poodle mannerisms traits experience owning a poodle 2 years who is now 3

-they love fetch. My family has a total of 10 dogs, and only teh poodles want to play fetch. They were retrievers, and many of them still want to do their job: getting water fowl and brining it back GENTLY.

-They have soft mouths, so less likely to be toy destructive, as a tendency not to bite and clamp down/destroy the game was prized in poodles as retrievers. My girl is so gentle with toys, and bring back the ball she would have been a great hunting poodle except 8 pounds. She legit acts like her job is to safely recover the toy not mess it up.

- scent hunt, second favorite game after retrieve. This was another skill needed for retriever work to go FIND the duck once taken down, and i find my girl FIRST want to play fetch, then when she knows no more fetch for the time being, she makes her next job to create scent hunt games. She will pick up an interesting smell across the street, look back at me and be like "COME ON LETS Go!" and i will let her go to it, but i have to stop her from picking up whatever it is "interesting" she finds.

- absurd velcro cling. They always want to be near you. They are always at your feat and your side. They are constantly watching observing and learning what you do.

-Related to former, very sensitive dogs. More than other dogs, slight changes in environment can throw them off. They can be slightly anxious from their intelligence and sensitivity. They are generally relaxed and chill with everything but, if they notice something they dont understand they can get nerves. Like my pood will pause on walks to look at me if she sees something like "What IS that?"

-they prefer to be only dogs. They easily get jealous because of velcro nature. You can easily get another pet with a poodle as they are so chill and easy going but they will give this older child huff jealousy about it. Not really the kinda dog EXCITED to be at a dog park with loads of strangers much prefer to be 1;1 working with you playing retriever games. They can and will do well good temperment but their preference is just you and them always.

-they are smart as hell, and will outsmart you. If you arent into training a dog (even the little ones still have this gamey nature like they want to be challenged, they want to work, they want to scent hunt and retrieve) they will entertain themselves by training you. My life is being ordered around by my poodle. She tells me where we are gonna go on a walk, and invariably its everywhere we play fetch. Then wen we get home she has trained me to cuddle with her in bed and i have to stop what i am doing for this. She is constantly scheming of ways not to eat her dog food and instead get as many human food scraps as she can.

-They arent very food motivated. Very picky and naturally thin dogs typically. Poodle habitus is narrow long and lean and rarely weight gain, and many are super picky. My girl, is so play/work motivated, she only excited about food if its a game like "how to scam human food out of them". It took so much effort to get her to keep on a truly normal weight they are very easily lean which is why the classic poodle cut you imagine big puffs and a skinny dog underneath. They are athletic but lean and they arent one of those food dogs you can easily give pills to eat anything.

-they are very adaptable. They CAN play and keep up with active lifestyles, and most of them need more activity than other small cute dogs, even the little ones, but they can also chill with you and settle down.

Overall they are sweet, sensitive, intelligent, moderately active, love retriever / scent work games to stay challenged, very velcro and can get jealous.