# Jobs for Poodles



## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

It has become abundantly clear to me that my spoo, Mia, will need jobs throughout her life to stimulate her mentally. I'm wondering, what sorts of jobs do your poodles have? How do you enrich your poodles lives over the years?


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## cbrand (Aug 9, 2009)

Competition Obedience. Keeps their minds and bodies busy with the added advantage of getting a well trained companion dog.


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## Locket (Jun 21, 2009)

You can also teach Mia to do simple daily tasks such as turn off/on lights, open/close doors, help you pull off your socks/shirt/coat/etc.


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## debjen (Jan 4, 2010)

Obedience, rally, agility..even if you don't want to compete it is a good way to bond with and keep the mind active. I started out about 13 years ago with a 6 month old lab..all I wanted was a well trained house dog..we started agility to help wear him out got talked into my first obedience competiton..currently dogs #2, 3 and 4 are competing in agility,I teach agility and take classes go to seminars etc with some obedience and rally thrown in..it can be addictive..LOL


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## DoeValley Poodles (Jun 12, 2010)

Our's enjoy helping out around the house by finding & carrying objects on command. Such as where's the tv remote or cordless phone. Picking up socks & putting them in the washer. Picking up their toys and returing them to the toy box. Delivering items from downstairs to upstairs like can you send up the calendar, bottle of water, calculator etc. with a dog.


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## LEUllman (Feb 1, 2010)

You could teach him all these tricks:


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## LittleRiver (Jan 23, 2011)

I send trying an obedience class, rally class, or agility class. You don't have to compete, but can use the commands at home, and work on it inbetween classes. A one-hour obedience or agility class wears my hyper 2-yo Labrador out.


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## flyingduster (Sep 6, 2009)

I agree with doing some classes. You don't have to compete, but I personally love the challenge to keep my standard up (and to improve it) that the competitions provoke! lol!

Paris does bring the paper in to hubby... and picks up anything I've dropped at work (the dryer nozzle, a comb or brush...) but otherwise we just do obedience and it's hilarious when I haven't done any training for a while (ie a day or two) and Paris is GLUED to my side in perfect heel position as I walk around the house; trying to do some 'work'! hahaha!


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## Feralpudel (Jun 28, 2010)

Obedience is fun and useful in itself, and is a great foundation for everything else. Tracking or nosework are also great mental stimulation if Mia enjoys using her nose. 

Don't know how near you are to Durham, but they have an awesome kennel club that offers classes and puts on some great seminars. Durham Kennel Club Durham NC


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## murieics (May 10, 2009)

I plan to try everthing with Jake! Has Mia had any training classes yet? I would start off with basic training classes and go from there. Jake will be starting his intermediate class at the end of February. From there, I plan to try to find somewhere close by that we can get plugged in to Rally. It seems like rally is a good place to start, since it is a little less stringent than obedience.

My thought is that if we dabble in everything, we will hopefully hit on something we both love. I would like to get a "first level" title in everything, and then hopefully hit on something we like that we can try to master. I also plan on getting Jake certified as a service dog (hence the cgc), so we can do some volunteer work. If you have UKC competitions near you, you could also try your hand at conformation showing, if you'd like.  I think the most important part is that you are both enjoying whatever you decide to do.


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## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

I love Jesse's videos! Mia already enjoys untying shoes and drawstring yoga pants, stealing socks off of people, and opening cupboards, so we're on the right track!

I like Murieics approach. Mia's only seven months old, but we've taken a few classes: puppy obedience and beginning agility (before it got too cold for me), and we're now enrolled in a Tricks class, which is geared toward developing strength and body awareness for agility. I plan to resume agility this spring, and I'd like to get her CGC. We probably spend about 5 hrs/week training. Is this enough? Lately, she hasn't gotten that "lightbulb going off" look in her eyes, and I wonder if she's not challenged enough.

FeralPudel (I love your name!) - I'm in Durham, and I've heard very good things about the DKC. I'm glad to hear their reputation spans beyond the immediate area. Right now, I've been training with Sue McKinney, as we seem to have hit it off philosophically. Her focus is agility, but she offers rally, obedience, etc. and she's working to start a nosework class this spring/summer as well.


