Poodles are a little high strung. Check out an Italian water dog. They are the base breed from all water dogs including poodles. Great with kids, hypoallergenic, easy going and great family dog.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a shih tzu, Havanese, or Llasa apso. Also hypoallergic, but bred to be companion dogs. Not as smart as poodles, though.

DH does not want a small dog. He enjoys running and little dogs aren’t good for that. Obviously some dogs won’t be good runners, and you have to wait until they’re older, but having had retrievers who could run with us, we really enjoyed that. We’re just not little dog people. We often go on long hikes, camping, etc., and my oldest (and parents) would like to do some training with them, maybe even agility, or therapy/CGC, if they’re a good match, which will go more easily with a dog like a poodle (I hope). We wanted to do it with our last Golden, but she didn’t have quite the temperament needed (she was a rescue).

If you guys like hiking and plan agility a standard poodle is a great choice! I have had five standards all of whom are great with kids. The only issue really is they are an intelligent active dog who does best with plentiful exercise and purpose. They can be great frisbee dogs and love ball games. Three of my five have been swimmers who also enjoy water retrieving. My current two are both off leash trained and adore hiking.

Very friendly, VERY smart dogs... Definitely likely to give your kids a run for their money.

OP, if you are concerned about size, there is a poodle size in between the standard and the miniature called "moyen" or "klein."

Anonymous wrote:Get a shih tzu, Havanese, or Llasa apso. Also hypoallergic, but bred to be companion dogs. Not as smart as poodles, though.

DH does not want a small dog. He enjoys running and little dogs aren’t good for that. Obviously some dogs won’t be good runners, and you have to wait until they’re older, but having had retrievers who could run with us, we really enjoyed that. We’re just not little dog people. We often go on long hikes, camping, etc., and my oldest (and parents) would like to do some training with them, maybe even agility, or therapy/CGC, if they’re a good match, which will go more easily with a dog like a poodle (I hope). We wanted to do it with our last Golden, but she didn’t have quite the temperament needed (she was a rescue).

Anonymous wrote:Get a shih tzu, Havanese, or Llasa apso. Also hypoallergic, but bred to be companion dogs. Not as smart as poodles, though.

Our Lhasa/Bichon Frise mix is a sweetheart, though not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. We've always had big dogs before and never thought we'd want a lapdog, but she needed a home. And I have to say, we're all loving how cuddly she is.

When I was 7 my folks got an 18 month old male standard poodle. He was pretty huge - on his back legs he was the same height as me.

He was the most gentle dog ever. Literally never snapped or growled at anyone, very very docile.

But this was in England in the 1970s. I don't know if you'd find a dog like that here with all the over breeding that happens.

Get a shih tzu, Havanese, or Llasa apso. Also hypoallergic, but bred to be companion dogs. Not as smart as poodles, though.

Anonymous wrote:My experience is that full bred poodles are snappy and not great with people, in general. But poodle MIXES are great.

Op here, because of allergies DH doesn’t want a mix.

My mini lives everyone, and everyone loves him! I'm not sure whether there is much difference in personality between the mini and the standards or not, though.

My experience is that full bred poodles are snappy and not great with people, in general. But poodle MIXES are great.

Standard Poodles are great with kids as long as you plan ahead for getting the poodle the type of intense daily exercise they need as well as training. My poodles have been great with my kids, but the dogs are very very energetic so can run over the kids or scare them. My standards enjoy daily dog park trips plus long walks and with their energy managed are great with kids. My poodles have all been good retrievers do love playing fetch with kids. Do be sure to do your research and find a good breeder.

I’ve had a standard poodle and I now have a miniature poodle. Standard poodle was very sweet. He was also extremely high energy and would sometimes scare the kids as he would run up to them since he was huge next to them. Although he never hurt them, he did scare a number of kids with his exuberance. I currently have a miniature poodle, my kids are now teenagers, and he is not snappy at all, very calm, well socialized, and pre-Covid we joked and said he was the poodle ambassador as all of my kids’ friends loved him. Even the teenage boys.

My recommendation is to interview breeders to determine the temperament of the poodle to ensure it is a good fit for your family. I interviewed tons of breeders to find my current little miniature poodle. When I was looking for a good poodle breeder one of the things I did was I joined different poodle Facebook groups as some breeders have pages. A good thing to look for is to see if poodle puppies that were sold from different litters are posted on the pages which would show the breeder keeps up with them. You also want to avoid a puppy mill so you really need to look for a breeder that only has one or two dogs raised in the home.

Our standard poodle LOVES kids. We got her from a very nice home breeder in Gaithersburg.

I grew up with little poodles, probably miniature but maybe toy. They could get snappy with kids and people who approached their person. Some of them it got worse with age. This was true of all of them except the one male we had. We had them all from puppies except the one male and his companion. One would even growl when you’d near their person’s shoes (without their person in the shoes)! I have a 5 yo and an 8 yo who haven’t had a family pet in a while, but are gentle around other family dogs and our prior dog. We need a hypo-nonshedding due to allergies. I’ve read standards don’t have these issues as much as long as they’re socialized well when little, so we’d probably get a puppy. Any firsthand experience here?