10 Poodle Care Tips Every Owner Should Know

Very few moments in life are more rewarding than bringing a new Poodle home to your family. Your dog will offer your family years of unconditional love, and in return, he expects you to provide him with food, shelter, responsible care, and love in return. From their unique coats to nutritional needs, it’s important to understand the poodle care basics that will help keep your dog happy and healthy.

The 10 Poodle Care Tips Every Owner Should Know includes:

1. Provide Your Poodle a Nutritious Diet

2. Brushing Your Poodle Daily Keeps any Shedding Under Control

3. Regular Grooming Prevents Mats and Tangling

4. Trim Your Poodle’s Nails Every 3-4 Weeks

5. Take Your Poodle to Be Professionally Groomed Every 6-8 Weeks

6. Socializing Your Poodle Can Prevent Aggression and Anxiety

7. Exercise Helps Prevent Hyperactive Behaviors in Poodles

8. Poodles Are Intelligent: Stimulate Their Brains

9. Don’t Neglect Your Poodle’s Dental Hygiene

10. Different Poodle Types Require Different Care

In this article, we’ll cover some of the basic Poodle care tips every Poodle owner should know. Additionally, we’ll discuss the unique characteristics of Poodles you should keep in mind when caring for them. While Poodles possess some care aspects unique from other dog breeds, rest assured that owning a Poodle is not a daunting task!

Are Poodles Easy to Take Care Of?

Poodles are generally easy dogs to care for. Poodles require moderate exercise, a nutritious diet, and regular grooming to stay mentally and physically fit. Additionally, Poodles should be properly socialized to prevent anxiety and discourage hyperactive behaviors.

However, it’s vital to dedicate the time needed to properly care for your Poodle. While Podles don’t require much more care than other dog breeds, these dogs do require more extensive and consistent grooming to stay healthy.

Poodles live between 12-15 years, making them long-living dogs compared to breeds like Golden Retrievers, who live 10-12 years. Poodles are a very healthy breed and do not have the same issues that plague other breeds in their category.

However, I still recommend pet Insurance to every dog owner I meet Vet visits, and medical care in general, can be extremely expensive and there is peace of mind knowing Insurance is in place to offset these health expenses.

10 Poodle Care Tips Owners Should Know

A Poodle is a wonderful addition to any family, but whether you’re already a Poodle owner or a first-time adoptive parent, it’s important to keep your dog’s health and happiness a top priority. Below are some 10 practical tips that all dog parents should know.

1. Provide Your Poodle a Nutritious Diet

Proper care for Poodles begins with providing high-quality food available. Poodles are prone to obesity, so you’ll need to monitor your dog’s diet carefully and be sure to provide enough exercise each day. 

Some Poodle diet and nutrition tips include:

• Feed your poodle high-quality dog foods (no table scraps)
• Monitor their eating habits; Poodles can become obese very easily if they eat too much or don’t get enough exercise.
• Make sure your dog have plenty of water at all times; Poodles need water to properly digest food, so provide water for your pet daily.

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To help prevent obesity, be sure your Poodle has enough room to run around and play. You also can take him for a walk or even let him run free in an enclosed area if you don’t feel comfortable having your dog off-leash. 

Be sure to walk your dog at least once every day as poodles are extremely active and require regular exercise. Avoid exercising your poodle on sweltering days and keep walks limited to after sunrise or right before sunset during the summer to prevent overheating.

2. Brushing Your Poodle Daily Keeps Any Shedding Under Control

A Poodle’s shedding cycle takes much longer than many dog breeds. Poodles shed their coats every three weeks, compared to other breeds that shed every few days. Curly hair often stays trapped in their coat’s appearing as though they don’t shed at all. 

Poodles have often been classified as low-shedding or non-shedding. The main difference between Poodles and other breeds is that Poodles need to be groomed to remove their shedding hair. Some of this dog’s shedding hair will naturally fall out, but on the bright side, poodle hair is unique in that it’s quite soft and can be easily removed from clothing or furniture.

Brush your Poodle daily to keep the shedding under control. Make sure you brush them before they go outside or come back inside, so you don’t spread all of their loose hairs around the house!

Additionally, Poodles are hypoallergenic dogs, so they are unlikely to make your allergies any worse. Always keep a lint roller nearby to help remove shed hair after walks and brushing sessions.

3. Regular Grooming Prevents Mats and Tangling

Make sure your Poodle is groomed regularly, specifically their curly coats. You may be tempted to cut back on grooming sessions if shedding decreases, but you must keep up with the regular grooming. 

A Poodle’s hair can become matted if not kept tangle-free. Matted hair can lead to sores or skin irritations which may require an unnecessary trip to the vet.

