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!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Rex was a standard poodle and he was a wonderful dog.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

BG, it was actually "an a**hole poodle", and it made me cringe, too.

Yep, that prancing, head-up, tail held high and proud, "everybody look at me" stride is 100% poodle, and I agree that it's beautiful. There's very little in this world that's more attractive than self-confidence. :) 

[Lonnie & Libby Lu]

Great blog Laurie and so true!  There is an old saying "Variety is the spice of life" and if we were all in the Stepford Wives world how boring that would be!  Doodles are Doodles and they come in all sizes, colors, fur textures, personalities, temperaments and how grateful I am to own one!  Libby is Libby and I love her just the way she is:)  Your nephews are adorable and I'm sure they love their Auntie Laurie very much:)

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Pat, Thank you!! I really love when he talks about peach people :) LOL

Karen, I have been very worried about you and I am so glad you are back. Every single thing you said made perfect sense. I love every part of both my dogs and would not change much about either of them and what I would change has nothing to do with Poodle or Lab :) Thank you and don't leave again :)

F, I can be wise :) LOL I can't wait for those grand kids. Hurry up, Megan and Doc :)

BG, I think I saw that post. It bugs me, too. Gavin must differ in his stride from Vern :) LOL Thank you!!

[BG and Gavin]

They was a recent post I read (on DK or elsewhere) which made me cringe.  For my own peace of mind I have conveniently forgotten who the poster was.  However it was about a misbehaving dog being labeled as "acting like a poodle...ugh."  Maybe it was just a joke? But it rubbed me the wrong way.  I have never owned either pure breed, so I am not sure what traits to assign to what parent.  However, when I walk Gavin and he hits his stride, prancing like a show pony with his tail waving like a flag and his head held high and proud and people stop me on the street (sometimes they are in cars) and say things like he is striking or he is beautiful (often coming from men!) I think to myself...yup that's the poodle in him.  Thanks for this blog.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Ah Laurie a wise blog. Isn't nature wonderful. What diversity! Love the doodles and the nephews and I am sure the grandchildren will be as wonderful.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Love this, Laurie. You managed to hit on one of my pet peeves and made me laugh in the process. 

I am constantly baffled as to how supposedly intelligent, rational adults could believe that one parent always contributes only the genes for hair and the other parent always contributes the genes for everything else, including personality and temperament. I am so tired of the question "why have you chosen a doodle" being answered with "we love Golden (Labrador) Retrievers but hate the shedding. We wanted a dog with the temperament of the Labrador (Golden) Retriever but without the shedding". Do they ever consider that the temperament of the poodle with the shedding of the retriever is also a possibility? 

If a pregnant woman told you that her baby was going to inherit his father's hair but every other feature and trait would be just like hers, would you bet any serious money on that? 

Worse yet is "my husband hates poodles and I hate shedding, so we compromised." In other words, we're planning to spend thousands of dollars and the next 12 to 15 years living with a dog who had at least 50% of his genetic material contributed by a breed that we hate."

No wonder all of DRC's foster homes are currently filled. 

Thanks for putting it out there with humor, Laurie.

(PS: I'm back, lol)

[Pat and Traveler]

Cute blog, Laurie!  Love the unpredictability of life.  Trav is like Fudge--he can look soooo much like a poodle.  That little boy and his 'peach' people--doesn't get much cuter than that.  :)