A sleeping dog this poodle owner can't let lie
via a Letter to the Editor in the October 4, 2004 Bostson Globe.
The National Rifle Association is running an ad portraying, among other things, a Standard Poodle as a dog that "don't hunt," which is funny, because around the world the Standard Poodle has been recognized as--and bred to be--a gun dog. Unlike the American Kennel Club, which classifies dogs according to morphology and includes the Standard Poodle in the Non-Sporting Group, the United Kennel Club, which "supports the idea of the 'total dog', meaning a dog that looks and performs equally well," judges the Standard Poodle in the Gun Dog Group.
In the late 1980's, Standard Poodles, the original duck-dogs, were fully eligible to participate in C[anadian] K[ennel] C[lub]'s WC/I/X tests (rules adopted in 1981 for implementation in 1982; approval to allow SPs to run probably given in late 1985, since first SP title was awarded in June 1986); the United Kennel Club's Hunting Retriever Club's tests (UKC categorization enabled SPs to participate from the tests' inception); and to a limited degree in N[orth] A[merican] H[unting] R[etriever] A[ssociation] tests (Poodles became fully eligible in the early 1990s). In June, 1993, the Poodle Club of America initiated a retriever Working Certificate programme, the required pre-requisite for eligibility to participate in the AKC's retriever Hunting Tests. In 1996, the CKC initiated retriever Hunt Tests (AKC Hunting Tests lookalikes) for which Standard Poodles were eligible from their inception. As of 1 September 1998, Poodles are eligible to participate in AKC Hunting Tests (The Poodle History Project).
Historically, poodles were groomed for practicality for field-training, hunt tests, and so on. According to the Poodle History Project, the benefits of the "historically-correct working-Continental" clip are as follows:
the dog's legs don't cake with heavy mud, yet the hair is long enough in the short parts to protect against brambles (but doesn't pick them up as hitch-hikers), the dog can swim easily, yet has enough hair in the moderate jacket to keep dry and warm at the skin in cold water and brisk wet windy weather. By contrast, the modern Sporting Clip leaves longer hair on the legs where it gathers heavy mud, and, when wet, the shorter hair on the body curls tightly, leaving skin exposed to cold wind.