Hi, I am very new to the world of Poodles and am hoping to adopt another male this spring. I have a three-year old male we brought home at 9-10 weeks. I gather another male would be the route to take???? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 1. Do white Poodles have more sensitivities, or health problems?

2. Do they have poorer eyesight in general? (Ours seems to be afraid of large dark items and does not appear to see as well as I think he should.). In addition, I realize, one eye is slightly larger than the other is.

3. The invisible fence..... good or bad? I thought once the Poodle learned boundaries, was older, he might obey without having to wear the collar, if we reinforced the training from time to time. We live on an acre of ground, which runs into the woods/stream. Lots of wild life, including many deer making their two daily runs by the end of our property, sometimes coming close to the house. Our boy likes to chase the rabbits more, because I suspect he is afraid of the larger sized deer, and rabbits are the size of our 12-year old inside cat he likes to chase around the house.

4. How easily do they break their legs? He scares us racing around and skipping steps if he is not sleepy.

5. He is a slow riser..... likes to sleep in, which is fine, if I do not have to go out early.

6. He likes to lie under a table, which my husband will not allow because he feels it could cause problems later in life as happened with two other breeds of dogs we had. Dogs are cave dwellers and our male is large and likes to be able to watch all three of at the same time if possible, but not be under foot. Should we continue to prevent him from finding ' caves'?

7. He suffers from separation anxiety big time, and I do not go out on a regular basis. He also waits and gets antsy when my daughter isn't home by a certain time. She 'never' comes in at a set time like my husband, but he lays at the front door, which I try to leave open even in cold weather. He can see 'what's happening' when he hears sounds. I have a bird feeder hanging a few feet from the front door, which keeps him, interested when I am working in the kitchen.

8. When I go out and leave him, I could really leave him loose in the house, which is good because we need a watchdog. He prefers to be fenced into a bed room...... a baby fence that he could easily push over, but never has, despite deliveries made while I was out.

9. He is particularly wild when I return home, if a package has been left on the porch. Obviously, the noise of the delivery person upsets him, and I would think he would like to be able to go to the door or peek out the picture window.

10. Moods..... He is moody, like no other dog I have owned. I do not understand why the moods hit as they do. Yes, the minute he figures out I am getting dressed to go out, he will sulk and eventually put himself to bed. Are all poodles like this?

11. He is not thrilled with eating yet and if he knows I am going out, will skip breakfast. After 20 minutes of not eating, I remove his food. Doesn't help the next time. (Eukanuba, lamb/rice kibble).

12. We love the disposition of this dog. The same bitch and sire were bred for a litter, due in late April. We love this loving, silly, playful, sophisticated, strutting boy and would feel safer dealing with the same breeder. On the other hand, I had always wanted a black Poodle and my husband is concerned if we get another white, he cannot tell them apart. I think there are many remedies for that.

13. Teeth: they yellow easily despite my cleaning and using kibble and special teeth cleaning toys, which he has absolutely no interest in anymore.... he out grew them I guess. I had to have his teeth cleaned last spring, something I've never encountered with any of my pets. He is far too young to have this problem, I feel, unless it is common with Poodles.

14. Mouth noises.... guess they all make those? It can keep me awake. I have trimmed hair around his mouth, thinking the fast growing hair was inside his mouth and annoying him.

15. He has not a mean bone in his body and you can do anything to him. Are all Poodles this way, or is this from his breeding?

16. He has a very high pain threshold, which is 'not good'. He was not eating much for about a month and I was watching him closely and making special meals to get him to eat occasionally, because his stomach made so much noise. I attributed it to being empty. WRONG....... he was in distress and began bleeding from the rectum one morning early. I rushed him to our vet who kept him for the day, after running tests. All came back negative, thank goodness and it has never happened since, but we are constantly on guard and a bit afraid when he refuses food, nowadays. The vet said he couldn't understand how the dog could be so lively, look so well and act so 'crazily wild' (his reaction to the pain perhaps??). He had a fever of 103 degrees, but early on when I suspect illness, he had no temperature. The vet has mentioned several times, if his intestine was in spasm like our guy, he would be on the floor rolling and screaming. He kept saying.... "He is a tough guy". Who knew? I do now, and take a temperature at the slightest provocation, because how else can I tell if he going to be very sick or it is merely a bad day.

17. Last question for now.... When we took the dog to his first BD party, held by the breeder, he became excited and began to bleed from a paw. She said that is high blood pressure and is not anything to be concerned with. They stemmed the bleeding and it has not happened again. He definitely had not injured the paw.

WOULD THERE BE REASONS TO FIND ANOTHER BREEDER AND PERHAPS ENCOUNTER WORSE PROBLEMS WHEN WE ARE VERY HAPPY WITH THIS DOG'S EARLY IMPRINTING AND SPECIAL ONE ON ONE PUPPY CARE 24/7?

-- Anonymous, March 03, 2002