A Dreamy Poodle

A very fluffy Huxtable

I really do love the look of brown and white parti poodles. Their chocolate faces, amber brown eyes, liver colored noses, lips, and paws. Just so adorable, I can't wait to get another poodle. I think I'll get a girl, either parti colored -or- lately I've been considering a solid chocolate girl which would match Huxtable adorably as well. 

Toy Parti Poodle Cut: Continental Clip

Huxtable on the grooming table

Toy Poodle in Continental Clip (no rosettes)

This was hand's down my favorite cut/grooming Huxtable has yet. The groomer has two poodles himself -and- he used to do dog shows on a regular which really showed. I loved how Hux looked so happy while being groomed by a new groomer, which indicated how great the groomer had to be, not to mention Hux was a perfect round poodle ball, lol. I had originally wanted the Scandanavian Puppy Clip, but he didn't have enough fur on one part of his leg since he had just gotten his teeth pulled. The veterinarian had to shave off part of his front leg fur for the I.V. Therefore a Continental Clip was the best option. The finished product was so lovely, everyone loooooved it! The groomer told me that the front leg bracelets are actually a bit lower than they're "supposed" to be due to the fur that the veterinarian shaved off, but he worked with it, made them even and it looked great :). 

The groomer and I had a long conversation, ranging in "poodle topics", one of which included some of the industry/poodle grooming/show dog trade secrets, lol. He told me how show dogs usually wear hair extensions to make their top knots and "manes" so super full. People sell their poodle's hair after they have completed and gotten their  "CH" (champion) title, and supposedly the hair goes for top dollar, especially if the particular color or shade of poodle is less common (silvers, blues, partis). So all the perfect full-maned super long hair show poodles have a head full of extensions and hairspray, lol, quite hilarious to me. He told me that some judges are getting more tough with the rules and aren't allowing extensions and hairspray, but for the most part it still goes on. Very very interesting stuff!

He also mentioned loving that Huxtable was a "true toy" poodle. Supposedly there aren't a lot of "true toys" these days-- they're either too small or too big. I guess so many people want the "teacup" dogs that they're becoming more and more commonplace despite how unhealthy it can be to have dogs too tiny. 

All in all it was a great experience. It truly makes a difference when the groomer not only has your same breed of dog, but also spent years grooming show dogs. I'll definitely be going back to that guy :)

Poodle Party: Huxtable's 1st Dog Birthday

Huxtable's 1st birthday / Dog Birthday Party.

Toy Parti Poodle birthday party

I wanted to do a little something for baby Hux's first birthday. At first I planned to do a shindig at the park with a few of Hux's "friends" from the neighborhood as well as the dogs of friends and family, which would have totaled to about 10 dogs. But I later decided to make it a small and intimate gathering this year, with only family dogs.

Color / Theme: Baby blue, gold, and white.

Location: Originally, when it was going to be bigger I planned to have it outside at the park down the street, but when it was decided to be a family gathering I had it at my mum's place. She hasn't had a "kids" birthday party at our family home in years so I knew it'd be a sentimental and thoughtful gesture. (she loooves Huxtable, lol)

Decor: I wanted to be hands on with a lot of the decor as well as keep myself on a budget. While planning I got some inspiration from online, particularly Huxtable's "Dog Birthday Party" Pinterest page. For example, I made the tassel garland by hand from tissue paper and twine. It looks much better than anything I could have bought from a store and I was able to personalize it with the theme colors.  The "Huxtable" sign, was a spur of the moment last minute addition, that we were able to make from tissue paper and streamer paper! It made as a super cute backdrop for photos. Another original idea I had was to spray paint dog bowls gold (a soft latte gold), then spray paint them again with gold glitter spray paint, and finally I added the paw detail that was made from baby blue felt. Other items of decor included the table cloth, streamers, and balloons. Oh and how can I forget my vintage gold and mirror perfume tray that I used to display the dog cupcakes. 

Wardrobe: Huxtable and his guests wore little dog bow-ties. And we made party hats made from scrap book paper and tassel garland (that was made from tissue). 

