It would be wise to reserve your Ponydoodle now . . . this will be the hot new pet of the century!!

Chili, our new brown Ponydoodle foal fresh from the cabbage patch.

With the recent tremendous marketing of Poodle crosses, we thought a cross that had unique qualities not already found in the Poodle made more sense.


 

After long hours in the lab tinkering with the DNA, we have created a "doodle" which does not lessen the original.

(Note: A couple of "My Little Pony" toys accidentally fell in the gene splicer, hence the neon-pink hair.)

In addition to the traits of the Poodle, the Ponydoodle can be ridden by small children, mow your lawn, and can be maintained on either a meat-based diet or on hay and grain -- thereby cutting the cost of feed.

Reserve your Ponydoodle now !!!!!

Our Ponydoodles are between 21-24 inches tall. They have great dispositions and are patient with small children. They are highly intelligent, learn quickly, and are eager to please.

Ponydoodles are athletic and excel in such events as jumping, driving, obstacles, halter, and "liberty" classes (where the Ponydoodle is turned loose in a ring to perform to music). 

Being somewhat stronger swimmers than their Poodle counterparts (occasionally wild Ponydoodles have been seen swimming the bay between Chincoteague and Assateague), Ponydoodles have also done remarkably well in duck retrieving trials.

Best of all, after a day in the pasture or working in the performance ring, Ponydoodles can curl up beside you on the sofa to watch T.V.

Nick Hasty, Muscatine Journal Correspondent

MUSCATINE, Iowa — A puppy mill poodle with a funny walk not only found a home, but a friend for life who helped it overcome a condition brought about by mistreatment.

Nancy Pagel of Muscatine adopted Willoughby, a standard apricot poodle, from the Muscatine Humane Society, which had purchased the dog from a puppy mill auction in central Iowa..

Puppy mills are places where puppies are bred and kept. However, living conditions in the mills are often substandard. Sometimes auctions are held to encourage people to adopt dogs from mills.

“I encourage people to do an on-site visit to see where the dog is coming from,” said Pagel. At first glance, Willoughby, who is about 7 years old, looks like a normal poodle, but upon closer inspection, it’s evident that his legs are bowed and his paws point outward.

This is a result of his living conditions at the puppy mill, according to Poggel. The elevated wire cage caused the puppies to stand awkwardly so they didn’t fall through the bottom of the cage.

Pagel and Willoughby take walks at Discovery Park nearly every day. Lots of people know the high-stepping white poodle from a distance because of his unusual gait.

Sometimes they go to the Canine Activity Center of Muscatine at 920 S. Houser St.

There, the two practice stunts such as jumping hurdles, zig-zagging around poles and running through tunnels.

Willoughby's favorite stunt is jumping over hurdles, which are normally set at 12 inches high, Pagel said. He is able to gather his legs together and clear the jump, despite his wide stance.

“We just pick and choose the obstacles we’re able to do,” she said.

A six-week training course at the Humane Society helped to teach Willoughby how to clear obstacles.

Pagel and Willoughby enjoy spending time with other dogs at agility fun matches held at the Center.

Pagel said she doesn’t want to enter Willoughby into any agility competitions or push him too much. She said the main reason to get involved in agility activities is to get Willoughby some exercise and work on his mobility.

However, when Willoughby does have an audience, “he gets a smile on his face from the clapping,” Pagel said. “He likes to hear the crowd clapping and cheering.”

“He loves meeting people and other dogs,” said Pagel. She said that Willloughby also loves hanging out with his “big brother,” Baron, a 110-pound Doberman.

“He overcame and he’s just been a great dog,” said Poggel.

It's a fate that could befall almost any journalist. You get the dream job - yes, the Beijing Olympics! - and you head out determined to make your mark.
By Andy Hooper

You'll barely stop for breath as you dash from Bird's Nest to Water Cube, via velodrome, filing thousands upon thousands of words to delight readers with your insight and razor-sharp wit. 

Or you get the archery. Not a bad gig, by any means, but perhaps not as sexy as, say, the marathon.

So how do you spice up those little snippets the subs can afford you? By picking up the China Daily and faithfully reproducing its 'Did You Know?' fact of the day, that's how!

But was Eddie Butler, former captain of the Wales rugby union team, turned journalist and commentator, wearing his thinking cap when he wrote following in his Friday piece?

"Having watched just about every one of the 29,500 arrows shot in seven days of archery competition, may I share with you something that has no point. At the Paris Olympics of 1900, there was a poodle-clipping competition. Seriously. A French farmer's wife won gold."

Read the rest here, but what Eddie hadn't checked for was the source of this gem.

A few months ago the Telegraph's Olympic countdown, faithfully compiled by our man (and pal of Eddie) Chris Lyles, unleashed the 1900 Olympic poodle-clipping event on an unsuspecting public. 

There were 128 days left before the Games. Yep, you're right - it was April 1.

Here's the April Fool in full:

128 days to go . . .

128: The number of competitors who participated in the poodle-clipping event at the 1900 Olympics in Paris. The event was held in the leafy environs of the Bois de Boulogne and it was the only occasion that it featured as an Olympic discipline.

This, no doubt, came as a relief to Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the French founding father of the modern Olympic movement, who had opposed its inclusion, but was outvoted by his International Olympic Committee colleagues.

The gold medal was won by Avril Lafoule, a 37-year-old farmer's wife from the Auvergne region of France, who successfully clipped 17 poodles in the allotted two-hour time frame.

The poodle-clipping competition, held on April 1, was watched by 6,000 spectators, one of the larger audiences at the most chaotic Olympic Games of all.

The curious case of Olympic poodle-clipping is a classic web tale. Cut from the original Telegraph countdown and pasted into the blogosphere, it took on a life of its own, losing all its original context and eventually becoming a "fact" in Beijing.

And in fairness to Eddie, he's not the only one to fall for "Olympic poodle-clipping", which now garners almost 25,000 Google search results.

The BBC's live Beijing blog ran it on Tuesday because the Poodle and Dog Blog had already devoted a lengthy discussion to it. And the day before the Games began, the Mirror's website ran it, too.

Just a few of the many victims of Olympic poodle-clipping.

(There but for the grace of God...)