Living with two standard poodles is always interesting and sometimes challenging. They are hunting dogs and as such would prefer to be hunting when things get slow around the house.
Being house dogs, I do not often take them hunting because it takes half of a day to clean them up enough to come back into the house. This can cause a problem when instinct tells them it is time to hunt and nobody wants to go with them.
About a month ago, my wife let them out to do their daily duty of chasing the birds away from the feeders and check for other marauding wildlife. This day, they took off like two greyhounds out of a starting gate. They headed into the pasture in back of the house and continued into the surrounding timber. My wife called me at work, all concerned that they would become lost or stolen, but I reassured her they would be fine. They would get tired of hunting and come home for something to eat.
By the time I got home from work, it was dark, and they had still not returned. My wife had checked with all the neighbors to see if they had spotted a small pack of poodles on the hunt. They had not, and I had no luck seeing two black dogs at night.
Early the next morning, the neighbor across the section called to let us know that our dogs were at his place. They were wet, cold, and full of burrs and stick-tights, but no worse for the wear.
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I wrongly assumed they had learned the folly of their ways. They pulled the same stunt last Friday. The only difference being, the temperature was about 50 degrees colder. Poodles are a hearty hunting breed, but I think two fat dogs that spend most of their lives on feather beds in front of the wood stove would not make it through the night when the temperature is near zero.
I came home from work early and we called in extra recruits for the search party. Rabbits were running one way and deer were bounding out the other. They had plenty of things to hunt and several acres in which to do it.
The jig was up when my son spotted a turkey flying out of the timber. The dogs like to hunt almost everything, but their favorite game is turkey hunting. I am not sure what they would do with a turkey if they ever caught one, but they do have a good time trying.
He drove to the area from whence the turkey flew and spotted two dogs that were extremely satisfied with their efforts. When they saw him, they knew they were in trouble. He discussed the error of their ways, in no uncertain terms, all the way back to the house.
I feel confident they learned their lesson, but as an added measure of insurance, they received their haircuts. To be properly groomed, poodles need trimmed every three to four weeks. During cold weather, the hair is left longer to provide a bit of protection from the cold. Summer haircuts are much shorter, which helps keep them cool.
They both now have the very short mid-summer haircut. When they step outside, they quickly do what is necessary and return to the comfort of the pillow by the fire as soon as possible. A cool breeze on a bare belly makes the woods much less appealing. They seemed to have learned to be a bit less independent. We no longer go hunting until I say it is time to go hunting.
Walter Scott is an outdoors enthusiast and freelance writer from Bloomfield, Iowa.
