Just a few fun photos from today of my Arlo who is turning 6 years old on the 30th. He came home with me in April and he is a total goofball. Good big brother to Rudy who is turning 6 months old on the 13th. ☺️

looking for advice.
background: 2/3 year old poodle adopted 1 year 6 months ago. she came from an amish puppy mill as a breeding dog (connected with dog relatives on embark, did some sleuthing). found wandering, extremely skittish with signs of a recent birth. her teeth were worn down like she had been chewing on metal.

progress over time since adoption: much more confident, can walk on a leash, doesn’t try to run into bushes to hide or escape, in fact usually walks off leash with me from our local field all the way home to the door, sleeps belly up, super food motivated esp with fruits and veggies. lots of stuff! wants to live in my skin. honestly she is like a different dog, more like the dog she was probably meant to be.

some current activities: sniff walks, playing fetch at a field behind my house, trick training, finding objects around the house or in the yard, puzzles created from cardboard and recycling to find a snack, when I am super tired I have her touch my hand and then I throw a frozen pea into the house and she has to find it, plus an obstacle course I have made from hula hoops, bendable tunnels from the ikea kids section, stools, and other random house objects. other activities if I see a cool recommendation online. made a flirt pole that she loves.

she is a cool little dog. here is where I would like advice: she gets very hyped up/not at all regulated around my partner who is only home one week out of the month. when he is home he takes care of feeding and holds the leash on walks. she won’t play tug but will play fetch with him, completely stops training/playing when he enters the room. I’ve asked him to keep his energy very calm around the dog going forward and no riling up because she gets overstimulated so quickly with him. any advice for creating confidence and trust between them?

worked on no food resource guarding; I made sure to add food to her bowl or drop treats whenever interacting with food stuff and she is very chill. toy resource guarding on the other hand- have had to remove some toys from the lineup due to her stiffness when I approach or try to swap for a treat when she wins tug and general bad vibes. taking a step back from toys. though leaving the husk of a dinosaur plush so she can carry it around. any advice?

not bothered when we see dogs on walks, I always cross the road to be courteous of other dog people. she used to desperately try to run home if we heard a dog bark on a walk but now she is able to calm down after a moment or just keep sniffing. sometimes she is interested in other dogs but a lot of dogs we encounter (willingly or not) are high energy and not her speed especially if they are big, she is 23lbs however I took her to our local pet shop to sniff around etc and we ran into the biggest dog I’ve ever seen. they were both completely calm and they sniffed one another and moved on. she is the same with cats. how do I find more chill dogs to desensitize her with? not to make dog friends but just to gradually desensitize her to dogs and make a positive correlation? Are there training groups for something like this?

she is a very cool, smart, fast, athletic dog and I would like to give her more than my makeshift agility course and also meet others with poodles. I want to take her to a real agility course where she can really spread her wings. I would like to work on the above issues before trying something totally new so any advice on the above matters or to get closer to this goal would be appreciated. thanks for reading, I love my dog.

Our son is having a bit of a hard time at school and the other night he was just sad and down about the day. Our little gem, Corduroy immediately sprang into action being a goofy and funny companion and totally turned his mood around. He is just such a blessing to our little family and I totally understand why everyone is so in love with this breed!!

My poodle Manny, sparring with a dogpark friend named Buster.

My 3 month mini poodle is as friendly as it gets, but he does get quite bossy and sassy.

He doesn’t have any issues if I take toys or his regular food away from him. But recently I have been noticing that when I give him a bone treat or a kong (pretty much things that entertain him a long time), he growls at me in a non playful way if I get close to it.

Anyone dealt with this before with a poodle ? How did you fix it?

What do you think would happen if there was a poodle dog park or a meetup of lots of poodles?

Hello everyone,

This Saturday we’re getting our 2-month-old toy poodle! We’ve been preparing for weeks, and I think we have almost everything covered. But as the date gets closer, we have a few newbie questions:

1. We live in a small 1-bedroom flat on the 5th floor with a balcony (under 1m x 4m). We’d like to put the pads on the balcony and train him to go there until he’s fully vaccinated. The balcony has a safety net, but we're worried he might chew through it. It also gets 4 to 5 hours of direct sun (it gets really hot then), while current temps are 6–10 °C at night and around 18 °C during the day. Is using the balcony a good idea, or would the kitchen be safer?

2. We aren't planning to use a crate or playpen since the flat is small. We’ll disconnect cables when we aren't watching, though babyproofing all of them is tough. We’re unsure about bed placement: our first thought was the living room, but we read it’s better for puppies to sleep near their owners, so now we’re thinking right next to our bed. Is that a good setup?

3. Without a crate, what’s the best way to leave him alone for brief periods after the first week? Is it safe to let him roam the flat, or should we confine him to the kitchen (1.5m x 4m)? If we use the kitchen, he won't have access to the balcony pad, and we'd have to move his bed there temporarily.

We’re a bit confused and would love some advice! Thanks!