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Hi there, welcome to the wonderful world of the Standard Poodle. We have been
breeding and showing poodles for over 30 years and we are proud of the fact
that we have over 45 Champion Standard Poodles to our name. We purchased our
first poodle because our oldest son was allergic to pet dander. Penny and I
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 use to raise and show German Shepherds and I always had English Springer
Spaniels so 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 a lot of 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 I'm sure 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. What a versatile breed
!!!! We have dogs in Obedience, Agility, Hunting, Retrieving, Guide dogs for
the blind, Therapy dogs and of course Confirmation. It never ceases to amaze
me how many people call or email us looking for a poodle and I would estimate
at least 70% of the people have had a poodle touch their lives in the past.
Most all of them would not even consider owning another breed. To take it a
step further, poodles are "people dogs"!!! To raise a poodle in a
kennel situation is like raising a child in a jailhouse environment, we spend
untold hours playing with our puppies and we play with them outside in the yard
at 6 weeks old. They learn to run and play and cavort with each other as puppies
so when they leave our home, they go to yours, another home environment and
within a couple of weeks they will have "you" completely trained and
on your way to a life-long relationship.
If you have made a decision to get a puppy, please do a little homework!! Ask
the person you are talking to why they bred the litter in the first place? Do
you test the parents for genetic abnormalities and who did the testing? Will
they give you copies of the results for your records? How many litters do you
breed in a year? Do you breed any other dogs and what are they? And last but
not least, what do you do for a living besides breeding dogs? This should give
you a pretty good perspective about who you are buying a dog from and an even
better idea of what your puppy has been through in it's short little life! It
is unfortunate that there are people who live off of the dogs they breed and
could care less about who or what they breed. Unfortunately there is not a "Consumer
Reports" to go to get this information, so it is solely up to you to do
the legwork. Don't buy a puppy on a impulse!! My wife and I both have occupations,
we are not a commercial kennel and we are most certainly not a "backyard
breeder." I am a remodeling contractor and my wife 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!
Well everybody wanted a web page, so here it is, but you still have to make
the call!!!
Good Luck In Your Search,
Bob & Penny Daugherty
Our special thanks to Ronelle Vaughn, Stan Voje, Kay Palade, Diane Wigelsworth and all the judges who
helped make our Poodles famous !!!
Some of our other Poodles "Past & Present":
"Cody" "Rachael" "Dylan"
"Megan" "Chester"