Richard visits a mini poodle litter

Hello Kaye,

Sally only had one day off this week so she wasn't able to take me over to
look at the pup. 8 hours driving didn't appeal. I'm heading off in a minute
by myself and will stay overnight. It is over past the Grampians in the
Wimmera so I'll be stopping to sleep now and then.

The breeders of the parents of this pup is a 'real' character. I can't
remember for sure if she called them 'bush' poodles. She is a non-
mollicoddler, is not interested in showing or conformation. She just likes
breeding good outdoor dogs for pets. An interesting and fresh approach after
dealing with so many show dog poodle breeders.( Of course these bush poodles
are not tested for anything but she hasn't had any trouble she reckons?!).
She also reckons she gets $2000. for them. That is the going rate with two
other breeders I'm in contact with.....totally crazy!

The pictures the breeder of this pup has sent were shocking for assessing
the dogs. Luckily she has invited me to stay over night to sleep in a room
on the veranda where the dogs hang out. I hope I am up to the challenges of
this little adventure

The pup is an only child, but the breeder had a litter of schnoutzer X pups
one week later, so it has grown up with serious playmates and in a mob of
dogs; sounds like around 10 including farm dogs, from the time it was big
enough to not get squashed. Before that it was in the house.

I asked if the pup was handled every day and she said 'many times a day
because she loves playing with it'. It has had the grandchildren treatment a
lot as well. It lives outside but comes in for short periods several times a
day. They are shearing at the moment so the pup is exposed to a lot of
people coming and going for meals and smoko.

There has been no training and no toilet training and it is 9 weeks old.

I've just read Ian Dunbars book Before You Get Your Puppy and most of
'After'.....very good stuff I reckon. Nothing new, but good!

The breerer has also offered to take this one back if I don't want to keep
him. That is an unusual offer I think?

In all it sounds pretty perfect to me except that he might fade to a washed
out yellow and he might well have very poor conformation. Not that I would
necessarily know. I certainly won't buy him if his body doesn't look like it
will work well.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Cheers,

Richard