Party Favors: Squeaky dessert dog toy and gourmet dog cookies, wrapped in a gold dog bowl. 

Food: Dog cheese puffs (pupcorn), gourmet dog treats, and peanut butter organic dog cupcake from a local bakery. (Human food: Kept it simple and dog-themed with a variety of hot dogs, chips, scooby snacks, and cupcakes from the local bakery). 

 Hux & his cousin Meko eating their organic peanut butter and carrot dog cupcakes from a local bakery, OMG Cupcakes. His other cousin and "uncle" who are much bigger were outside running around when we were taking photos, lol.  

All in all it was a fun time. Hux's party was a great excuse to have a family gathering :)

As mentioned above, while planning Hux's dog birthday party I created a board on Pinterest for inspiration. I found great photos of other birthday party for dogs (from simple single dog parties to over the top large ones) as well as general diy party decor ideas, you can check it out here. I got most of the items from Michaels, Party City, and Dollar Tree. I honestly didn't realize how much stuff Dollar Tree's had, I remember reading about a woman who decorated her entire wedding from there and I can totally see how as long as you have a good eye. Plus, I love how everything was literally a dollar! This is probably common knowledge to most, but I had no idea, lol, it was fun to finally explore a dollar store. Also, Michael's online coupons came in handy, I was able to double up and get 40% off my most expensive item as well as 30% the entire purchase. I was even able to get the food at a discount (cupcakes from a posh bakery and gourmet treats from a high-end dog store) by using deals from Scoutmob and Loafdeals-- both are "groupon" type websites that give discounts to local places. For example, you pay $10 for $20 worth of food or merchandise, which is like getting half off. And it just so happened that all the human food I wanted was also on sale, "Buy One, Get One" at Publix, so that meant that it was also half off.  I was able to have a darling little party for my dear little boy at a reasonable cost.

Dog birthday balloons, Emma Doodles All-Natural dog treats (cheezy-chic, cheezy-beef, peanut butter, and wheat free honest which ended up being Hux's favorite), and a few of Huxtable's gifts! Gifts are definitely the unexpected bonus to having your little pooch a birthday party. 

Huxtable the Poodle, Posing & Sleeping

Hux had a mini impromptu photoshoot the other day... I was bored, he looked handsome lounging around, and the camera was nearby so I snapped a few pics of my little boo, lol... more pics to come...

 Here's him sleeping later, after mommy's not so good attempt at banding his topknot  :/ (more info and pics of that later too, lol)

Toy Parti Poodle

Toy poodle on bed

A few photos of little baby Huxtable on the bed. His brown and white coloring looks good with the ivory and gold (Hollywood Regency)

Little Sumo Surfer Poodle

toy poodle laying on ottoman and native print blanket, with water bowl

Poodle owners know about the ever growing coat of a poodle, and of their top knot. While the top knot is signature feature of poodles, and oh so cute, sometimes it's length can get in the way of seeing their eyes. That's when I make him my little sumo or surfer guy-- it depends on what he looks like when I put his hair up into a little poodle ponytail. 

My New Poodle: Baby's First Day Home

little baby Huxtable on his first day home

I was in pretty high anticipation when making the final journey to pick him up, so my mom came with. He rode back in my lap, quiet as a mouse.

When I got to my place, one of my sisters had just gotten there and another was on her way.... we were just so excited! There's no nieces and nephews yet, so he's sorta the closet thing.

I had already ordered a bulk of things online, but they hadn't arrived yet. My vintage dog carrier (soon to be his 'dog house' was on its way, so I only had what he was sent with  (plastic dog kennel, sample food, papers) and handful of things I just so happened to buy a bit earlier (toy, puppy/small flea collar, dog brush). So my sister and mom make a quick run to the pet supermarket down the street and to publix and picked up a small collar and leash, small package of wee wee pads, and I think that's it. I just needed the basics to get by until my huge package of dog supplies arrived. I should have ordered everything earlier so I could have been 100% ready for my dog's first day home.

