Phantom, but not of the Opera!

What a charming girl this tiny Poodle happens to be!  I met her when she was at the Hickory, North Carolina  UKC dog shows this Spring.  Echo has a delightful "personality", seems to never meet a stranger, her little tail wagged all weekend. 

UKC Champion Vonstarr Voices on the Wind

Echo's owner is Kate Landon, who was a big help to me when I was trying to figure out the ins and out of UKC shows the weekend where Echo took the win pictured above. I have been showing AKC for many years but had never been to a UKC conformation show until that particular weekend.

Echo is a phantom colored Toy Poodle out of solid colored parents. Her sire is a blue and her mom is white. Echo's registered name is Vonstarr Voices on the Wind and she is quickly making her presence known at UKC shows, with many group wins and placements to her credit.

Kate reminded me that www.poodlepedigree.com is a great place to start researching pedigrees, so Echo's pedigree can be found there. Echo is groomed, trained and shown by her owner.

Thanks Kate, for sharing this information about your lovely little girl.  Best wishes for many more wins in the future!

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note:  please ignore the little 1.underneath the text.. Every now and then, Google's Blogger program and I just don't seem to get along. Today is one of those days. Every time I try to delete the "1" all of the text goes away along with it!   Melanie S.

Abby & Murray on Great Pond

Don't forget the Caption Contest! Thank you Chris for sharing this photo of your daughter and Poodle! Wow, it's August already, go swimming while you still can!

Keeping Up with the Movie Crew

If you are a regular reader, you've seen posts in the past about my amazing friend, Poodle trainer Charlene Dunlap, of Canine Horizons. She trains her Poodles to do all types of fascinating behaviors and makes movies of them to showcase their talents.

Charlene's original Canine Horizons website is a wealth of information about Poodles and dog training, and also has many clips of her dogs in action. Since Poodle actors Sydney and Jyah are getting older, Charlene has added two parti boys to her crew this past year. I have greatly enjoyed keeping up with their exploits and training.

These young actors have their own website now, so you can also enjoy keeping up with them through this link:
http://www2.caninehorizons.com/

Here is an update that the lovely red and white boy Scotty sent to his "Aunt Mellie" earlier this week:

Joey and Scotty's Journal - February 14, 2012 - Tuesday

Here are some pictures of Joey and me playing in the obstacle yard. It's hard to see me coming down the ramp right behind Joey because of his tail.

Mom was really surprised when I went up the yellow tunnel (see below right) to the top (8-feet high) all by myself and then came down it again. This is one of the last obstacles in the yard that has to be refurbished.

Mom sprang her right index finger - see the pink tape? -- so, she couldn't help Dad brush us out today. She wanted to be with us though so she made herself comfortable while Dad brushed all of us dogs. Dad ran and got the camera -- "for posterity" he said.

Now, it's my turn to be brushed

Joey and I lay together like this a lot -- Mom says we look like bookends. < arf >

Love,
Scotty and Joey
with Jyah and Sydney

Thank you Parti boys and friends! I hope Mommy's finger is better now.

Note to readers: Unfortunately, my blog format does not do the photos justice, plus there is so much more to see on their website. You can even preview the boy's first movie--for free--on their website so take a look today: The Parti Boys Website Enjoy!

Parti Poodle Takes Top Honors at U.K. Agility Grand Finals!

When I recently heard that a Standard Poodle had beat out all the other breeds (yes, including Border Collies, who took 2nd and 3rd place) for top honors in agility in the UK, I wanted to know all about it!

"Blaze", Kit Sue’s UK Trailblazer for Tisane, is a gorgeous parti-colored blue and white boy, who was imported by his owner Sara Bingham in 2007 when he was a year old. His very proud breeder is Sue Ablen of Kit-Sue Kennels in the United States. Sue was kind enough to put me in touch with Sara so I could learn a bit more about this winner of the UK Agility Grand Finals and introduce him to my readers.