Neglecting grooming duties will often lead to issues like chewing. If your Poodle begins to chew on his coat or skin, this could be attributed to mats or tangled hair. Chewing can also lead to scratches or tears in the skin underneath your dog’s coat.

A Poodle’s coat may be: 

• Curly like an average poodle’s
• Wiry like a terrier’s
• long-haired or short-haired

No matter what kind of poodle is in your home, though, they all need lots of grooming and trimming. Consider the length of your poodle’s hair when determining the frequency of grooming needed.

4. Trim Your Poodle’s Nails Every 3-4 Weeks

It may seem like an extra step, but it’s important to make sure you clip those nails regularly too. If nails get too long, not only do they look bad, but can result in joint issues if your dog has to walk on them for extended periods of time.

A Poodle’s nails need regular trimming to ensure their nails don’t get overgrown. Long nails can lead to pain while walking and other activities such as playing fetch or running after the kids.

5. Take Your Poodle to Be Professionally Groomed Every 6-8 Weeks

Regular trips to a professional groomer every six to eight weeks are the best way to keep your Poodle looking and feeling his best. Professional groomers can appropriately trim your Poodle’s hair in between the times you regularly brush them.

It’s important a groomer takes care to trim your Poodle’s coat in a way that doesn’t lead to any potential cuts or discomfort for your dog.

Regular, thorough grooming can help your Poodle avoid various health issues that could be caused by his hair getting caught in the skin or clogging up his pores.

When your poodle is groomed at a professional groomer, he will be:

• Shampooed
• Brushed
• Trimmed

By getting your Poodle Professionally groomed, you know for sure that all mats are out of his hair, eliminating discomfort when he moves around too much. Any problem areas with your poodle’s coat will be trimmed, preventing a more serious condition.

6. Socializing Your Poodle Can Prevent Aggression and Anxiety

Poodles are prone to developing anxiety that can lead to aggressive behaviors. When these dogs are nervous, they may become frightened, making them see everyone as an enemy. Make sure to socialize your Poodle so that they are not aggressive towards strangers.

Socializing Poodles can be done simply by: 

• Taking your poodle for walks around the neighborhood
• If they begin to exhibit fear or aggression, have them wait outside or in a separate area when someone comes over.
• Having positive experiences with strangers will also help poodles get used to similar situations in the future.

Be sure to train your Poodle to be obedient and willing to comply with your commands. If not, you might find it difficult to get him under control when needed, leading to aggression issues.

Some poodles can inherit potentially aggressive or fearful personality traits, and care should be taken to ensure that they will not become aggressive. In addition, Poodles are very prone to separation anxiety, which often translate directly into aggression. Taking steps to notice and treat any anxieties your Poodle may help will often prevent outwardly aggressive behaviors.

7. Exercise Helps Prevent Hyperactive Behaviors in Poodles

Poodles can be naturally hyperactive, and providing them with regular daily physical activity will keep their bad behavior under control. Poodles don’t require excessive exercise like larger breeds, but if they don’t get enough regular exercise.

A lack of exercise in Poodles can result in: 

• Restless
• Jumpiness
• Destructive behaviors

Though hyperactive behavior isn’t the same as ADHD, Poodles may be capable of manifesting similar symptoms. However, hyperactivity can also come from boredom and fatigue if your Poodle isn’t properly tired out throughout the day. It’s important to make sure that you prevent this before any problems develop. 

One way you can help with this is by ensuring their exercise routine takes place outside in a safe area where they won’t get into trouble or become bored.

Outside exercise for Poodles can include:

• A securely fenced yard (preferably partially covered) 
• A community dog park 
• An enclosed playpen inside the house for those times when you need to confine them indoors
• Playing games with your poodle
• Taking poodles on long walks or runs through the park. 

Poodles don’t require as much exercise as larger dog breeds, but they still need to be taken out and about for a good 30-60 minutes each day.

Since Poodles are very intelligent, it’s important that any activity is mental as well as physical; therefore, games such as fetch or frisbee will work great with your pooch! 

By providing your Poodle with enough exercise, you can prevent hyperactive behaviors and keep them happy, making training easier for everyone involved. Exercise is one of the best ways to keep Poodles happy and healthy so that training them becomes easier for everyone involved.

8. Poodles Are Intelligent: Stimulate Their Brains

Poodles tend to enjoy unique activities such as agility classes, obedience training, or swimming; anything that keeps their brain stimulated is great fun for these bright dogs! 

Poodles are one of the most intelligent dog breeds. They are ranked as the second most intelligent dog breed, after Border Collies.

Poodles are considered to be one of the most intelligent breeds among dog fanciers as they’re known for being incredibly trainable! Poodles have been used throughout history as hunting dogs due to their intelligence, making them easy to teach new tricks or commands.

