"Kate" as a pup, photo by Janet Gray, Graystone Photography I chose the above photo to illustrate this post, simply because it is one of the few photos that I have of any of my Poodles through the years in "show coat". Actually Kate was not yet in full coat as she was a pup still growing hair when this photo was made, I believe she was about five months old. But at that time, I still had high hopes that she might turn out to be a show dog. She had been to a fun match and a month or so later she visited a big name show handler for the first time but unfortunately, due to no one's fault as far as I know, she came back home with a broken front leg. So she spent from age six and a half months to eight or nine months healing, and afterwards was never quite the same, as far as the quality of her movement. Unfortunately, as the years passed, she also developed seizures, so I did not show her in other venues, such as obedience or rally. But she has always been ...