When I spoke with Sara by phone, I realized that her dog Blaze is quite an amazing ambassador for partis in the U.K. This color is still quite rare in her country. In fact, to the best of her knowledge, Blaze was the first male parti-colored Standard Poodle in England since the 1970’s (Sara states that by then they had been culled out of the British lines.) A great deal of thought was put into his selection, since Sara has a passion for the breed and wanted to import something very special to re-introduce the parti-color in her country (note: the British spelling is actually parti-coloured).

Sara is a founding member of The Parti Poodle Club there and says she feels very fortunate that Blaze has turned out to be a dog of outstanding quality, conformation-wise, in addition to being a dog of truly amazing intelligence. Blaze simply "loves to learn". He loves not only the agility ring but also loves learning new tricks, such as saying his prayers. We spoke of our mutual admiration of Charlene Dunlap in the US who trains her parti-colored Poodles to perform all types of tricks and special behaviors for movies she makes of them. Sara said she wishes Charlene were closer, as Blaze would love to a chance to cameo in a movie to show off his tricks, since he catches on quickly to anything she teaches him. Actually, from what I am hearing, Blaze is already quite well known, a star in his own right, in his country.

Blaze seems to be a dog blessed not only with lovely conformation and flashy markings, but a temperament to match. Sara says on occasions when they are out walking and Blaze has met dogs who like to start trouble, he just takes a quick look at them, then does a little skip on the sidewalk as if to say "suit yourself, and on you go!" Since he loves all dogs and all people, he doesn't have any understanding of dogs who feel otherwise!

Sara and Blaze have been invited by The Kennel Club to participate in the agility demos at Crufts (the world's most prestigious dog show) for the last two years, and an invitation is expected in the mail any day to participate again this Spring. We look forward to seeing more photos and hearing more about Blaze's accomplishments in the future.

In the meantime, you can see more of Sara's Poodles and read about her plans to revive the parti Poodle in the UK by checking out her website: www.ukstandardpartipoodles.co.uk. Be sure to visit the page entitled "The Parti Poodle" for a short but very informative article about the history of this color in Poodles.

Coming soon to the Poodle Blog...a You Tube clip of one of Blaze and Sara's runs!

Go, Blaze Go!!!!

Who is the Poodle Blogger?

Hi! I'm Melanie Schlaginhaufen, the Poodle blogger. As of this date, the Poodle blog is still in its beginning stages. However, I would love for you to join us, and let me know what type of things you would like to read about on a Poodle blog.

I am a dog trainer and writer, who specializes in solving canine behavioral problems. My bio can be found on my Knowing Dogs website, by clicking here: About Melanie. Also on my Knowing Dogs site, you will find dog training articles, as well as information on affordable, easy-to-read dog ebooks that you may find helpful.

On my Knowing Dogs website, you will also find a link to the Knowing Dogs blog, which is full of dog training articles, product reviews and all types of things for dog owners and dog rescue volunteers.

Hope to meet you soon, via one blog or another!

Melanie

Poodle Health Issues - A Personal Story

Isn't this a lovely trio?  These are three dogs that have been owned and loved by Donna Trebert (Teddy, Tyler and Mickey).

I became acquainted with Donna through a Poodle e-mail list, and have gotten to know her better because she has been incredibly kind to share photos of her gorgeous Poodles for my Poodle blog site.

Donna has, unfortunately, experienced first-hand many of the health problems we have in Standard Poodles. I have asked her to share some of her experiences for our readers. We can talk all day about health issues in our breed, but  personally experiencing life threatening illnesses with your own beloved dogs is what makes one realize how critical it is that Poodle breeders get serious about health clearances, and working together to outcross to produce healthier dogs.

Many people who have loved a Poodle and experienced the health issues will never choose to have another Poodle. Donna is not one of these people...she is very dedicated to this breed and the dogs she has loved, despite the health issues.  Click "read more" to read my interview with Donna and see more photos of her beautiful dogs.