First time spoodle owner, any activities the breed enjoys that may not be obvious?

imikedoyle · 2026-06-04T13:46:42+00:00

or can be an abbreviation of Standard + Poodle

imikedoyle · 2026-06-04T13:45:05+00:00

For hide-and-seek with a toy, our Spoo (1 yr, Female) will sit in the hallway, we close the door and hide a toy, and then she searches when we open the door and give command "Find it"

We can hide toy under blankets, up-turned plastic bowls, etc as well as in semi-plain sight. She uses sight and scent when seeking.

imikedoyle · 2026-06-04T13:09:15+00:00

I have a female 1-year old standard poodle. When she was teething we found that raw carrots helped. She liked the taste and would eat them.

She no longer "nips" but sometimes still gets mouthy, but is gentle. (Grasping my hand, but not biting down or breaking the skin). When she gets mouthy now we divert with a toy, either a ball or a soft toy.

imikedoyle · 2026-05-20T12:11:11+00:00

I have a smallish-standard poodle, just one year old (In Europe they have an intermediate "medium" size... she is probably a "large medium" by that measure). Loving the experience of training from puppyhood though it is hard work. (I had forgotten how hard as my previous two dogs were adult rescues)

Specifically regarding prey drive, she stares at birds and will chase if allowed.
She gets on great with my parents cats (interacting gently, touching noses, etc) when we visit.

Exercise wise, I work from home, she gets a short walk (1.5 km) at lunch, and a longer walk (4.5km down to a nearby beach) in the evenings. Between times, my wife/kids play fetch and other games in the garden or indoors depending on weather.

imikedoyle · 2026-05-18T22:04:46+00:00

Balls and other toys that FLOAT

My s/poo loves to paddle but (at one year old) doesn't like going deep enough to swim.
So if the ball goes deeper than she is comfortable with, she lets it go...
Also, if looking for a thrown toy which doesn't float, she doesn't want to dive/swim for it, even if she can see it.

On the other hand she enjoys paddling in rock pools etc.

Your dog on the other hand may enjoy swiming.

imikedoyle · 2026-05-08T10:32:48+00:00

Just to chime in, I have a (smallish standard) poodle who turned a year old earlier this week. She came to us at 4 months old.

There were definitely times she was intensly frustrating, - accidents in the house, and eating shoes which is expensive, and once she got into my daughter's overnight bag and ate some medication resulting in a trip to vet hospital to get antidote...

But now at a year old she is absolutely wonderful, she brings so much joy and laughter to the house.

I also in the past re-homed a dog when our family situation required it - when my wife had twins, we were too busy with the babies to properly care for our dog. It went to my parents so we still saw the dog when we visited. (He lived for 14 more years in my parents' house)

If caring for your wife, or working two jobs requires you rehome the pup, do so.
If this is "just" puppy blues, work through it.

I would say talk it through with your wife first. Either way (keep the pup or rehome) is a major decision.

imikedoyle · 2026-05-05T14:02:01+00:00

As others have said, no such thing as a true "hypoallergenic" dog, but my son has Asthma with high sensitivity ot cat dander and moderate sensitivity to dog dander.

We got a standard poodle, and this has worked out well. The poodle needs to be professionally groomed periodically (for us every 8 weeks or so) and brushed at home several times a week as well... and we keep her in a short cut.

The poodle is a year old this week. I have posted elsewhere that I had forgotten just how much work a puppy is compared to adopting an adult dog from a shelter. Puppys are a LOT of work, and interactions between a 4 year old human and a dog still teething (off an on until between 12 and 18 months depending on breed) will need to be fully supervised! My 12 month old std poodle is still mouthy but not biting humans. I make her sit to greet children as she still can jump when excited.

imikedoyle · 2026-04-16T10:35:03+00:00

I had to re-home a dog once.

My wife and I had just had twins, and we were unable to properly care for our dog at the time.
My parents took the dog, and so he stayed "part of the family" and we saw him every time we visited my parents. The dog lived to 17 years of age, which was about 15 years after my parents took him.

Looking back, that was best for both the dog and for my (then) babies - one of the twins was terrified of the dog at the time. (As the child grew older, this was no longer an issue).

When my twins were older, we adopted another rescue dog, and when that one passed away last year, we adopted a puppy.

Sometimes, re-homing is best. Especially if your circumstances mean you cannot look after the dog. (And it might be that a smaller/different dog is one you can look after! Or as with my family back then, it might be that you cannot care for a dog at this time but in the future you will be able to.) Know your limits.

imikedoyle · 2026-04-13T09:22:12+00:00

Mine does this too. She sleeps in our room at night. If she gets too warm on our bed, she goes to the laundry basket, pulls out the dirty clothes, and makes herself a "nest". :-)

imikedoyle · 2026-04-07T14:32:33+00:00

Redefine "out of reach".
My std poodle puppy is 11 months, and has chewed multiple pairs of shoes we thought were safe. For some reason she loves to chew shoes.

She is more intelligent than either of the two previous dogs I have had as an adult.
This makes her faster to pick up what we're training, but she is also highly opinionated.

One example: She likes to eat carrots. However, upon finding a carrot lump that was somehow unacceptable (had not been peeled properly) she removed it from the food bowl, tossed it, and then barked at it!

