I do like poodles—and the great thing is that they’ve been bred so long in so many different places that there are strong healthy bloodlines. The poodle has so many advantages as a companion—and the miniature and toy versions are very long-lived. You can eliminate the frou frou factor just by clipping the dog in non-traditional ways, particularly by getting rid of the top knot and flowing ears— “What kind of dog is that?” About a pure-bred, “oh, he has some poodle in him”—
Yeah. Ours has a nickname, “fluffy white dog”. We just clip him down to really short hair and don’t do it again until he’s “fluffy”. Every time we do it, it changes his looks.
He’s never had a “real” haircut.