Poodle History Project

The goal of this project is to illuminate the tasks which the Poodle (and his cousins) were “bred to do”. Any breed’s job description defines good temperament, which is always breed-specific. Since form follows function, good breed-specific conformation makes the designated tasks easier to perform.

Poodles and their “water-dog” cousins are the original versatile hunting dogs. Water-dogs predate the use of firearms in waterfowling; to understand their behaviour—what they were “bred to do”—we must examine what they did before 1600. Members of the European water-dog family, identified by the dense, curly, ever-growing coat, are closely related.

http://www.poodlehistory.org/