One of the most read posts on National Purebred Dog Day’s site is about Poodles as hunting dogs. It comes as a shock for many to learn that a Poodle can still do the job for which it was originally bred – retrieve.  The paragraph below, then, may also come as a surprise: Poodles were once utilized as falconer’s dogs.

Today’s falconer uses other breeds for this type of water-work (perhaps because they don’t know how good Poodles are?)  but we know from Flemish hunting tapestries from the 15th and 16th centuries that early Poodles were favored dogs with falconers. Jean Baptiste Oudry’s, “Bird of Prey Touching on Ducks Hiding in Reeds” (seen at the left), proved that using Poodles continued into the 18th century since it depicts a parti-coloured Poodle flushing ducks from cover for the bird of prey soaring overhead.

James Howe’s painting, “Hawking” (below) painted in 1834 reveals that Poodles were used to hawk in the 19th century, as well,  as evidenced by the moyen-sized black Poodle standing at the far left of the canvas. 

Certainly, royalty, nobility, and the landed gentry enjoyed falconry as sport. Noblemen and women carried their birds with them everywhere to “imprint” them, the belief being that while the falcon was a wild bird and would never be a pet, it could be programmed to see the human as the source of its food (evidently forgetting that it could eat the prey it brought down). Hawking was also a highly-skilled means of earning a living for others, as well as a way to get food on the table. Pairing falcons with dogs, however, was brilliant.  A falcon learned that the master’s dog flushed the birds. Once the falcon was “slipped” and it caught the prey, the falcon released the downed bird to the dog who returned it to his master. Afterwards, everyone had a nice snack. It worked.

Europeans have always considered the standard Poodle as a hunting dog from the Middle Ages forward. Canadian breed historian, Emily Cain, says that Europeans categorized the breed as a spaniel, but the Poodle’s French breed name, caniche, (from chien canard, or “duck dog”) suggests that it’s also classified as a retriever. That Poodles excel as wildfowling dogs is documented, and we don’t doubt that today’s Poodle could be trained in falconry, as well.