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Poodle Temperament and Personality. What Makes Poodles Act The Way They Do

poodles dressed up

Last updated on March 15th, 2021 at 04:35 am


What is the Temperament of a Poodle Like?

Generally, by nature, poodles are curious and very social dogs. They love people and they get along well with people. A poodle will go the extra mile to catch your attention. Poodles are always willing to please you. This explains why poodles were used in circus shows a long time ago.

Moreover, poodles are very intelligent dogs. Poodles were ranked as the second most intelligent dog according to a study done by Dr. Stanley Coren, a professor of canine psychology. Poodle`s high intelligence makes it very easy to train them to be obedient. However, a poodle`s intelligence is different from the intelligence of other dogs. A poodle`s intelligence is not dog-like intelligence. The type of intelligence seen in poodles is different. Poodles have the type of intelligence that makes them seem more human-like than dog-like.

Poodles can empathize. My poodle gets agitated and disturbed whenever she hears the sound of a crying baby (on TV or from my phone). Poodles are patient and loving. Poodles have been used as therapy dogs. Poodles can also be very playful, while still gentle. Hence, they get along well with young children.

Because of their intelligence, poodles get bored easily. You need to provide them a lot of social and mental stimulation to keep them occupied and happy.

Moreover, poodles are also very trainable. They can be taught anything as long as you are willing to take the time to teach them. Tricks, commands, hunting, agility training, obedience training, you name it. However, poodles can be stubborn sometimes. And take a long time before they pick up what you are trying to teach them. But when the learn something, they do not forget it.

Poodles also have a high emotional IQ. A poodle can tell when you are happy with her or annoyed at her, based on the tone of your voice, your body language, or facial expression. This is probably because poodles and humans have lived alongside each other for many centuries. Poodles, over the course of these years, have learned to understand us and have even learned to act like us.

Poodles are also very sensitive. They get easily heartbroken if they feel that they have been let down. If you discipline a poodle, she will show remorse. She will feel so bad that you can tell. And she might start acting scared of you. Poodles have a great awareness of what is right and what is wrong.

Poodles are very dedicated to their owners. Give a poodle love and attention, and she will return the favor 10 times more. A poodle will practically be your shadow around the house, following you everywhere you go once a poodle knows that she can count on you.

Poodles are very athletic. They like to play. It takes them a long time to get tired even when you deliberately try to wear them out by playing with them. Even, when they get tired, after a few minutes of time out, they will start asking you to get back to playing with them.

Poodles, especially the standard poodle which is of bigger size among the other poodle varieties, make excellent guard dogs because they are smart enough to tell an intruder from a harmless visitor. However, some poodles can just too friendly that they think of every human as a friend. Generally, poodles are great companion dogs that get along well with people and other dogs. Poodles get along well with kids. They are excellent family dogs.

However, a poodle may not demonstrate the above-discussed temperament based on the reasons that we will be discussing next.

What Drives a Poodle’s Temperament?

You may end up getting a poodle that has a temperament that seems nothing like what you have read about. Why does your poodle appear not to be a good specimen of the poodle breed? Does it have to do with what color poodle you have? Does it have to do with parent temperaments or how the breeder raised your puppy? Or does it have something to do with how you have trained your puppy? There’s a lot that goes into a poodle’s temperament, and we will talk about all the different things that drive temperament.

Does a Poodle`s Color Affect a Poodle`s Temperament?

There is a common misconception about poodles and their temperaments, and that is the idea that poodles of different colors have different temperaments. Although there may be some trends of temperament that correspond with colors that are prominent in certain lines, the color itself is not a driving force of temperament.

Some poodle owners will claim, for example, that they owned three black standard poodles who were calm and well behaved, and then they got one parti poodle that was hyper and difficult to train. They conclude that they will only get black poodles because they have better temperaments. And while that person’s experience may be true, it anecdotal evidence at best, and it is much more likely it was just a coincidence.

However, let’s say certain lines tend to produce calm poodles, and those lines also tend to throw a lot of black puppies. This may account for the correlation some people see between color and temperament. But we should remember that correlation is not causation. Just because we see a trend of certain personality types among certain colors of poodles does not mean that the color is the cause of their temperament.

Many litters of poodles have a variety of colors. You can see a litter from the same set of parents that has a black, a red, a parti, and a phantom all in the same litter. These puppies are likely to have similar temperaments because they come from the same set of parents. Their different coloring does not affect their temperaments.

poodle personality and temperament

Does Parentage Affect a Poodle`s Temperament?

The best indicator of a puppy’s temperament is the temperament of that puppy’s parents. This is why it is so important to ask to meet the parents of your puppy if that is possible. In situations where you are rescuing or adopting a poodle that is being rehomed, this may not be possible.

