Chloe08

Five of my friends have poodle crosses. I wanted to avoid puppy farms and researched my poodle for over a year. All of my friends have very friendly approachable and smart dogs. I adore my poodle but she is anxious, doesn't like people approaching her and is vey wary of new people coming into our house. I diid loads of socialisation and training. I guess you cannot generalise from a small sample but all the poodle crosses I have met have been great dogs.

Thank you for the reply. I didn't think of this, she is clipped short but I will check next time. I think it's more psychological because she will run at the fenced park and will walk without stopping when our cavalier comes along.

Hello I hope it's ok to post as I have received some great help here before. I have a 2 year old standard poodle. She comes from a great breeder and we worked hard on socialisation. Took her out often to different environments, made sure she wasn't overwhelmed but she got to meet people etc.. anyway despite this she is an anxious dog and I have worked very hard to reduce leash reactivity and develop confidence. Just recently she has stopped walking on walks. Just sits there and refuses to move. She doesn't look scared. As far as I am aware she hasn't had a fright. I can generally get her to keep walking with high value treats. I only use positive reward based training. Could anyone help me to understand what is happening and how to best overcome it please? I am wondering whether she is now sitting as she knows she will get a treat for starting to walk. I am not sure what to do. Thank you in advance.

Thank you for your replies. We will try a chiropractor and if no luck trial the medication.

Hello again Thank you so much for your responded. In the last few weeks we have had more episodes of yelping and last Sat after three helping episodes he collapsed and couldn't get up. He was awake but his backs legs were shaking for about 30min. Then he got up and was slow for a bit but ok again. He was booked into the vet but we rushed him in and they took blood and urine samples. Both have come back fine. The vet thinks it could be seizures but isn't sure as he is a bit old for idiopathetic epilepsy as onset is usually in younger dogs. He is six. We now have the choice between seeing a neurologist and doing an MRI (very expensive) or trailing epilepsy medication and seeing what happens. I really don't know what to do. I would really appreciate any advice, which way would you go? Thank you very much. This forum is extremely helpful. Oh I should add he had an extensive physical exam and I suggested a chiropractor but the vet I saw was very experienced and the other vet at the practice who I also saw said that he would have picked up any pain as he extremely good at doing so and has picked up pain in dogs that she has missed. Still a possibility though, haven't ruled it out.

I have friends with children aged 6 and 8. They got a havanese and are extremely happy with him. He is very manageable for the kids and is very playful. I guess it depends if your standard poodle likes small dogs. I have a standard poodle who gets along very well with my cavalier and loves small dogs. She is very gentle with them.

Hi. I have a standard poodle in a family situation, three kids. I think a standard poodle, particularly a calmer puppy, would be fine as a family pet as long as the family were committed to walking twice a day. I have found her harder work than the smaller dogs I have owned, but she is calm indoors as long as she gets her exercise and a bit of training or some puzzles every day. We also do obedience every week.I only work part time and we are home a lot. However, my youngest child has friends that are very scared of her because of her size. We have also had to work through some reactivity issues, despite careful and regular socialisation from 8 weeks, which could pop up in any breed I suspect. I think she would be more work than some people are prepared for but she is not over the top.

Thank you again. I went to the vet and he examined him all over and couldn't find anything wrong at all. He said I had a very healthy dog. I did some done research online before I went and I though of SM and I actually mentioned to the vet. He said it was very rare and he would have neck pain. I am not sure that it is very rare according to the research I did but he has not yelped again so I will wait and if he doesn't again I will return to the vet. Thank you for your help.

We visited our puppy every week from five weeks until she was ready to go home at 8 weeks. We had to be careful to take clean shoes and wash hands before entering the home. I guess all breeders are different.

Thank you for the replies. The idea of getting it on video is a good idea and I will ask the vet to check his anal glands. It's a bit odd. Don't want him to be in any pain.

Hi there Over the past few days my cavalier (6 years old) has started yelling in pain from a resting position and sort of reaching for his back legs. It lasts about 30 Sec and has happened only three or four times. After this he is as usual. He is eating fine, going on walks, allows me to touch him all over. The only other thing I have noticed is him very occasionally stopping on a walk to chew at his back legs for a bit. I am booked in to the vet tomorrow but I have a feeling he may not find anything obvious and I wondered if anyone had similar symptoms in their cavalier but maybe not. I just thought any ideas may help tomorrow. Thank you in advance.

When I was looking at poodles - we eventually decided on a standard, I rang the Poodle club of Victoria who gave me some names. They did recommend Jenuin poodles in Victoria for toys and miniatures. Good luck with your search.

