Standard Poodles -
Choosing a Healthy Puppy

Choosing a healthy puppy for your family can be a difficult and confusing experience. Do you know how to distinguish a healthy quality puppy from a poor one among all those adorable fur balls? There are lots of Standard Poodle For Sale ads out there and it can be quite a challenge knowing if you are choosing a healthy puppy.

When you are looking for a Standard Poodle puppy, try and spend more time with the puppy�s parents than the pups themselves. This will give you some insight as to what the puppy will turn out to be like. Once you decide that you like the parents you can begin looking at the puppies. Here�s a few things to look for when choosing a healthy puppy:

A healthy pup should be plump, but not have a distended stomach.

Its skin should feel loose instead of sticking to the bones. Its skin should be clean and dandruff-free, with no sign of blemishes or sore patches.

The coat should shine and of course be free of fleas, lice or tapeworm segments on the puppy.

Any signs of itching or bald patches are a bad thing. Any traces of what looks like black dirt on the belly is really flea excrement.

The eyes should be clean, bright and free from any sign of discharge or redness. The under lids should be a healthy pink.

Choose a puppy which looks lively, playful and readily comes to greet people. A timid pup may have a problem personality and be difficult to train.

A healthy puppy nose should be cold and wet. You shouldn�t see any discharge or sneezing.

A healthy puppy should have clean ears. The inner ears should be light pink, not red, and free of discharge. There shouldn�t be any odor coming from the ears.

Does the puppy have nice puppy breath? Her teeth should be white and straight, and her gums should be pink.

The puppy nest should be extremely clean, and show that the mother as well as the owners work to keep it clean by changing the towels, paper, etc. Puppies with a clean nest are much easier to housetrain.

Finally, don�t be surprised if a reputable breeder asks you a lot of questions to find out if you are going to be a the best person to own one of their pups.

Be sure the puppy' parents have been tested for any of the diseases or conditions that Standard Poodles are suseptible to inheriting. You can find these on my Choosing a Breeder page and on my Health Problems page.

Choosing a healthy puppy should be a lot easier now that you are familiar with the information above. You should feel confident in finding a loveable, healthy lifetime companion.

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