If you are purchasing a puppy from a breeder, however, you should always ask to meet the parents in person. If a breeder only wants to show you pictures and does not want you to meet the parents, that might be a red flag. Some breeders will not allow you to come into their homes until the puppies have been vaccinated, for fear of spreading the disease to their puppies. And sometimes puppies are all reserved before they even get to the age where they can be vaccinated. So if you want to meet the parents of your puppy, you will want to get on a waiting list and go visit the parents before the puppies are born or even before the litter is on the way.

Some poodles do take a little bit of time to warm up to newcomers, especially intact males as they can be driven to protect their territory. So plan to spend a little time getting to know the parents. Once you have settled in, watch their behavior. Are they friendly and affectionate or skittish and timid?

In some cases, you may have to schedule two visits as many breeders do not own both the male and the female. This is not a red flag. Many breeders want to control how many litters their females have, and so they use an outside stud. Others do not want to repeat the same breeding too often as they would like to help diversify the gene pool. For these reasons, it is very common to find good, ethical breeders who only own the female. However, they should be able to give you information about the stud they used, and the stud owner may let you come and meet the father of the litter.

Meeting the parents can tell you a lot about what a puppy’s temperament will be. While most poodles are intelligent and easy to train, you will occasionally come across poodles that have not been well-bred and have a hyper streak in them. Ideally, breeders should not be breeding parents that don’t have desirable temperaments.

What is the Breeder’s Purpose on a Poodle`s Personality?

There are exceptions to this rule. Some people are breeding to produce show champions, and others are breeding to produce service dogs or hunt dogs. For all of these purposes, a puppy cannot be of too calm a demeanor or he may not succeed in these endeavors. A puppy needs a certain level of natural rigor to succeed in a show ring, service program, or hunting field, and that level of rigor often means that the puppy will have more energy. People looking for a companion or therapy poodle will not want a puppy with this much rigor.

Puppies bred for these purposes can make excellent companions if they have a job to do, but they will likely be unhappy and hyper if they do not have a job. Therefore, it is important to understand what you are looking for in a puppy. If you are looking for a companion or therapy puppy, you will want to purchase a puppy from parents of a calm demeanor who make excellent companions themselves.

How Does a Poodle Puppy’s Environment Affects its Temperament?

It is ideal if you can meet both parents, but if you can meet one parent, you will still have a good idea of the temperament of the parent dog as well as the environment in which your puppy will grow up.

A puppy’s environment during the whelping and raising weeks has a lot to do with your puppy’s temperament. A lot of a puppy’s temperament is nature, meaning that it is passed down from their parents to them genetically. But much of a poodle’s temperament is also nurture, meaning that it has to do with how the puppy is raised and treated. This begins in the breeder`s home, and it is another reason why it is so important for puppy buyers to research breeders and make sure that they are being raised with plenty of social interaction and care. Puppies who are not socialized during their first few weeks can be very timid and scared even if their parents are friendly and affectionate. Many good breeders are using Puppy Culture as a way of making sure they are raising stable and socialized puppies.  

Many breeders perform the Volhard’s Puppy Aptitude Test when their puppies reach seven weeks of age. Many professional trainers choose puppies for their training program based on the results of this test. It is hard to say how much of the test results reflect on the lineage of the litter and how much of the results reflect on the way the breeder raised them. However, professional trainers who use this test to choose their puppies will tell you that it is one of the best indicators of how well a puppy will perform in their program.

How Will You Raise Your Poodle Puppy?

When you bring home your puppy, you take over on shaping his temperament. You have chosen a puppy from parents with a temperament you like, and you have picked from a breeder that did his or her job to ensure that your puppy was properly socialized.

Now it’s your turn. You will want to socialize your puppy, but not overwhelm her. If you want your poodle to be good with kids, you will want to expose her to kids who are respectful and gentle. You want your puppy to be comfortable around kids. If you don’t have any kids around her, she will likely be shy and frightened of children.

On the other hand, if she is exposed to children who are too rough with her, she may be shy and frightened of them or she may get aggressive with them. If you have children in the home, you will want to be sure you are always supervising them with your new puppy and teaching them how to treat a puppy gently. Besides exposing your puppy to children, you can also take your puppy out to places where he will be exposed to people and dogs. You can do this as soon as your puppy is safely vaccinated, around twelve weeks of age. Teaching your puppy to interact with other people, children, and other dogs is a huge part of helping them to develop a stable and friendly temperament.

Can you Affect the Temperament of Your Poodle Rescue?

If you have rescued a poodle, you don’t have control over the dog’s lineage or how it was raised by the breeder, or how it was treated in the home it was in before it came to you. However, you can still have a lot of influence over that dog’s temperament by the way you interact with him, train him, and show affection.

Poodle temperament is not determined by the color of the poodle. Although people may see trends in color and temperament, this has a lot more to do with the puppy’s parentage than the puppy’s color. A poodle’s temperament is determined by the combination of nature and nurture. A puppy’s parentage, how they are raised by the breeder, and how they are raised in their new home all play a role in shaping a poodle’s temperament.