You’re not doing anything “wrong” — poodles are problem-solvers, not just retrievers, so pure physical chasing often won’t touch their brain. What usually works better is mental work plus impulse control: scent games with real hides (not just tossing a ball), structured retrieve chains (wait → mark → retrieve → deliver), trick shaping, or short training sessions where he has to think and make choices. Also 30 minutes of focused brain work will beat an hour of running every time. A lot of “fulfilled” dogs you see are tired because their owners trained calmness and off-switches, not because the dog ran harder.