Poodles have a high learning ability which makes them easy to train. Poodles need little repetition of commands before they learn them perfectly! They can also be trained without using food as a reward because they like doing things for praise alone. 

Poodles are known to even do tricks and obey commands. Some Poodles may not only learn the command once but may even remember it for years! 

A great behavioral training course can help to expedite your dog’s behavioral training. I found a fantastic training system called Brain Training for Dogs. I like the private member’s area the most, where you can connect with other dog owners and find solutions to training problems you may encounter. If your dog requires behavioral training, I highly recommend this course! Check it out here to discover how this program can aid your training efforts.

9. Don’t Neglect Your Poodle’s Dental Hygiene

The importance of taking care of your poodle’s dental hygiene by brushing their teeth daily cannot be stressed enough!

Poodles can be prone to dental hygiene issues such as: 

• Tooth loss
• Periodontal disease
• Poodle tooth resorption, an abnormality in the tooth’s root structure, resulting commonly in extraction.

Taking care of your poodle’s dental hygiene is a great way to keep their teeth white and pearly as well!

Best practices used to care for your dog’s dental hygiene include:

• Feeding poodles dry dog food instead of wet
• Giving poodle treats that are meant for oral care or dental hygiene. For example, some poodle parents have successfully used carrots, apples, and celery sticks as healthy alternatives to commercial poodle treat products.
• Taking your poodle to the vet for their scheduled checkup is important because it allows them to receive any necessary treatment such as antibiotics if they do happen to develop a toothache while you’re not there!

Keeping your dog’s teeth and gums in good condition will help him avoid any potential health issues down the line. Be sure to regularly check his teeth and gums for any signs of disease.

10. Different Poodle Types Require Different Care

Poodles gained their regal reputations by accompanying royal families in hunts, due to the ease with which they could adapt themselves around birds. However, despite their history within hunting circles, most Poodles today have been bred to be family pets.

There are three main types of poodles: 

• Standard Poodles
• Toy Poodles
• Miniature Poodles

Though care for all three types of poodles is very similar, there are a few differences in the levels of care required for each.

The Standard Poodle

The Standard Poodle is a large breed with an average weight between 45 to 70 pounds (32 – 41 kg). These dogs are highly intelligent and easy to train. 

Some examples of activities that they excel at include competitive obedience and agility trials and fieldwork such as tracking or retrieving games.  The coat type for this dog is wavy but can be corded if it has been trained in water retriever skills.

The Standard Poodle is well suited for families with older children or no other pets in the home. They have the lowest life expectancy of the three types at 12-15 years.

Although Poodles do not shed much hair, their coats still need regular brushing, which can take up time each week depending on how much your dog sheds. Poodles also require frequent grooming sessions by a professional groomer every few months because of their tightly curled coats.

The Toy Poodle

The Toy Poodle is the smallest of all three types, and it has an average weight between 11 to 15 pounds (14 – 18 kg). They are also highly intelligent, but their small size makes them more sensitive than other dogs. 

These traits make them great companions for seniors or those with disabilities who need help in caring for pets. While Toy Poodles can be trained, they often require extensive socialization from puppyhood onwards to know how they may interact with humans and animals alike.

Many Poodle owners prefer the smaller Toy Poodle for its ease of handling and size. Toy poodles also have the longest life expectancy than both standard and miniature poodles, at 18 years.

The Miniature Poodle

The Miniature Poodle is the second smallest of all three types, and it has an average weight between 15 to 25 pounds (16 – 22 kg). Miniature Poodles require much less exercise than their larger cousins due to their reduced muscle mass; thirty minutes daily should suffice. Miniature Poodles has been bred down from an active working breed into one that only needs light activity now. 

This breed can be kept inside an apartment or home without any problems as they do not require much exercise due to their small size. This makes them ideal pets for those who live in high-rise buildings with restricted outdoor access. Miniature poodles have a life expectancy of 13-15 years.

All three types of poodles are easy to care for and maintain. Miniature and toy poodles require less exercise than standard poodles, given their small statures. Toy poodles have the longest life expectancy of the three at 18 years.

Conclusion

Poodles are one of the most popular breeds in America and for a good reason. Poodles can be easy dogs to take care of, but every owner should know certain poodle care tips. If you want to get yourself or your family a poodle, make sure that you commit to these Poodle care tips every owner should know! 

Poodles will love the attention they receive when being brushed regularly while also giving back by protecting your home from intruders. Not only can Poodles help protect your property with their sharp hearing skills, but they can be great companions too! By following these poodle care tips, every owner should know, owners of all experience levels can enjoy having this dog breed in their life.