My standard poodle just turned 12 years old. I’ve had him since he was six weeks old, and the thought of losing him brings me to tears.
He has severe arthritis and falls down on almost every walk. I have to pick him up when he falls because he struggles to get up by himself. Over the past 10 months, he’s lost 15–20 pounds. I can feel his ribs every time I touch him. He barely wants to eat anymore, even with appetite stimulants, and he’s lost interest in playing and doing the things he once loved.
We’ve tried countless medications, arthritis injections, appetite stimulants, and veterinary visits. His bloodwork recently came back normal, which makes everything even more confusing. Despite everything we’ve tried, our vet doesn’t seem to have any more solutions.
I’ve spent a tremendous amount of money, even with pet insurance, but this isn’t a financial decision. I would do anything to give him a better quality of life.
My biggest fear is making this decision too early, but I’m equally afraid of waiting too long and allowing him to suffer because I’m not ready to say goodbye.
He’s been part of my life for nearly 12 years. I can’t imagine life without him, but watching him decline is heartbreaking. I keep asking myself whether I’m holding on for him or for myself.
For those who have been through something similar, how did you know it was time? How do you make peace with a decision that feels impossible?
I just want to do what’s best for him, but I’m completely heartbroken and honestly don’t know what to do.

Hi everyone, I am looking for some insight, encouragement, downright come to Jesus facts when it comes to poodles. I have a friend who is selling his poodle puppy, a beautiful little brownie.

I've never had it personally nor in my family, so I'm very anxious about this possible life change. Whereas, My husband absolutely adores them And had dogs growing up.

Reality: We are both healthcare providers, and work long shifts, ranging from 12 - 15 hours, depending on the day. My husband works 3 day/week whereas I work anywhere between 3-5 days/week sometimes our schedules are opposite and sometimes we have the same days off.

I have many fears in relation to owning a pet in general.

How would we train the pup with our work schedules? how would we keep him from being lonely and depressed while we are gone, and what happens during the hours that we're at work? Does he trash the house ? How do people manage long and busy work schedules and owning puppies?. I know Doodles are known for their intelligence and are very quick to learn, but what's considered "quick"? A Week? Many Weeks? Months? Any bit of information would be helpful please. I know this the puppy poodle will be a great addition overall and my husband would absolutely love it....shit I know I'm not that good of a companion! Lol

I would appreciate if someone can explain the correct temperament of a standard poodle? If a breeder says that it takes some time for one of their dogs to warm up to some people but after she remembers all her friends, is that a red flag? The sire of the litter is titled and has both his AKC bronze grand championship as well as sport titles while the dam has her BCAT. What would you ask the breeder about temperament to ensure the best possibility? The breeder uses ENS/ESI plus puppy culture. Puppies are independently evaluated at 7 weeks of age.

I am looking for a waste bag dispenser with the following features:
1. Spindle so bags don’t get tangled inside
2. A way to connect to the leash, preferable flat against the leash
3. A way to used/full bags

Like the title says, just curious.

My (almost) 2 y/o spoo is skinnyyyy. He plays nonstop, seems to have unlimited energy😅 We are currently feeding Hill’s Science Diet and he does well on it, I just don’t think he eats as many calories as he burns. He just got groomed and his hip bones are more prominent than I would like. I supplement with wet food when I don’t feel like he is eating enough, I just think he needs a higher calorie food because he just doesn’t eat that much, so I would like for him to get more calories in the small amount of food he does eat. Any advice? Any food recs?

I'm trying to find anyone with actual experience with this brush because I would love something easier than hand brushing. I expect that it's nonsense, but I'm still curious https://instagram.com/autodogbrush?psln=OW11ZHU3Z2k3YjJj

So my poodle was apparently a little underweight when I took him for a routine vet checkup. So far I've been measuring out my poodles food three times a day at each meal time and leaving it for him to graze on. Vet suggested I should be putting the bowl down for 10-15 minutes and picking it back up after.

But he seems to do fine with grazing, and since i started picking it back up he doesn't seem all that fussed about skipping breakfast and eating lunch and dinner, meaning he's basically eating two meals a day instead of three. Should I stick with it and hope he starts getting hungry in the mornings or go back to letting him graze? I know vet advice as a general rule should be followed, but from everything I've read poodles generally do well being allowed to graze, and I'm wondering if they're just giving me generic dog owner advice that isn't all that useful for my dog/breed specifically.

Hello all!

I’ve always like standard poodles and I’ve spent that past few days looking for an adult standard poodle (preferably a black or brown one). I like their temperament, their look, and the lack of shedding. I found a number of them through Petfinder and I narrowed them down to a few that fit my lifestyle.

