You say "Poodle" Like It's a Bad Word!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

So many times I see people mention that they don’t want their Doodle to look like a Poodle.  I often want to say back, “then why did you pick a dog with Poodle in it?”  My two dogs, in looks, are as different as night and day.  I have never had a Poodle before, but I have had Labrador Retrievers, so I guess that makes me expert enough to say that Fudge is definitely our more “poodley” dog.  Of course, I could pick up a book and read all about Poodles and educate myself with actual facts, but that goes against everything I believe in and just isn’t my way.  No, I prefer to compare what our Labs used to do to what Fudge and Vern do and declare anything the Doodles do that is different than what our Labs did a Poodle trait and move on. My kids will tell you that I am an expert on many topics, if only in my own mind.  Our Fudge is just built differently than any of our Labs.  She is slender and regal and graceful and prances when she walks or runs and all of these traits make her all the more endearing to me.  She could be groomed to look exactly like a show Poodle, but Vern, even on a good day, could not.  Even if I had to sneak him out of the country and his life depended on it, he could not pull off any other look than the Vern look, which so far, seems to be more oversized, dirty mop than anything else.  Sometimes, after Fudge gets groomed, I call her Fifi for a bit, but I never worry that she looks like a Poodle. She is, after all, more Poodle than Lab and the Poodle part has given her lots and lots of beautiful qualities. 

Poodle, Doodle, or Mop??

My niece is Caucasian and her husband is African American.  When they were getting ready to have their third child, a boy, their middle child had lots of questions about the color of babies and how it all works.  He kept wanting to know how a peach lady could have a brown baby and they tried to explain the world of genetics the best they could to a six year old.  Shortly after he met his new little brother, he blurted out, “oh man, I just knew we were going to get a peach baby.”

Brothers sharing a moment!

The story makes me laugh every time I tell it, because he is the same little boy who still refers to Fudge and Vern as the brown dog and the white dog.  He had some of the same questions for me and mostly wanted to know what color their puppies would be and thought it would be fun if they got together and had some.  The kid is full of questions and asked to see my muscles the last time I saw him and when I flexed my arm, he was not impressed and said, "Noodle arm!" which I think I like even less than "Peach lady!"  Anyways, I think I told him that Fudge and Vern couldn’t have babies, but I figured if I went into a lengthy discussion about spaying and neutering all he would say when I was done was, “oh man, I just knew you would say something long, Aunt Laurie.”  Some things are just better left to parents to explain and preventing Fudge and Vern from having puppies and the colors babies come in just seems to fall in those categories.

 

When our daughter told us she was dating a man named Doc, I never thought to ask about his nationality.  My first question was, “Does he hang out in the woods with a woman named Snow White and six dwarfs?” and my second question was my standard, “Is he prepared to marry you and support you, so Dad and I can have a break?”

Turns out, the answer to the first question was his name is actually Doc-Lap and he is Vietnamese and the second answer was no, because she wasn’t completely done depleting our savings for her college education.  Actually, I may be exaggerating just a bit on the last answer, but we did have to explain to her several times while she was in college that the slot she kept trying to insert her ATM card into was our mouth and no money was going to come out when she finished. That lecture was usually accompanied by another that there was a place called a grocery store where supplies could be purchased and that we A) did not offer rebates or refunds B) We did not have shopping carts or baskets C) we didn’t know when the Cheerios would be restocked D) we didn’t have enough plastic or paper bags to bag up all her “purchases” and E) we did not employ a grocery stock boy to carry her bags to the car.  She usually got mad and asked to see the store manager.

 

What does all this mean concerning Poodles and Doodles?  The part about my daughter and her college days absolutely nothing, but it is always fun to re-tell those stories.  The other part about peach babies and my daughter marrying a wonderful man who is Vietnamese a lot. Genetics is all very cool stuff and it makes life unpredictable to some degree.  In the words of my nephew, “peach ladies can most definitely have brown babies,” and in my words, “tall ladies can give birth to children who grow up to be short.”  My daughter has every possibility of having a child that looks nothing like her and everything like her husband.  The same holds true to any dog with the ending of oodle behind their name.  Sometimes, your Doodle may look more like a Poodle, or a Retriever, or a Lab, or maybe a big old mop, but how can that be a bad thing when you picked a dog from two wonderful dog breeds? Personally, I like the unpredictability of babies and puppies, because life could be very dull if we always knew what to expect.

