Where are all the poodles?

[BenCoopersSupportWren]

I am a dog noticer. I have radar for cute dogs (which of course is all dogs, to a greater or lesser extent) and after having owned dogs for most of my life, volunteering in rescue, previously subscribing to Dogs Today etc etc I’m good at identifying breeds / dominant crosses. I’ve pleasantly surprised the owners of a couple of less common breeds by correctly identifying their Large Munsterlander/Leonberger/Swiss Mountain Dog/Schipperke (and sorry again if you have been one of the people on the receiving end of this mad random woman asking if I could say hi to your dog 😂)

Unsurprisingly, these days I see poodle crosses everywhere. Cocker/poodles, cavalier/poodles, Labrador and golden retriever/poodles, Maltese/poodles, Jack Russell/poodles…you name a breed, it’s probably been crossed with a poodle. There are several living in the streets round about me, I see 4 or 5 daily. Easily half a dozen or more every time we go to the beach (which is usually weekly spring-autumn), at least one at every visit to the garden centre - dog-friendly, has a large pet section. We holidayed in another part of the country recently - more obvious poodle crosses at every turn. And of course that’s just the ones with the more obvious poodle cross characteristics, there are probably others I only define as ‘spaniel X’ or ‘Labrador X’ that may well be “-poos” too.

I frequently see many/most of the purebreeds that the poodles are crossed with around too - plenty of cockers, JRs, retrievers, the odd cavalier etc. But I hardly ever see a purebred poodle! I think I’ve seen two in the past 18 months or so - one black miniature, one apricot standard that I can recall. So where is all the poodle breeding stock being used to produce the many and varied crosses hiding??

Photo for 'proof'!

I'm registered with Champ dogs as looking for a KC registered poodle pup . We had one when I was a child and he was lovely. I was surprised to see there are quite a few KC registered home breeders near me as I thought I'd need to travel.

I have to say I really struggle to identify poodles from small cockerpoos as most of them are cut differently these days (less Pom-Pom style).

Here are my friend's poodles. She's always had them. She has a miniature one too. I have an Australian labradoodle who has a poodle coat. More of a distinct breed though as he looks exactly like his preceding generations and original stock was from Australia (no surprise there).

I've met quite a few miniature & standard poodles walking in Cassiobury Park & the Rickmansworth Aquadrome in the last few weeks. (Also a few newfies, a Tibetan mastiff, a Leonberger, giant schnauzer a couple of Kangals). Great spots for doggie spotting.

My humongous poodle mix pup does a special little dance whenever he meets most poodle or poodle mixes, even the teeny ones. I think it's his equivalent of jazz hands.

Next door to me. Noisy barky thing

People breed poodle crosses because they are popular and cannot be KC registered. Because buyers don't ask for paperwork bad breeders can back to back breed, as well as get away with litter after litter with no licence and no comeback. Many won't bother with health testing either. It's disgusting but true. Mind you there's a few KC reg breeders who do nefarious things with "purebred"pups too.

I have a miniature poodle! But I groom him myself and give him what I call a normal haircut so most don't recognise him as a poodle.

He is bathed every week, brushes daily and then just run over with the clippers and a scissor face tidy. He looks a little scruffy because I'm not a pro and never will be but we love him that way. Never had a matt etc.

There’s poodles everywhere where I live. Poodle crosses, minis, standards,doodles. There’s one in every colour and type imaginable.

I feel the odd one out not having a poodle or it’s relative 😄

Lots in the dog training world including the sports and activities. Standards and minis. The toys I have met are, erm, opinionated (and I say that as an owner of a terrier 😀) Really lovely dogs. No idea why you'd want a cross if you want something with poodle in.

SO hard to find a poodle these days! I wanted a poodle when researching to find Ddog and simply couldn't find one. We have a labradoodle, but she only has a smidge of lab and you would never, ever guess. She looks and behaves entirely poodly, except for a slightly shorter face and a lack of poodle fussy eating. She's gorgeous and we adore her.

Would definitely work doubly hard to find a full poodle next time though.

I saw a very sassy looking white toy poodle only this morning.
A friend of mine has a black standard poodle too. She's not cut in poodle style so you might think she's a cross but she's not.

The thing with poodles is, sometimes they don't look like poodles, depending how they are clipped (or never clipped). I've been surprised sometimes when I ask what type of dog it is and they say "poodle".

I've got a toy poodle, but there aren't many others round here, (SE) mainly crosses. He's home groomed and looks like any other dog, so people are always surprised when I tell them his breed.

There's the sweetest miniature one sitting on my feet!
But like pp said he's got a teddy cut, and he's phantom so a lot of people think he's a cross. He's clearly got the poodle stance and proud neck though, although he is nowhere near as smart as we were promised...

This my standard poodle. Hands down the best dog I've ever known. Depending on how her hair's cut I'm often asked "is she a groodle or a labradoodle?" People don't even consider she might be neither!

Here's my toy boy!

He's lovely!

I was wondering about something similar the other day after seeing two gorgeous ones out for a walk - how come we don’t see Scotties our and about much these days…I think it must have been some years since I had seen a Scottie.

I LOVE poodles! They're a fantastic breed ❤️

Here’s my mini parti coloured poodle. He is 1 year old and adorable!

Loving all the poodle pictures!

@Ovoconfused it's good to hear that these very scared rescue dogs can have a happy ever after 😊

Oh @bijouinnuendo1 your dog is my dream dog. I hope to have a poodle one day but will have to wait until our rescue Lhasa Apso has passed as she wouldn't be happy to share especially now she is an old girl.

There are a family of three standards near us, all with the traditional poodle lion clip and each a different colour. One black, one white, one red. It’s a great sight to see!

I think the breed's popularity still suffers from the old idea that they're prissy dogs. Suddenly poodle crosses became popular but its taken longer for poodles to be seen as a great breed themselves.

There are still good poodle breeders out there - my neighbour has one which came from a long standing breeder fairly local to us. Lovely dogs.