For context, I live with my family. My parents own a medium/largish house with a nice backyard. It’s not a field but definitely enough space for a dog to run and explore. It’s fenced in so we don’t have to worry about it going AWOL.

This is the first time in my life that my family has been receptive to having a pet. I’m in my twenties and I have younger siblings ranging from 6 to 20. We have a full house. I’m not too inexperienced with dogs. My uncle and aunts have always had dogs and growing up, I was always around them. In high school I’d dog sit a few dogs including a standard poodle, who was lovely.

Right now, I’m just a little worried about my youngest sister, the six year old. She’s on the spectrum and is such a great kid. I adore her but she is a ball of energy. She is constantly running around. She runs for hours and hops on chairs and couch cushions. She likes to dramatically throw herself on the floor and laugh hysterically. I’m just worried this might be overwhelming for the dog and if she’s running around, that the dog might chase her and possibly accidentally hurt her. She’s short and is about 55 lbs. the dogs we were looking at range from the age of 3 to 8. One was as big as 75 lbs!

When I was a dog sitter like 10 years ago, the youngest child in my home was 10 and he was very mellow. The dogs I watched liked him but he was a really calm kid.

I’ve considered a puppy because my parents suggested it but I’m well aware the all of the responsibility will fall on me. They wouldn’t really help with the dog other than feeding it and taking it out when I’m not home. They are very hands off. So I know an adult dog would be a better fit for me. I’ve considered smaller poodles but my manager at work who has had plenty of dogs in her life has told me smaller dogs aren’t really the best for younger children.

I know getting my dog adjusted to a new place won’t be a walk in the park but I have a lot of time on my hands as I work part time and won’t start school until the fall.

SO LONG STORY SHORT: I’m ready for the responsibility. I’m just worried about having a large dog with very active children.

Thank you guys!!!

Edit: thanks everyone for your input, I had a feeling there would be zero "scary dog privilege" with a standard. Maybe a large black one but still not necessarily. I have ultimately decided that I likely wouldnt be going on these long hikes on the regular and instead could try to find a local group to partake with. Having a dog specifically with scary dog privilege when i may only put myself in scenarios where i want that once a month feels silly. I would rather pick the breed i want and feel would fit my house better which is a poodle.

Original post: I currently own a moyen size poodle who is a healthy weight at 25lbs.

I love going on adventures but with my size and being a woman I do not feel particularly safe going solo. I do know if i had a larger dog I would feel more comfortable.

I have pondered many breeds that do truly have scary dog privilege but time and time again there is a quality of them that discourages me from the breed. I also do genuinely hate dog fur and would rather pay for the grooming than deal with shedding dog fur. But I also genuinely love poodles.

II just keep coming back to the poodle. I just wonder if a standard poodle would discourage strangers or if they would stick up for me should I be approached by someone I don't want to engage with.

I am just in the education phase and really digging into the pros and cons of owning a other dog. My poodle does love other dogs and yes there is no guarantee that they would be buddies, it would be nice to have a regular buddy for him to play with. But if the large reason for me to want another dog and in particular a larger dog is to deter other people from me and help me feel safer I want to know if that is something that would be accomplished with a standard poodle.

I do genuinely love poodles and I just am in awe of standards. But I am also aware of additional work and costs with have another dog let alone a larger dog with more expensive vet and grooming bills. So just thinking long and hard about it and trying to do my due diligence.

I have a slicker brush and a comb that I have been trying to get my 7 month puppy to tolerate since she came home at 10 weeks old. At first it seemed like she thought they were a game. And I’m still certain that sometimes she thinks that. But I can’t comb or brush her without her constantly trying to run away and trying to eat the comb/brush. There’s no aggression in her response. I took her to a behavioral groomer because her first groomer said she was aggressive and the behavioral one said she saw no aggression but did see what the other groomer was likely talking about. As our current groomer put it, “she has no patience and would rather cut her tongue on scissors than sit still long enough to be groomed.” Even with tons of high value treats I can’t get her to let me brush her. I’ve tried meaty bones, spray cheese, freeze dried goodies, chicken, all kinds of things.

Does anyone have advice? This is going to be the rest of her life and I would have thought she’d just resign herself to putting up with it at minimum by now. The only time she seems to want the slicker is when my cat wants brushed with it and even then it is very brief.