I'll take the one on the  second row, third from the left!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

DJ, Thank you!! I so agree about the wonderful results. Chance always looks perfect to me.

Kyoko, Our Fudge is 3/4 poodle, too, and I never really even thought about all that before we got her. Dumb luck in our case, because I just love our Fudge....orneriness and all :) I love your descriptions about your dogs. They are all just so unique.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Camilla, LOL...I like pretty irreverent :) I think sometimes we all take ourselves too seriously :) Thank you! Thanks for proving my point :)

F, Thank you!!

Joanne, I think you are stressing too much about that shirt :) He is adorable in any color and you are projecting your hate of Mustard onto that poor kid :) LOL I bet you look just fine in yellow. Joanne, You make me laugh and I love how you think and put your thoughts out there. You are peachy, too :) I do love Olive Garden.

Miss Ellie, I agree...I love to see the puppies and then the adult look. They are all so cute in their own way. Thank you!! You have a great day, too!

J, I always think of Luna when someone talks about no poodle in their doodle. I love Luna's look and it is very neat that she prances and bounces like Poodley Fudge :)

Janie, Thank you! You have beautiful Doodles!!

Cheryl, I once met the most beautiful brown Poodle on our walk and I honestly thought about getting a Poodle before Vern. It was because of that dog. So sweet and good natured. They are beautiful creatures :) Vern has bedhead, too, most days. LOL Another similarity to mini-Vern. Your Christmas sounds fun and very interesting. It really is what a holiday should be all about....embracing people for who they are and not what they are.

Thanks, Bonnie!

Charlotte, Thank you and I loved your blender comment :)

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

What kind of bothers me is when people tie the way the dog looks to how they feel about them....like "of you grow up looking like a Poodle....I will not be able to love you".  We pick dog breeds for lots of different reasons and one person"s "cute" may not be another's...but to tie cuteness to love feels so wrong to me.  As always Laurie, I think there were lots of us bothered by the last "Poodle comment", but in your own humorous and clever way you made it into a great blog.

[Camilla and Darwin]

Ha, this was awesome and I completely agree with you! Darwin looks like a poodle much more than a Golden I think, and he's the cutest! Your nephews are seriously so adorable by the way!

Coming from a Caucasian mother and a Hispanic father, you would think that I would have a more exotic look. Nope. In my family we are pretty irreverent about our heritage and I'm jokingly referred to as one of the whitest Mexicans ever. LOL. My brother Carlos totally looks the part though. You just never know! 

[F, Calla & Luca]

I love your sentiment J and I think you and Laurie are peachy : )

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I'd rather be a peach than an olive. Opposites attract and compliment each other. I love your nephew please buy him a shirt that goes with Olive. Actually, our olive skin looks fantastic in peach shiirts

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I'm an Olive Lady. Truly, olives taste yucky. Maybe, I thought, I have so much olive in my skin, my body now rejects any more olive added as I'm full ( of it).
You make my days Peachy, Laurie. I have this feeling you do the same for your niece and her family also. All warm and Fuzzy Peachy.
It might be said that an Olive and Peach, combo lunch would just not go together at all, but you make my days full.

[Miss Ellie]

I LOVE all the different looks of a doodle...that's what makes this breed so unique...they are all gorgeous and give the same amount of love & happiness...thanks for your blog Laurie...I always look forward to seeing yours...Have a wonderful day...and a big hello to Fudge & Vern:o)

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Luna LOOKS really retrieverish but she is often bouncy and prancy like a poodle :)  

The only time she looks remotely poodleish is when she's having a bath and you can see her LONG, skinny poodle legs really well.

[Janie, Jackson and Jilly]

Love it Laurie! I don't get the poodle thing either, but I know under all that fluff that my two carry around is that beautiful poodle body and the prance to go along with it! I too love the wonderful surprises that the doodle mix brings!
Your nephews are just adorable!