Meet Prana: Our New Adventure Companion

Hey everyone! We wanted to share the exciting news that we got a new puppy! Prana is a 14 week old standard poodle (she was 11 and 12 weeks in these photos)…and needless to say, in the past month that we have had her, she has quickly become the center of our world. She is a sweet dog that is not only intelligent, but super active. In fact, she seems to love running around in nature as much as we do which makes her absolutely perfect for our hiking and road tripping adventures. Though we are still trying to get her used to being in a car, which for now seems a little scary for her. That is why on the weekends, we’ve been finding ourselves driving from Seattle to Bellevue (a 20 minute drive) to spend some time at one of this city’s many beautiful parks like this one called the Mercer Slough. With an abundance of trails, this place has been the perfect quick getaway for all of us. We learn how to walk with her in a nature setting (though sometimes it feels like she’s walking us), and she gets more exposure to the environments we like to visit on our travels. No doubt, we are very confident that as she continues to mature, we will be taking her to all sorts of places like up mountains and into dense forests which we think she will greatly enjoy! We just need to get through the infamous puppy stage of hyperactivity and whole lot of chewing. It’s tough, but totally worth it!

Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week, and we thought we would end this post by sharing some fun facts we’ve learned about poodles. We have completely fallen in love with this breed of dog!

Poodles come in three different sizes. There are three different types of poodles: standard, miniature, and toy. The standard is over 15 inches tall with a weight of 45 to 70 pounds. A miniature is 10 to 15 inches tall with a weight of 10 to 15 pounds. A toy is no more than 10 inches tall with a weight of 4 to 6 pounds. Prana is a female standard poodle, so we expect her to get pretty big and tall which makes sense because she is growing super fast!
Poodles are the 2nd smartest breed in the world. Behind the Border Collie, poodles are ranked high in intelligence making them easy to train. Though intelligence also means getting bored easily which definitely happens to Prana. She even gets bored with eating! So we try to keep her brain busy with puzzle toys, daily sessions on learning new tricks, and obedience training classes.
Poodles are an extremely active breed and were originally bred to be hunting dogs. Originally from Germany, poodles were bred to be water retrievers, which means they excel at sports, agility, and swimming. We can already see the active personality in Prana with her frequent bursts of energy. She literally spends hours in the day just jumping around, and she prefers to run not walk most of the time. We are definitely looking forward to having her as a long-distance running and hiking buddy!
Poodles love working. Poodles are the type of dog breed that loves to have a job from hunting to search and rescue to even herding. Also their friendly personality makes them a great fit as an assistance or therapy dog where their loyalty to people really comes through. When Prana gets older we would love to teach her some tracking and scent detection skills which we think will keep her mind active!
Poodles have hair that grows continuously and never sheds. Poodles actually have hair, not fur which means it continuously grows like human hair. That means they need to be brushed daily, given baths every week, and require frequent visits to the groomer. It is a lot of work, but we do appreciate the no shedding aspect of Prana’s hair!
There is a purpose beyond fashion for the poodle cut. The traditional poodle cut was actually created to make it easier for them to swim when hunting while still being warm. That is why you often see poodle hair styles that include puffs of hair around their joints and upper torso. Although I think the poodle cut is super cute (my husband is not a fan), we plan on keeping Prana’s hair cut natural. That means we will not be shaving any part of her face or other parts of her body. It makes her look like a doodle of some kind which many people often mistake her to be, but we love how cute she looks with all that fuzzy hair which apparently will change to a curlier look as she gets older!
Poodles are extroverts and people-oriented. Poodles thrive on companionship making them great family dogs. Prana is definitely one of the friendliest dogs we’ve ever known. She loves greeting literally every single person we encounter on our walks, and she prefers to be by our side at all times. However, she is much more reserved with dogs. If she sees one, she tends to hide between our legs, but we’re hoping that puppy class will help her!