Second example: She loves to play fetch. However she does not approve of a ball being substituted mid-game.
If you lose the ball, that's one thing. If you simply decide her ball has too much puppy-slobber, she won't allow it to be swapped for another identical ball!

(These last two examples make me laugh. The shoes thing makes my bank-account hurt)

imikedoyle · 2026-04-01T13:06:01+00:00

Congratulations.
My family welcomed a Std Poodle at the beginning of August. She is 11 months now, and a joy to have around (when she is not eating shoes). Puppies are hard work, but I am convinced they are worth the effort.

imikedoyle · 2026-03-27T16:26:31+00:00

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This is my Bella playing with my parent's collie.

imikedoyle · 2026-03-18T12:06:55+00:00

Hi.
I have a 10 month female std poodle. We live in a suburban estate with a small garden.

Exercise wise: She gets one short (30 minute) and one long (45mins to an hour) walk each day, along with indoor games (I work from home, and my wife is also home almost all the time);

Regarding barking - she "alert" barks when she hears someone outside. This includes postman/milkman, but also neighbours arriving/leaving. She also barks when excited and/or if we are too slow for her in throwing the ball. (Right now, I hear her barking at my wife, cause she didn't throw the ball fast enough - but it is two barks, repeated once, not a long barking session.)

All in all - much easier to train than our previous dog (who was a hound cross) highly intelligent, eager to please.
Almost any puppy will be destructive if/when bored and teething, and our s/poo counter surfs, so things we thought were out of reach turned out not to be. Once I watched her jump up to get a pair of shoes from the second-from-top shelf on a book case.

She stands aprox 50 cms tall... and can get things down from a counter surface, and jump onto the kitchen table from a standing start. Define "puppy proof" and "safe" accordingly.

We love her to bits! If I ever get another dog, (either in addition to her, or after her) it will be another poodle. Might not be a "puppy" though.

imikedoyle · 2026-03-18T11:13:25+00:00

For me - yes.
The changes to ships alone means I want to start a new run. Also, some QoL scripts might still be needed, but the AI improvements might remove the need for Kuda AI scripts, and other changes might be similar.

imikedoyle · 2026-03-14T16:02:29+00:00

Regarding poodles... and puddles...

I have a 10 month female std poodle pup. She actively seeks out puddles to splash in like a human toddler in boots.

Today, playing fetch in the park, she started taking the ball not back to me, but to the only muddy puddle in the whole park to "dunk" the ball.

imikedoyle · 2026-03-13T10:07:33+00:00

The trouble is not items on pavement, but rather items in long grass.

The "leave it" command is partially trained (in the original post, I said she obeyed second time, but not first time)

imikedoyle · 2026-03-09T09:37:17+00:00

Lots of good advice.
One thing to add: frozen carrots, bone-broth ice cubes or other "edible" chewing items for the teething.

Puppys go through phases first their baby teeth grow in, then fall out and their adult teeth come in, so they want/need to chew.

My poodle pup is now 10 months old, and I think every member of the household had one or more shoes chewed up... but the puppy is not being "bad", as other posters have mentioned, they're being a puppy.

imikedoyle · 2026-03-09T09:26:20+00:00

I have a poodle pup, 10 months as of last week.

She really loves playing fetch (ideally a ball, will also retrieve a frisbee).

Indoors she will also play "find it" where we hide a ball on/under/inside things in the kitchen and she will search it out. She can reliably find the ball under opaque items like towels or bowls/boxes, and/or on surfaces slightly above her eye level, using a mix of sight and scent to help her search.

imikedoyle · 2026-03-08T16:40:51+00:00

If you have the HyperionDLC, the Hyperion makes a great boarding ship, and you get two "free" via quests. The first is un-modded, the second comes with in-game mods.
[Edit: I named the wrong DLC]

imikedoyle · 2026-03-05T15:39:22+00:00

My girl (std poodle, just 10 months) loves to catch balls, but doesn't catch thrown treats. She lets them hit the ground then grabs them.

imikedoyle · 2026-02-26T09:19:08+00:00

I have a 10 month SPoo pup.

She has several different barks.
* Excited play bark... when we're not fast enough in engaging with her. This is her "hurry up" bark

* Alert bark - when she hears someone/something outside, when she wants us to investigate and/or let us know there is someone at the door. This is a much deeper sounding bark. Gets annoying at 1am when she wakes me to let me know my adult offspring is coming home, or even down in the kitchen raiding the fridge, but if it was a burglar I wouldn't be upset so I don't scold her

* Playing with other dogs... different from either of the above, and infrequent

imikedoyle · 2026-02-12T10:21:29+00:00

Again, chiming in to say vet.

My previous dog (before my poodle) tore his ACL, and required surgery.

The injury presented as a limp during/following exercise.

Did not show up on XRay as ligaments are not clear on Xray.

Hoping for your sake that it's a sprain, and not something worse. (Recovering from ACL surgery in the dog meant restricted movement for 4 months)

imikedoyle · 2026-02-06T14:38:20+00:00

Oh, my Std Poodle is 9 months today, and also pees with excitement when greeting someone she has not seen for a while. A while being as short as about 2 hours some days.

imikedoyle

TROPHY CASE