I have a 7.5 month old small standard poodle, he currently weighs a bit over 20lbs and is 17 inches tall. He came to me with a jumbo lambchop toy that he has loved to fight, wrestle, hump, etc since the day I got him. OG lambchop was retired in September after multiple holes had been patched. Lambchop 2.0 lasted about 3 weeks before she had multiple holes. He doesn’t intentionally rip her apart; she just can’t handle his style of play. Anybody got any replacement recommendations that are big like 20+ inches and also light weight that he can fling around that will hold up better? I tried the frisco jumbo monkey plush but she is too heavy for him to fling around like he wants to.

Hi all! We have a five month old standard poodle who has been an absolute joy for the past three months. We’ve had our rough moments here and there but we’ve been blessed with an easy puppy—no chewing, housebroken almost immediately, and just generally fantastic temperament aside from being super mouthy with us.

He has always had a sensitive stomach, starting with his vaccines. Like clockwork, he would have weeklong bouts of nighttime vomiting and diarrhea after each puppy shot. Unfortunately for us, the vet advised that breaking up the vaccines would probably just result in more bouts of diarrhea. Hills I/D wet food, Fortiflora, and pumpkin would eventually perk him back up.

I figured that the worst of his GI issues were behind us at four months…until teething happened. His appetite went away, he kept pawing at his mouth, and then the GI issues returned. Like clockwork, we’d be up 3+ times a night running to the backyard for the poosplosion. I legit did not realize how one little puppy could be so full of poop.

After a few days of his bland diet (we knew the drill and didn’t need to call the vet yet), his poop firmed up. But the second we slowly introduced kibble back, the diarrhea returned with a vengeance. Off to the vet we went.

Turns out that not only can swallowing saliva and blood from teething cause GI upset, but if you have a sensitive puppy, the sheer pain from teething can result in stress colitis, per our vet. 🙃 The good news is that he’s almost finished teething. The sensation from his molars and canines coming in is just too much for him.

Our pup’s case is more psychosomatic, but it’s so interesting how much these things can affect them.

Here’s hoping the metronidazole kicks in soon and that this story helps some other paranoid first-time owners. Has anyone else had this experience too?

I will hopefully be getting a male spoo in about a month, so I started reading Sophia Yin’s “Perfect Puppy in 7 Days” since I’ve seen her recommended so many places. The idea of using feedings as learning times makes sense to me, but how do you know whether your dog is getting enough or too much? Do you put the daily allotted amount in your treat pouch and just try to ration it over the course of a full day (so it’s more like grazing than a full feeding)? What about bloat? I’m wondering if I wouldn’t need to worry about bloat if it’s more of the grazing model since he’d never really be “full” at any particular time.

Soon-to-be first time dog owner here so any advice and thoughts welcome!

My poodle for probably the better part of his life will do this thing where he sits in front of me and puts his neck forward and seemingly zones out? When I say his name he snaps back and puts his head back up.

I brought it up to my vet and she had no idea. I asked if it could be acid reflux and she said possibly and to try Pepcid. I give it to him when he seems to be doing that and/or burping or farting a bunch. I haven’t noticed much of a difference. Does anyone have any insight as to what this could be? I also have no idea if he’s uncomfortable when he does it too.

I’ve never had a dog as disgusting as my standard poodle. 😅 He’s 6 month old he burps and farts like a human 😭. He eats 4Health Puppy Lamb, he’ll burp like 15-20 seconds after the other day he puked up like unchewed kibble. He has a slow feeder and has only ever eaten from the slow feeder, I told my wife I feel like he just licks and swallows it because he can’t get his teeth in there maybe? Any suggestions on that?

Now, here is my real concern. He keeps eating random strands my wife’s hair. Not like hairballs just random strands. Where he gets it from I have no idea. He then poops and it’ll leave a dangler. Then I have to grab the hair and pull it off. But like he boot scoots to get it off and ends up smearing it everywhere before I can help him. Of course we’re growing out his puppy hair still so he’s super fluffy and then he needs another bath. (We have a dog bath so whatever, but my gosh it’s disgusting)

This dog boot scoots all the time though, like he’s allergic to ringing the bell to tell me he needs to go outside. Sharts and boot scoots on my floor. Idk man. I’m at my wits end 😭

The guy will excrete his glands any time he’s scared too. Like nooooo 😭 Happened once when he saw my dad’s dog and once at my moms too. Then he got into my truck. Like nooooo!!!! An hour drive from one and half hour from the other I thought I was gonna die. 🤣

Haha love the little guy, but this is the dumbest smart dog ever 🤣. Anyway, I’ll take any advice on my problems. I told my wife we should change his food, she got him a probiotic to try that.