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## murieics (May 10, 2009)

As of right now (other than day-to-day commands that he gets), I would say that the max I am spending training Jake is 5 hours a week (if that). He gets everything so fast, and gets bored so quickly with repetition, that we just can't spend much time on anything. Most training books tell you to only work on one command at a time- that doesn't fly with Jake. He gets bored and stops paying attention. The only thing that I've really been having issues with him on is loose leash walking- everything else he does wonderfully.

Some ideas to work on: how is Mia's stay? Jake and I are working on the three D's with his stay work now: distance, distraction, and duration. The other command we've been working on a lot is "wait"- it's similar to stay, but instead of you going back to the dog when you release them, like you do with stay, the dog comes to you. We've been using it so that he learns to wait until given permission to go through doors. 

I haven't done any agility work with him yet, and will probably wait until after he's more solid with obedience-type stuff first to start on agility (he's only five months anyway). 

The other thing that we've been working on (someone here said their dog loves it- maybe it was FP? It was someone with a black poodle...) is "find it". We just started this last night, and Jake loves it. I think it's a great way to start nose work, and I'm also using it (as suggested) to reinforce his down-stays. We are still only in one room, but the way it works is that Jake has to go into a down-stay. I hide his toy (we use this smelly stuffed animal with no stuffing- I used to hide freeze-dried liver in it, so it smells awful), return to him, wait a few seconds, and then tell him to "find it". He then gets to run around and find his toy. He gets exercise while searching, and it also stimulates him mentally. It's great fun to watch him working, too!

We've also worked on other tricks, too. He does "bang"- play dead, he does "turn" spin counter-clockwise, and we are planning to start adding others, as well. 

Another idea (and something I'm planning to start on with him), is to learn and practice the different parts to Rally tests (or obedience, if you want to go that way first). If you look on the AKC website, there is a pdf that tells you all about Rally, including all of the different manuvers you might possibly have to do. For a challenge (and something different to do), I plan to make up a list of those and start working on them in different places. It will give us something to work on until we start class again, and it's also a goal to work toward (I do best when I have something in mind that I am trying to achieve). Since dogs can start competing in Rally at 6 months old (and the first test is on-leash), it's something you and Mia could start doing now!


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## ItzaClip (Dec 1, 2010)

karen pryor's website has excellent dvd's like shape of bow wow, how of bow wow that teach clicker training and shaping which is the foundation skill for all tasks & tricks, and also a 5 disc how to clicker train an assistance dog at Karen Pryor Clickertraining you can sometimes see some of these videos on youtube. my golden who is still busy at 9yrs old thinks it her job to pick up every tool, brush, an dobject i drop or knock off table at work. also we play "find th etreat game, put dog in kennel, place cookies at random places all over room, star making harder by putting higher on small ledges, in toys in grass etc, tell them "find treats" . actual puzzle toys like from nina ottosen, also mentaly tire out. ski-joring or scooter joring require sminimal equiptment and training.


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## JE-UK (Mar 10, 2010)

murieics said:


> As of right now (other than day-to-day commands that he gets), I would say that the max I am spending training Jake is 5 hours a week (if that). He gets everything so fast, and gets bored so quickly with repetition, that we just can't spend much time on anything. Most training books tell you to only work on one command at a time- that doesn't fly with Jake. He gets bored and stops paying attention.


Oh, yes, hazards of poodle training ... they are soooooper smart and get bored with repetition... "Mom, I know that one already". I actually keep a really geeky diary, and try to work on different things on different days. Once he knows something, then vary it .... do it from a distance, or combine with other cues to make a new thing (for example, Vasco knows "bounce" and "spin", and now we are combining those), or chain cues together. I like to train in commercial breaks while watching TV.



murieics said:


> The other thing that we've been working on (someone here said their dog loves it- maybe it was FP? It was someone with a black poodle...) is "find it". We just started this last night, and Jake loves it. I think it's a great way to start nose work, and I'm also using it (as suggested) to reinforce his down-stays.


This is a GREAT game; we play this a lot. You can start to add in finding specific objects and discrimination, you can increase the difficulty, you can hide stuff on different floors in your house ... possibilities are endless!


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## sandooch (Jan 20, 2011)

LEUllman said:


> You could teach him all these tricks:
> 
> Useful Dog Tricks


OMG! I want that dog!!!


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