Hi I don't post often but sometimes pop in to learn more about dogs and training. It's a great forum. Anyway, we recently decided on a standard poodle as I fell in love with them but we also seriously considered a mini and might get one someday! I spoke with the poodle club and they made a few recommendations - Jenuin Poodles from Victoria and Hillani from Sourh Australia were at the top of my list and I a few people recommended these breeders in the poodle forum which I looked at too. My good friend has a Havanese which is very playful gets long well with her kids but doesn't seem to need as much exercise as I imagine a mini poodle would need. This is why they chose it. Good luck with your search.

Thank you Snook for your reply. I think you are right. I will call underdog and get an appointment. I really don't want it to become ingrained. Thank you for your advice.

Hi. I have been a lurker for some time, learning all I can about dogs and training. I did post a few years ago when we were deciding between a rough collie or standard poodle. We went with a standard poodle and now have a gorgeous 14 mth old girl from an excellent breeder. Our pup was very well socialised by the breeder and we continued this. We took her out to cafes, restaurants, shops, bike tracks, tram stops (you can tell we live in the city) and made sure she was having a good time, not overwhelmed. She went to a positive training puppy school, Underdog training and now obedience classes every week. Anyhow, in the past 6 weeks she has started to develop leash reactivity - lunging and barking at other dogs on the street. She is fine off leash, although I only let her play with known dogs. I have practiced LAT since she was a puppy as it was taught in Underdog training classes. I have recently been reading about BAT. I have been rewarding her when using LAt and sometimes I can get attention back on me if she is under threshold obviously. She sits and looks up at me rather than the dog. She is very dog obsessed and I think it's stemming from over excitement. My question is should I keep on using Lat and practicing at training and on walks or do I need a professional in at this point? She is a rather nervy dog, not happy with strangers approaching her and she has a strong flight response. The vet wanted to try fluoxetine but I wanted to try behavioural methods first. Of course I am open to any help. She is a lovely dog who we walk twice a day and she knows lots of commands and heels well on the lead. Funds are a bit tight at the moment but of course I would stretch if people think it would be best to book in a session. Sorry about the long post. I thought it was best to put some back ground in. Cheers

Would a miniature schnauzer fit? Low shedding, easy to train, medium energy requirements. My friends have teenage children and two of them and it works well for them.

Friends of mine have kids the same age as your kids and got a Havanese.

Friends of ours with two young children recently got a Havanese. They are keeping him clipped short to reduce grooming but have found him easy to train, easy to exercise, low shedding and great with her children. We have a cavalier and he has been great with my children. The youngest was three when we got him. He is a bit oversized and this has been good for us. He does shed a bit but its not overwhelming and he will adapt to any exercise we give him, although I love to walk so he gets a lot. We are also going to attend dog shows this year (searching for a second dog) as our puppy plans were put on hold last year. Good luck with the search.

Sorry if this posts twice something went wrong. Yes, I agree that the club is a bit outdated. Lovely people bur perhaps old fashioned. However I am struggling to find somewhere that doesn't train Sunday morning. My kids have sport Sunday. Would anyone have a recommendation for a club in Melbourne North( I live inner city) that trains on a different day? I would really appreciate any ideas. Thanks again.

Thanks for the replies. I will try to post a video soon and will try treats in both hands too. I have tried rubbing my hands with a treat before class which works once or twice until he realizes his not getting the actual treat! He is a bit cheeky.

Thank you for your replies. I do not give him the treat every time. I usually give it to him every second or third time and sometimes mix it in with other commands but he knows if I have treats available or not. The training school suggested trying to have him drop before I feed him dinner (he refuses but will sit/stay until I give a release command) praising him when he naturally lies down, and physically putting him into position (which I don't think is a very helpful strategy). I think you are right about him wanting the food.it's just strange to me that he learnt other commands with food first and then we eased off and lent more towards praise but with this one command he won't budge. Thanks again, this is a great forum

Hi everyone. I would really appreciate some advice about how to train my 3 year cavalier to drop. He will do it every time when I have a treat to lure him but won't do it otherwise. We have been training for a year and practice nearly every day. Our training school doesn't allow food treats in class so we are making little progress. He stands, sits, heals etc without treats just won't drop. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks

I do wonder if oodles are becoming less popular. I know six families in my area who have purchased a dog over the past two years and no one has chosen a poodle cross. I know six is a small sample but just wondering.

Thank you for your responses. That makes it a lot clearer to me.

Thank you. I think my post was a bit confusing as I meant the differences between the poodle and rough collie but actually the information about labs and goldens as also been very helpful. I think a dog show sounds like a good idea. I am sure it will help to talk to a few people as we are not in a rush. Thanks again