He really does have all the markings of a perfect parti poodle. Chocolate and white in all the right places, amber eyes, liver colored nose and lips, just adorable.

He explored just a little bit, but was mainly very shy on his first day-- typical puppy behavior. Our first night was okay, he barked  for a little bit when is his cage, but after ignoring him for about 3-4 minutes he stopped. His original owner warned me that he might have a little bit of separation anxiety from his sister, who he slept with every night. But all in all a good first day :)

Why I Chose My New Poodle Puppy

Huxtable, Toy Parti Poodle

This is a simple blog dedicated to my new little baby Huxtable Bastian Bixby Samoht. (That's right you read it correctly, lol.) I've been wanting to add a little furry kid into my life for awhile, and a couple months ago I felt the time was right and so my "find a puppy" journey began. (btw: He is my first live-in pet, we had many different dogs all while growing up but they were outside dogs for outside play and protection, not inside dogs). 

My sister has a yorkie-poo (yorkshire terrier and poodle mix) and we had been discussing what the right type of dog would be for me for awhile.  There were a few things I knew I HAD to have-- he needed to be small (I live in an apartment), he needed to not shed, and he needed to be smart... I can't deal with slow/stubborn dog at this point in my life, lol ;). Well, she used an iphone app to narrow down the choices, and there were a nice handful to choose from. But it took little time for me to realize that a poodle was exactly what I wanted-- they come in a great variety of colors and sizes, they don't shed, and they're one of the smartest dogs in the world... always listed as 1, 2, or 3 depending on whose list you're looking at. Oh, and of course I wanted a male dog. Why? Well because most of my human best friends are male, so why not have my pet best friend be a little guy too. Plus I had also read that boy dogs can actually be more loyal than girl dogs, although many people think the opposite (thanks to television shows like Lassie).

Once I picked the breed, I then needed to pick a color. Well, a friend of mines adopted a dog for his mom, a little brown Chihuahua. Super cute and a very pretty color... it wasn't a normal brown, so I had to google it and realized that its color was "red". And thinking back on it, years ago I had fallen in love with red pitbulls as well. Now some people have the dusty rose light colored red that are nearly apricot, but I wanted a dark and rich in color red-- the color of a brown teddy bear or the color of a red headed person's hair. So I decided to set my sights on the perfect mahogany red toy poodle. Besides red, chocolate was also a color I was interested in, but moreso for a girl, I was a bit more partial to red for a boy. Essentially red, chocolate/brown, and dark apricot were all colors I initially saw fitting my lifestyle and apartment decor very well, lol... sounds funny, but I'm a creative/design/fashion type and I can't help but to think like that :-)

Of course my searches started on pet adoption and humane websites, but they seemed to be filled with mostly white poodles, and the occasional silver, black, or apricot. And the bulk of them, well, all of them, were adults. So then I looked on websites and classifieds, and as I scrolled every once in a while I would see these poodles called "parti poodles". They intrigued me at first sight. So of course I googled it. I read up on them just a bit and learned that were not being recognized by certain registries, and that were discriminated against in the poodle world. So that made me think twice, I thought to myself, "I want to have an official poodle, not something that isn't recognized."

dark red toy poodle; (http://www.flickr.com/photos/juanitamarchesani)

I soon went to go visit my first prospective poodle. He was a light red/apricot with white boots and a little white on his fur. I initially wanted a solid, but my sister and I had discussed dogs having 'character' and their own unique look so I became much more open to dogs that weren't just solid. A solid color dog can be sort of boring in ways... Although I didn't get that dog, seeing him got me thinking about the partis again. My sister made mention of the President's dog Bo, then I thought about TV dogs and realized that most of them are usually more than one color. So at that point I not only had partis on the brain, but tuxedos poodles, and phantom colored poodles. 

