Piccolo's AKC Standard Poodles
Piccolo's AKC Standard Poodles
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Welcome to Piccolo's Poodles!
NEXT LITTERS EXPECTED APPROXIMATELY SPRING 2024, FALL 2024, and Early 2025
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"Pedigree indicates what the animal should be.
Conformation indicates what the animal appears to be.
But performance indicates what the animal actually is."
We raise quality solid brown and black AKC Standard Poodles of sound health, excellent temperaments, and solid structure in a home environment with lots of love and attention. We are passionate about demonstrating the versatility of the Poodle. Our dogs excel in a wide variety of performance sports, conformation, and service work. Our program has produced many titles in obedience, conformation, rally, dock diving, Fast CAT, lure coursing, nose work, disc dog, trick dog, etc. We’ve also produced successful service and therapy dogs working in mobility assistance, medical alert, allergy detection, and psychiatric service work. The Poodle is one of the most versatile breeds of dogs. Athletic and energetic, they make a wonderful outdoor friend. Calm and intelligent, they make the perfect indoor companion. Their warm, loving nature makes them excellent with children. Poodles are recommended by the AKC for allergy sufferers because they do not shed and have very low dander. We are also passionate about bettering the brown Standard Poodle as there is a limited gene pool of quality dogs compared to other Poodle colors. We love their fun personalities!
Our family has been breeding and showing Standard Poodles since 1979. We have been certified as an AKC Breeder of Merit because of our dedication to the Standard Poodle breed, performance show achievements, and commitment to fully health certifying all breeding dogs. We have been recognized as an AKC Breeder with HEART because of our commitment to fully HEALTH certifying all breeding dogs, continuing EDUCATION including advances in canine health, ACCOUNTABILITY for the best care of our dogs, taking RESPONSIBILITY for all our puppies for their life, and supporting the TRADITION of breeding purebred dogs. We are a member of Versatility in Poodles, United Poodle Association, Responsible Dog Owners of Maryland, and AKC Canine Health Foundation. We are a member of the Better Bred breeder community that works toward maintaining diversity while decreasing complex genetic disorders within the Poodle breed. We adhere to the Poodle Club of America Breeder Code of Ethics. We have been awarded the “Excellent” standard by Good Dog which “distinguishes those breeders who demonstrate an exceptionally high commitment to prioritizing the health of their dogs by performing the highest level of health testing on their breeding dogs.”
We always select parent dogs that are healthy so the resulting puppies have a better chance of having long, vigorous lives. All our dogs are fully health certified by the OFA and CHIC for numerous orthopedic and genetic diseases by a multitude of genetic tests and physical examinations so our puppies come from a healthy background. We test beyond the CHIC standards for Standard Poodles found at https://www.ofa.org/recommended-tests?breed=PO&var=STD and all our test results are posted publicly on the OFA website. As a member of the Better Bred community, all our dogs have also been tested at the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory as part of the Canine Genetic Diversity project which helps breeders to improve the health of breeding programs. We always strive for an excellent 10/10 genetic match. An increase in genetic diversity decreases the likelihood complex autoimmune disorders and other complex diseases. More information on this groundbreaking genetic research can be found at https://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/dog/GeneticDiversityInStandardPoodles.php. We fully support this research which helps reduce complex genetic disorders within the Poodle breed. All our puppies come with a written 2-year genetic health guarantee.
We always select parent dogs that have strong performance and conformation backgrounds with excellent temperaments. The puppies come from an obedience, therapy, agility, hunting, and solid conformation background. All our dogs have earned titles in competitive AKC, UKC, and/or CDSP obedience and rally performance events. Our dogs also show in UKC conformation shows to achieve their Championship title. Most of our dogs are Therapy Dog International certified. Our dogs have also earned the Versatility Certificate Award because of their performance and conformation achievements plus our commitment to full health testing. Putting a title on a dog proves the animal is stable, intelligent, sociable, and can work in a stressful environment. Performance titles demonstrate the dog is able to learn, problem solve, and has resilience to work through failure without shutting down. Show dogs also need to have stamina and physical ability. Proper structure is imperative to support all the activities a dog will do over a lifetime. Solid conformation reduces the risk of injury and allows the dog to perform more efficiently. Our puppies have a sound build, fantastic personalities, intelligence, and aim to please! Our puppies are excellent performance (obedience, rally, agility, trick dog, dock diving, scent work, Fast CAT, coursing, etc), conformation, hunting, service, and therapy prospects as well as amazing companion pets!
Our puppies are home born and family raised with lots of love and care in our smoke-free home. To provide the absolute best care for each puppy and our dogs, we typically only have one litter each year or so on average. Our goal is to produce puppies ready for new experiences and challenges in life. We raise our puppies using Puppy Culture which includes socializing protocols, emotional resilience exercises, problem solving, and environment enrichment. The Puppy Culture program provides a week-by-week system which gives structure to raising puppies to become confident, bright, social adult dogs. We expose puppies to early neurological stimulation protocol which helps puppies to able to cope with stressful situations, increase problem solving, and support better physical health later in life. More information about ENS is available at https://youtu.be/ja6E4xa-6Hs. We use Early Scent Introduction protocol which improves adult scenting ability. This contributes to success in obedience, field work, nose work, search/rescue, detection dogs, barn hunt, etc. It helps increase confidence and stability of performance and service dogs. ESI is an Avidog program, and more information is available at https://www.avidog.com/early-scent-introduction-for-neonate-puppies/. We start litter box training at around 2.5 weeks of age which helps with house training. They are socialized and raised to become confident puppies by exposure to various noises/music, people, Adventure Box play, play tunnel, toys, and different surfaces including hard wood floors, carpet, and outdoor grass (weather permitting). We begin the basic obedience training process including sit, down, come, paws up, stacking, etc. More information about the Puppy Culture program is available at https://youtu.be/cDH8hyuIxlg.
