Training a Poodle: The Clever, Sensitive Dog’s Guide

Poodles were ranked second of all breeds for working intelligence, behind only the Border Collie, and unlike the Collie they are also biddable, playful and tuned to their person. That makes them one of the easiest dogs to train and one of the easiest to train badly. A poodle learns the good thing in three repetitions and the bad thing in one, remembers both for years, and, being sensitive, remembers who shouted.

What motivates a poodle

Food, play, and above all your attention. Short sessions, several a day, two to five minutes each. Retrieving is in the blood, especially in Standards: a thrown toy is a reward for many poodles and a recall that ends in a retrieve is a recall that works. Praise matters to this breed more than most; they watch your face. Stop while they're winning. For Toys, remember that a single biscuit is a meal's worth of calories; use tiny pieces and meal food.

Force-free, because they're soft

A poodle corrected harshly doesn't get tougher. They get worried, and a worried poodle stops offering behaviour, barks more, and starts to avoid the lead, the brush or the person. Reward what you want, manage what you don't, ignore the rest. If a trainer talks about dominance, alpha or 'showing them who's boss', find another trainer. With this breed a raised voice costs you a week of progress.

The five skills every poodle needs

1. A recall, on a long line until it's proven. A Standard can be two hundred metres away in seconds; a Toy can be under a car. Pay every recall with something excellent, or with a retrieve.
2. A settle on a mat, for cafés, visitors and the groomer's waiting room. The most useful thing a poodle learns.
3. A 'leave it', for everything from chicken bones to the cat's dinner.
4. A loose lead on a harness. Toys and Miniatures have a soft windpipe that collapses under collar pressure. Stop when the lead tightens, go when it slackens, pay at your side.
5. A happy 'on the table'. Standing still to be brushed, combed, dried and clipped is a trained skill, not a personality trait, and it starts in week two with thirty seconds and chicken. The grooming guide builds it up.

House training, by size

Standards house-train like any big dog: out every hour while awake and after every sleep, meal and play, praise outside, no telling off. Toys and Miniatures take longer, and it is not stubbornness. A tiny bladder, a real dislike of rain and cold, and owners who miss the signals because the dog is so small. Out every forty-five minutes while awake, a covered spot near the door, a lead on for toilet trips so they don't just stand under the porch, and a puppy pad only if you accept it may become permanent. Expect four to six months for a small poodle. Never punish an accident: a sensitive dog learns to hide and go behind the sofa.

The daily job

Every day, something for the brain: trick training, retrieving with rules, scent games, a puzzle feeder, a hidden-treat hunt, a class. Poodles excel at obedience, agility once the growth plates have closed, scent work, trick titles and, for Standards, gundog work. Twenty minutes of nose work tires a poodle more than an hour of running, and it gives the watching brain something to find instead of something to bark at. A poodle who only gets exercise becomes an athlete who needs more exercise.

Doesn't understand, or doesn't want to?

Most 'stubborn' moments are one of two things. Either the dog doesn't know the cue in this place, with this distraction, at this distance, or the dog knows exactly what you want and has decided the price is wrong. A poodle who sits perfectly at home and ignores you at the park is in the first group: go back to easy steps with better treats. A poodle who looks at you, looks at the toy and walks off is in the second: better pay, or the fun stops. Neither needs a raised voice.

Barking in training

A poodle who barks at you when a session ends, or when the treats are slow, is demand barking, and it works until it doesn't. End every session calmly, wait for one second of quiet before anything good happens, and be consistent across everyone in the house. The barking guide covers the rest. And when the training seems to vanish at eight months, that is adolescence and the coat change arriving together; the handbook has a chapter on it.