Our Pulik are poor sources when it comes to discerning the differences between the Poodles based on size, but history tells us that Toy Poodles were especially popular in the court of Louis XVI. Poodles didn’t originate in France, of course, but they are often referred to as French Poodles because they were so popular in that country. They were especially admired by royalty who were the primary owners, people who frequently referred to the dogs as “sleeve Poodles” because they were small enough to carry in the parachute sleeves of titled heads of state and their consorts. Interestingly, peasants had a more utilitarian use for the Toy Poodle: Truffle hunting. The Toy Poodle was preferred for this task because their paws would do less damage to the valued mushrooms than larger Poodles.

The Toy Poodle is the youngest of the three sizes, and we rely on breed experts to correct us if we’re wrong, but we’ve read that originally, the first Toy Poodles were always white. Not until 1943 were colors other than white introduced into the Toy Poodle gene pool, the same year that the Poodle Club of America decided that Poodles were Poodles, and simply divided them into three sizes.

As an aside, we shared the photographs below on our Facebook page and challenged readers to identify the breed.

Some immediately guessed “Poodle,” the correct answer, but a whole lot of people guessed Cocker Spaniel or Golden Retriever. We’re skeptical that we would have done better, and would probably have answered, “cute puppy.”

Image of black 16 week old Toy Poodle: Photo of “Murdoch” aka TempleCity’s Duke’s Watson, bred by Temple City Poodles; Photo credit: Sammy Sopal. Puppy pictures of Temple City Poodles taken by Sammy Sopal