly intelligent, harsh or violent training methods do not work with this dog breed in the field—corrections must be timely and given with precision, and the trainer must have a firm, kind, and experienced hand; an overbearing owner training his dog to hunt will find his Standard poodle terrified of his master and the entire experience, and refusing to budge an inch towards the water or into the brush.
Hunting poodles typically are dogs with lightning-quick reflexes, sprinting like a demon after the downed bird and having a prodigious ability to remember where the bird fell and (though not as good as the English Pointer) a decent nose to sniff and track a bird hiding in tall grass They are talented hunters of upland birds and normally in snowy weather require an extra coat, preferably neon orange for visibility. Because North America generally has snowier winters that get below 0°C in the winter, unlike the climate where the dog was first bred, the coat is extra protection against snow getting impacted in its coat.
Recently, Miniature Poodles have also begun to be added to the list of hunters in the field: in January 2002, the Canadian Kennel Club opened their Working Certificate program to poodles of all sizes and later in 2014 the American Kennel club opened their Hunt Test program to miniature poodles; in 2017 both the Standard and Miniature were declared eligible for American Kennel Club Spaniel Tests, a program designed for testing dogs with flushing capabilities. Typically, a Miniature Poodle will be the smallest dog of all in the field as it weighs less than 25 lbs or about 10 kg: this is even less than a Boykin Spaniel, the former smallest dog, which weighs closer to 35 lbs, or 16 kg. However, hunters in the US and Canada have found them very useful for woodcock, chukar, mallards, and smaller ducks like the green-winged teal and bufflehead: their tiny size is an asset in getting at corners and brush that comparatively more massive retrievers cannot reach or where bramble is too thick for cocker spaniels to access.
Poodles have been used as working dogs in the military since at least the 17th century, most likely because of their highly intelligent, trainable nature and background as a gundog making them suitable to battlefields, as evidenced by their ability to be trained to ignore gunfire. During the English Civil War Prince Rupert of the Rhine had a hunting poodle he brought over with him from what is today Germany with a white coat who liked to ride into battle with his master on horseback. Bonaparte wrote in his memoirs about the faithfulness of a grenadier’s pet poodle who stayed with the body of his master at the Battle of Marengo, licking his face and willing him alive again. During WWII, Roland Kilbon of the New York Sun reported that other countries had used dogs in their armies for many years. In his column, he quoted Mrs. Milton S. (Arlene) Erlanger, owner of Pillicoc Kennels, a premier breeder of Poodles “The dog must play a game in this thing.” Eventually, “With the blessing of the American Kennel Club, the Professional Handlers Association, obedience training clubs across the country, and Seeing Eye, Inc., a nationwide program known as Dogs for Defense, Inc. was initiated and became the official procurement agency for all war dogs used in the Army, Navy and Coast Guard.” Dogs for Defense procured the dogs who were then trained by the Army. In 1942, the Poodle was one of 32 breeds officially classified as war dogs by the Army.