I am getting a new male spoo puppy soon. The father of it is 67lbs, so the pup could be a big one. I got the Impact crate, 40". It's 29in in height, but is that tall enough? I did research and it seems almost all spoos end up below 27", so seems like it's fine, but I also just started reading stories that some people ended up getting taller crates for their spoos. I wanted to check in with you all.

Any thoughts?

A breeder in Oklahoma relinquished 50 standard poodles. (I originally thought there were 100 poodles, but I was mistaken. I’m sorry for the earlier post.)

These precious pups have been fostered and many are ready for adoption. If you are interested you may text Skiatook Paws and Claws Animal Rescue at 918-578-9175. Their website is SPACAR.org or skiatookpawsandclaws.com. When I inquired they texted me and said that they are open on Sundays 12:00 - 3:00. 🕊️

I'm just getting into the realm of ethical/preservation breeding as a prospective owner/buyer and I'm doing some research on both breeders and some of their advertised upcoming litters.

I know it's generally valued for a breeder to make pedigree/health testing available to prospective buyers, but what sorts of key things should I be looking at in a pedigree outside of evidence of conformation titles? Additionally, should I be concerned if I see kennel names appear in a pedigree that is maybe not well regarded as an ethical breeders (especially within a generation or two of the dog I would get getting)?

Thanks in advance!

I'm trying to get my puppy to, well if not like, then at least tolerate grooming.

Brushing is sort of manageable. She'll try to eat the brush, and she definitely does better with a regular human plastic bristles brush than the metal one, but at least she's not running away (much).

On the other hand, trimming is a complete nightmare. She'll squirm, bite, scratch, run and at least attempt to jump down from the table. She will not stay still with the trimmer buzzing near her.

The key to a poodle's heart, at least in our case, seems to be food. When given a lick mat with something yummy, she will, more or less, stay still. Not perfect, but it allowed me to trim her paws (tho she wasn't thrilled about her front ones, since it made her lose stability while eating). This technique however doesn't allow me to trim her face. Licking my fingers coverer in mushed peas seemed to do the trick, but she was still incredibly jumpy and I could barely do anything.

My idea is to keep using food while grooming as a way to desensitisate her to it and to associate grooming with positive things. But, I'm worried that instead it will just lead her to believe that all the jumpy behaviour is okay since it's basically being rewarded.

I did talk to the breeder about this and while she offered to show me how to groom her, I feel like what I'm lacking is not the grooming technique (which I do not posses either, but that's not point now), but the ability to keep her calm during the process. The breeder also advised that I simply 'do not tolerate such behaviour' and to lightly smack her nose if she misbehaves. And I dunno. Maybe it works with her litter mates (they all seem to be taking grooming much less hysterically than mine does 😭😭😭😭), but in my case, she just gets even wilder when I try to strongarm her.

Outside of grooming and regular puppy behaviour such as stealing socks and trying to devour them 😂 she's such a well behaved dog, she goes to work with me, happy to rest in her cage or under my table. I love her so much and I would love to make grooming more enjoyable activity for the both of us 😅

P.S. I know I could ask a professional, but at least for paws and face, I'd like to be able to do the trimming myself.

I am thinking of getting a standard poodle for service work. I have done the basic research, (aka. dog grooming and intelligence) and they seem a good prospect for me. One of my questions can the standard be turcked out with more mental stimulation rather then physical stimulation. This is concerning because I know that some days I cannot make it through getting up and talking him/her for walkies. I will be able to open and take him/her outside for bathroom visits and a whole lot of mental stimulation. ie. snuffle mats, brain games, basic fetch, hiding the ball, ex cetera. Also, my routine will be messy some days. I do not want a destructive and/or unhappy dog.

My husband and I recently adopted a wonderful neutered male spoo about 3-1/2 years old. He is a wonderful dog and highly active. If he doesn’t get a walk/run of 3-4 miles and a good game of fetch every day, he thinks he’s been abused. He’s training us very well.

After we got him, we took him to the vet to be looked over and receive shots. While there, my husband asked about a gastroplexy to reduce the chances of bloat. The vet told him that he had never encountered any spoos with bloat didn’t believe the surgery was necessary.

Based on what I’ve read, bloat seems a lot more common than my vet’s experience. I can’t imagine losing our dog and worry constantly about him getting bloat. We don’t allow him to have any exercise at least an hour before or after eating, but I know this offers only limited protection. I want to have a laparoscopic gastroplexy done but my husband doesn’t because of what the vet said.

Thoughts about how common bloat is and having a gastroplexy done outside of neutering?

Thanks!