What's new

What's new in the Poodle History Project

Between 1 January and 30 June 2008, we'll construct an on-going list of additions, revisions, and corrections:

Added to the list of PHP volunteers who have contributed large and small items:

Added the following items:

Added to Duck dogs: guns: Simon's MOTCH title! He's now MOTCH SAMKEL'S CREAM MACHINE WCX, (D) JQ603573 MINIATURE, CREAM August 7/99; WC June 8 & 9/2002 (Chesapeake Bay Retriever Club of Canada, Woodville, Ontario); WCI June 8/2006 (Mountain Valley Retriever Training Club, Flamborough, Ontario); WCX 31 May/2007 (Mountain Valley Retriever Training Club, Flamborough, Ontario); (Barnick's Black Jack ex Samkel Sassy Soozie); Call name: Simon; Owner: Leila Marshall (Ontario); Breeder: Joyce McCaffrey (Ontario). First Miniature Poodle (NB: "Simon" has Toy breeding) to hold the CKC retriever Working Certificate, Working Certificate Intermediate, and Working Certificate Excellent titles.

We have recently added the following to Guide Dogs: See "News from and for our Alumni", Leader Dogs for the Blind Update, issue 1, 2008, p. 11: "Congratulations to Wanda Scroggins..." who recently graduated from Auburn University with a Bachelors Degree in Communications with a minor in Rehabilitation Services, and who "was led across the stage to receive her diploma by her Leader Dog, 'Gibson,'" a Standard Poodle.

Thanks to Wendy Preston, we have added the full reference for the headpiece of Bygone Performing Poodles: "Poodles and Whippet -- Group of Mr. Walton's Performing Dogs", is a full page illustration (wood engraving, 9"x7") from J. H. Walsh's The Dogs of the British Islands (London: 'The Field', 1878).

Thanks to Mary Jane Weir, we have added the following to Shorter Poodle Lit. post-1929:

Butler, Nancy. "Christmas with Dora Davenport", Regency Christmas Courtship: five stories. [2005 Signet Christmas Regency anthology] (London, etc.: Penguin--New American Library Signet paperback, 2005), pp. 205-279. To replace a stolen family heirloom tapestry of the battle of Agincourt, an eccentric aunt who paints starts a wall mural of the battle of "Agincur," illustrated with English mastiffs and French Poodles in armour. Set in Regency England, the main story follows a bluestocking's attempts to salvage both family and Tudor home by marriage to a proper suitor, but her attraction to a Welsh naval lieutenant causes her to question her plans. (MJTW, 1/'08)

Added to Circus and other performing Poodles today (other than film)

  • Irina Markova and her performing dogs. Irina Markova and her seven performing Poodles (all sizes) perform in the 2007-8 season with The Big Apple Circus (see Welcome to the Big Apple Circus). As of 13 January 2008, you can admire this act on You Tube (Conan-JAN8) Irina Markova and her performing dogs.

    Thanks to Wendy Preston, we have added this item to Charlemagne until 1890 (or so):

  • Doré. Le chien qui porte à son cou le diné de son maître. Illustration in Fables de La Fontaine (Paris: Hachette, 1868). Sturdy smallish SP in moderate Continental with undocked tail and with a basket hung on his neck trots down steps in a narrow urban alleyway ahead a of motley pack of hungry-looking dogs. In this fable, this Poodle ignobly gives way to pressure from his peers, and shares his master's dinner.

    Thanks to Wendy Preston, we have added the following item to Ancient images (proto-Poodles):

  • Caesia 1 denarius - Lucius Caesius, c.112-111 BC AR denarius. Heroic bust of Vejovis facing left hurling a thunderbolt and seen from behind. Rev: Two Lares flanking dog. CR 298/1, Syd 564. This is the headpiece for this section: please see above. Caveat: Classicists--amateur and distinguished professionals--have gravely warned us about jumping to conclusions RE images on any ancient coin, and particularly this one.

    At the time of writing, January 2008, we are on the far side of the watershed of the North American retriever Hunt Test movement of the 1970's and 1980's. Standard Poodles are--as of the mid-1990's--eligible to run all North American hunt tests. All Poodles are eligible to run the Canadian Kennel Club's retriever Working Certificate, Working Certificate Intermediate, and Working Certificate Excellent series, and this back-to-roots movement has jumped the Atlantic Ocean. Significant numbers of those who will read this entry in the Poodle History Project have field-trained their Poodles, having studied the historical record in order to understand the remants of our water dogs' breed-specific temperaments. So, we have the background to state with confidence that the dog on the reverse side of this coin is a proto-Poodle--a water dog--a water spaniel--wearing the working version of what is now called the Continental clip, complete with leg-bracelets. The men are said by scholars to be Lares, or household gods (our own classical authorities have queried this conclusion). Household gods or mere mortals, it looks to us (and, we've warned you, evidently only to us) as if these two are carrying a rich harvest of Mallard ducks hitched by their necks to the hunters' belts. Dead ducks recently returned from water by today's retrievers are routinely hung by their necks to drain on portable racks which fold into handy umbrella-style sticks, and they are transported from the duck blind hung by their necks by nooses tied to the waterfowlers' belts or the nooses are slung across their shoulders. One of the ducks being carried--one which hangs directly in front of the dog--even displays wings, although typically, dead ducks hung by the neck don't spread their wings.

    In yet-undrained Europe with its (remarkable to us) multitude of waterfowl, and in entire absence of conservation laws, this return from the hunt must have been a very familiar sight particularly when "flapper" Mallards were fledging in late summer, and the mature ducks were in moult. At this time of year, Mallards lie close in heavy cover, and it is the work of a spaniel to roust them out.

    To read about waterfowling before the invention of firearms, please see Duck dogs: traps.

    We've upgraded information about the following:

    Thanks to Wendy Preston, we've upgraded our headpiece note for Finders--truffles:

  • The headpiece for this section is "Truffle-hunting" (ca 11"x 12") by G.B. Goddard, from the Illustrated London News, 2 October 1869. Here's the accompanying text: "The incident of rustic occupation or adventure which is here depicted by our Artist may be observed in September, where the soil favours the spontaneous growth of truffles, especially under the shade of beech-trees, in different parts of our country; but the produce of this kind in France, Germany, and Italy is far more abundant, and it is only the foreign truffle-hunter who can make a serious business of its pursuit and collection. This species of edible fungus, tuber cibarium or the common truffle, which is about the size of a walnut, with a warty rough service [sic surface] and black colour, having a peculiar smell, it is found at a depth of ten or twelve inches underground, where its existence is detected by the keen scent of sharp little terrier-dogs employed for that purpose. In some parts of the Continent, we are told, the truffle-digger is assisted by trained pigs instead of dogs; but there have been instances of men and boys possessing such an extraordinary power of the olfactory sense that they were enabled to smell out the truffle without the aid of a brute companion. The truffle is a dainty ingredient in cookery when used to add a flavour to sauces, but scarcely worth eating by itself. It may be purchased at Covent Garden."

    We've corrected:

    We note:

    The Poodle History Project is an ongoing project. If you've an eagle's eye, and spot errors, please let us know!

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