Legendary show judge, Anne Rogers Clark, once said: “My Poodle can do anything your Lab can do. However, in the evening, your Lab wants to sleep by the fire & dream, and my Poodle wants to be a fourth at bridge and tell naughty stories.”

Karen Healy would likely agree. The owner of a Pacific Beach grooming shop, the Exotic Pooch,said in an interview appearing in the San Diego Reader, “Poodles aren’t dogs, they’re Poodles.’ They really are different than other dogs. They think more like humans. They’re very, very smart.”

We already know that Poodles are capable hunting dogs, that they’ve run in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, have been in circuses, and were even instrumental in getting the Dogs for Defense program started around WWII, but did you know that “grifter” is part of the breed’s curriculum vitae?

Back in the day in Pont Nenf, in Paris, one young bootblack (shoeshiner) conceived of a way to increase business. He taught his Poodle to roll around in the mud (by all accounts, a favorite pastime of the dog’s, anyway), then tread on the feet of passersby. The almost immediate response was, “Oh no!” and magically, the bootblack would appear, brush in hand, and shoes would be shiny once again. The enterprising shoeshiner multiplied his earnings while his dog stood nearby, the picture of innocence. When the footstool became vacated, the game would begin anew.

As clever as that was, we choose not to leave on a negative note about this wickedly versatile breed.  We’ve come across the claim that one or more Poodles have been known to be a Police K9 Dog, a Drug Detection Dog, and a Forensic Dog. We’ll be investigating these and will put up an update in the future. Meanwhile, if you know of a Poodle that is doing Search and Rescue,  active as a Conservation Dog, or is involved in one of the aforementioned jobs in police, forensics or drug detection, we want to hear from you!

Image: Poodles Playing Poker offered by Doggie of the Day through Amazon