Penny and I have been 'poodle people' since the early 70's and our
dogs live with us as our children did. There was actually some
"sibling rivalry" when the kids were little... and not
so little. We purchased our first poodle because
our oldest son was allergic to pet dander. We have always had
dogs in our lives and we could not imagine living without one.
We began our search for a dog and found the poodle to be our dog
of choice. Penny raised and showed German Shepherds and I always had English Springer Spaniels.
We were used to a larger
dog and raising 3 active boys we felt a larger dog stood the
best chance of survival. Back then, without the Internet, we
made a lot of phone calls and put out "feelers" for a
reputable breeder. Finally, after much research and a lot of
phone calls we found our first poodle, and her name was
"Licorice", a beautiful black standard puppy from the
"Wycliffe" line out of Canada. Fortunately, we had a
healthy one and she was with us for over 13 years. She was my
grooming experiment, upset with the so-called groomers in our
area, I purchased my first pair of clippers, a grooming
table, scissors and a grooming book and from then on it was
history. After a lot of mistakes and a lot of practice, I got
pretty good at it, although at the time surely Licorice would
have had a few comments to make. Thank God she couldn't talk!!!!
To make a long story short, we are "poodle people", we
love the breed and could not ever be without a poodle in our
lives. Breeding dogs is our hobby, not a livelihood. We
both have occupations, we are not a commercial kennel and we are
most certainly not a "backyard breeder." I am a
remodeling contractor and Penny is an Oncology Research Nurse
and is the Manager of Research for the largest Gynecologic
Oncology practice in the Southeast. We spend almost every
evening "working on dogs," and believe me it's another
full time job. We do it because we love it! |
| |
|
