THE POODLE. 



BY W. R. FUKNESS. 



FEW years ago, if you told a "doggy man, " either 

 in this country or England, that he owned a Poodle 

 he repudiated the charge immediately, and felt 

 deeply insulted, as these dogs were deemed fit only 

 for the circus or for mountebanks. Now, I am happy to 

 say, these truly noble dogs have become better known, and 

 their real sterling qualities are beginning to be appreciated. 

 The origin of the Poodle is not known, though he cer- 

 tainly belongs to the Spaniel family; and his special char- 

 acteristics have been developed by climate and the particu- 

 lar uses for which he has been required. There is, however, 

 little doubt that he is, comparatively speaking, a modern 

 dog. 



The first mention of him is by Conrad Gessner, in 1555; 

 and Doctor Fitzinger, in " Der Hund und Seine Racen," 

 says (I quote from "The Poodle," by " Wildfowler," in 

 Stonehenge' s ' 4 Dogs of the British Islands ' ' ) that der grosse 

 Pudel originated in the northwest of Africa, probably in 

 Morocco or Algeria, and that the origin of the " Schnur 

 Pudel," or corded Poodle, has been "a matter of discussion 

 among savants," some saying that he came from Spain or 

 Portugal, others that he came from Greece. But from 

 these two dogs, if they were originally distinct, came all 

 our modern classes of Poodles, of which there are four 

 the Russian Poodle, the German Poodle, the French Poo- 

 dle, or Caniche, and the Barbet. 



Mephistopheles first appeared to Faust in the form of a 

 black Poodle, and Littre, in his Dictionnaire Frangaise, 

 says that the dogs of Ulysses were Barbets, though by 

 this lie probably meant dogs from Barbary, like our large 



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