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??

Poodles forever 😍😍😍

We’ve always had poodles in our family. Our local vet has told me many of the mixed breeds are now crosses of crosses and the crosses they see now are very different from five years ago.

We are on our sixth!
pesky, almost untrainable, stubborn but very funny and lovable.

@Abra1t the two I saw were so gorgeous, they just oozed personality. When they ran they looked like they were wearing little skirts, so funny!

Ours makes us laugh every day.

My cousin has toy poodles and has had a litter of pure breads from the one.
My boss has a lovely toy poodle. He has a teddy bear cut and most people think he is a cross. He’s a proper poodle character, intelligent, cheeky and very easy to train. I’m fact I sometimes think he has trained the boss rather than the other way round.

If any of my friends are reading this, they'll think you are me! The dog noticing and spotting (and fussing over) and I have also recently expressed surprised a few times at why poodles aren't more popular. Having said that, there are 2 standards I know near me and a few miniature/toy plus my dog walker has the most adorable toy with her sometimes.

Here's my poodle.

Nothing else to add, really. Just wanted to show off his magnificence

Ps loving the poodle photos!!! They're all GORGEOUS ❤️❤️❤️

I have two Toys. Prior to having these, I had 3 Standards. It drives me a bit nuts when people say they got their poodle crossbreed because they wanted a dog that won’t shed and/or is better for allergies. Just get a pedigree Poodle then. To add insult to this, a young woman crooned over my two on a walk, then asked what they are crossed with. I answered “they are pure bred poodles”. Oh, she said “it’s only a Poodle”! ONLY A POODLE 🤬

" only a poodle "

@AnnieSnap I think they're gorgeous. I went to look at some silver pup's last weekend and I fell in love . DD prefers the poo crosses but if I'm going to pay alot of money for my dog I want it to be a pedigree and hav a good solid and traceable lineage.

@MadamClench A wise decision. My vet told me they are seeing a huge level of health problems in the cross breeds, especially the Cocker/Poodle cross. She said people think the dog won’t have the health problems that some breeds have in the genetics because it’s a cross breed, but in fact the dogs inherit health vulnerabilities from both breeds. To add insult to injury, they are more expensive than a purebred dog. She told me that one who was brought into her (cocker/poodle cross) cost £4000! The vets don’t rate them and neither do the groomers because they often have coats that are a combination of wool and fur and are a nightmare to groom. Both vets and groomers find a lot are pretty snappy too. Good luck with your search.