Grooming is an important component of any Poodle’s life. Our puppies start with regular nail trimming at a few days old, desensitization on their face/feet with an electric toothbrush at about 3 weeks old, bathing/fluff drying at about 4 weeks old, and full clipper/scissor grooming at about 5 weeks old. They experience the full grooming process several times so they get accustomed to it. As an added value to our puppies, we offer continued grooming sessions at our home on a 3-4 week schedule at $50/grooming until they can safely visit an outside grooming salon after completing their puppy vaccine series at 16 weeks old. This helps continue grooming training and keeps our puppies looking great while protecting their health.
All our puppies come with a written 2-year genetic health guarantee. Puppies also come with a current health record, puppy pack, proof of parent genetic health testing, pedigree, supply of current puppy food, collar, play toy, towel scented with the litter, and a lifetime of breeder support. All our puppies are current on vaccines, vet-checked, dewormed, dew claws removed, and have had their tail docked per AKC standards. Our puppies come with a microchip including lifetime enrolment through AKC Reunite so you know your puppy is permanently identified if ever lost.
All our puppies also come with a commitment to lifetime support. We help with any questions or concerns over the years and keep in touch with the families of all our puppies. In addition to our public Piccolo’s Poodles Facebook page, we also host a private Facebook group for our puppy owners to ask questions, share successes, and create connections with other Piccolo’s families. We encourage early socialization outings and schedule meet ups at local stores for puppies to meet new people. We also host an annual summer puppy pool party for our families to try swimming and socialize with other Piccolo’s families. We encourage and support families to try new dog sports and showing. Most of our families join us to try at least some dog sport. Our families love the network of support throughout their journey with their puppy.
All our dogs are family pets that live in our home. No dog is ever bred before the age of 2 years and completing all OFA and CHIC health certifications. Our females only have 2-3 litters in their lifetime and are spayed when they retire from motherhood. All our dogs live out their full life with us as a loving member in our family home. We do not re-home our females after they retire.
We encourage placement in performance, service, and conformation homes but are also open to quality pet homes. Full AKC co-owner registration is available upon request only to approved performance or conformation show homes that agree to complete all OFA/CHIC/VGL health certifications plus achieve five performance and/or conformation titles before any potential future breeding. Puppies sold as pets and not intended for breeding will have limited AKC registration and will be neutered between the ages of 1-2 years. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, age, ancestry, disability, geography, gender, or sexual orientation. Our puppies are in a wide variety of homes and serve from active performance dog to loyal service dog to shining conformation star to snuggly companion pet. Puppies are shown in our home by appointment only. We prefer in-person puppy pick up as we want to be sure all our puppies are going to appropriate homes. We allow visits after 6 weeks of age but do not finalize puppy selections until the Volhard and conformation tests have been completed. Our puppies are evaluated at 7 weeks old with the Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test and conformation structural evaluation by an independent third party which aids in pairing the right puppy with the right home based upon their goals and lifestyle. The Volhard test predicts inherited behavioral tendencies and how the puppy will turn out as an adult.
Our puppies are spoken for pretty quickly because of repeat clients, referrals from our previous clients, people who are familiar with the performance of our show dogs, recommendations on Facebook/poodle forum websites, and our website. The demand often exceeds the number of puppies we have available, and we want our puppies to go to the best of homes! Our litters are often completely reserved before they are born. We do have several reservations on our upcoming litters, and are currently accepting a few more deposits. Most families wait a couple months to over a year or two for the right puppy based on their preferences, lifestyle, and goals. If you have interest in a puppy, a reservation is highly recommended especially if you have something specific in mind. We will reference our experience raising the litter, Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test results, and conformation evaluations to aid in matching each family with the puppy that best matches their lifestyle and goals. Puppies are generally allocated in the order in which reservations are received. Deposit funds are not cashed until the puppies are born. If we do not have puppies available when expected, you may choose to have your deposit check retuned or transferred to the following litter. Once the litter is born, all deposit funds are completely non-refundable. We are located 45 minutes northwest of Baltimore, MD, USA.
As a responsible breeder, we are always trying to improve our line and contribute to the future of the breed. Over the generations, we have concentrated on increasing performance drive, confidence, focus, health, and proper structure. We want to see excellent temperament, solid energy level, perseverance in the face of challenges, and intelligence but not so wicked smart that the puppy bores easily. We like to see food and/or toy drive, natural retrieving aptitude, biddability, and people focus. We want an enthusiastic dog that is passionate about its job.
Read more about our breeding philosophies in a recent BetterBred breeder spotlight article: https://www.betterbred.com/2021/11/05/breeder-spotlight-piccolos-standard-poodles/?fbclid=IwAR2phiQSQ_S0Kcneui2_XCa28jBekyjB7MRtUKW7JR75c2EDWwQKuxO4BIU
We are focusing on two lines in our program currently. One line is the typical Standard Poodle size of approximately 22-26” at the shoulder depending on each exact pairing. This line is generally going to produce excellent conformation, performance (obedience, rally, scent work, trick dog, Fast CAT, coursing, and hunting), service/therapy, and companion pets. Our second line is small Standard (sometimes called Klein or Moyen) in size of approximately 16-20” at the shoulder depending on each exact pairing. This line is generally going to produce excellent performance sports prospects with high drive (agility, Fast CAT, coursing, dock diving, obedience, rally, and trick dog) and active companion pets. Of course keep in mind that each puppy is unique and temperament testing allows us to match each puppy with our reservation families based upon their specific lifestyle and goals.
Please complete our application in the 'Contact Us' area for more details about our program and upcoming litters. Thanks for your interest!
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Professional portraiture photos by Terry Rowe.