Still being uncertain about getting a parti colored poodle, I did more research. And the deeper I looked the more attached I became to their story and to their originality. I found old photos of parti poodles from the 1700s and 1800s. And in that time period a poodle was known to be both black and white or brown and white... it was the standard and norm, a "parti" poodle was what people thought of when they thought poodle. In the first official  United Stated of America dog book "The Poodle" page displayed a drawing of a parti poodle near the water. And the more I read the more intrigued I became. I like classic things, I like to have the original, I like vintage and authentic in most areas of my life and it seemed like the truth of the matter was that the parti poodle was the original poodle.

1700s Poodle Painting

Nevertheless, I had semi fallen in love with a solid tiny toy dark red poodle I saw online, he was so cute. And I almost sent the deposit, but my sister felt like he could have been a puppy mill dog. Not only is red a popular poodle color that entices many puppy mill breeders, but she had checked out the breeder and  felt like they had too many types of dogs. And the photos they posted and sent were kind of blurry. Not to mention they lived in Nebraska-- one of the most notorious puppy mill states. Then when I google mapped their location it was literally in nowhere land Nebraska (with tons of space for puppy milling). There was also no website. And not that a website is a must, but when you're willing to ship puppies I think it would be best to have a website so that we can see the living condition of the dogs. OR atleast have several Very clear photos, which they didn't.... this all left me in limbo. 

I then found an adorable chocolate and white parti poodle that looked to have an amazing genetic background. He was fully AKC registered and the mom and dad were house pets of the owners. His complete AKC lineage was on the website and dated back many many generations. His dad's side came from nothing but top tier poodle breeders. Honestly his initial picture was not the best, but the few sent afterwards were quite cute (despite his little tears). So now I was officially torn: red? parti? red? parti? I was banging my head trying to decide.... then I read up more on parti poodles.

 I learned that not only were they the original poodle, but that for some reason around the early 1900s people decided that they didn't want the poodle to have two colors, but one-- and they began to breed for color. So when their partis created solids they kept those to continue to breed, but then they would kill the partis, they were literally killing every parti poodle that was born. They killed them because they did not want to risk them being mated again. Essentially people were exterminating them, vigorously working to only have solid colored poodles.  And that is the story that made it official for me, I was going to own a parti colored poodle.

This is the parti poodle photo that heavily persuaded me to choose chocolate and white parti over solid red. Isn't this poodle so amazingly attractive, well groomed, and classic?! (http://dominopoodles.com/)

sidebar: The fact that parti colored poodles have clearly been around for as long as the poodle has, there are pictures and paintings of them all throughout history, but somehow dog registries don't let them participate in all events/conformations/etc is crazy! They'll let a yellow/apricot, silver, grey, blue, red participate-- all colors that are obviously not original colors, but they won't let a parti (atleast the black and white -and- brown and white)?! It's discrimination at it's greatest, and to me it's just so interesting how mankind's discrimination and hate shows up everywhere...  lol, honestly it's kind of hilarious because it's sort of like animal racism, lol.. sounds weird, but that's actually what it is. Parti poodles are the original poodles, or at the very least they have been around long before any color outside of white, black, and chocolate, but yet they can't participate in conformation <--- so bogus. 

But enough of that topic, the point is their story is what sold me, and I knew my little canine boy would have a pampered great stylish life so I figured why not get a parti to show the haters and naysayers how great and gorgeous they are. So all of that coupled with the fact that a brown and white dog just looks so classic and preppy made me 100% on getting him. I could more clearly see him lounging around my place than any other color, there's just such a richness about a chocolate and white poodle. And the bonuses were that partis were known to be a little smarter, more even-tempered, and sociable than other colors. 

So finally on December 19th I picked up my little chocolate and white parti toy poodle. He was perfect in every way, and SO FLUFFY! lol.

This blog is simply about him-- documenting his growth, happenings, and life. Everyone who meets little baby Huxtable LOVES him and literally asks to babysit, hold him, send photos, they all want to know if/when I plan to breed so they can have their own (I have no plans to btw), and because of ALL of that, lol, I decided to make a blog that my friends and family can go to and check on their canine nephew/grandson/godson/etc. And of course why not share my experiences and photos with other poodle and dog lovers.