Taiwan’s Princess Poodles
As a dog owner I try to socialise Leela as much as possible. Although what I’d classify a medium-sized dog, my initial foray into dog ownership was that of the Pug variety.
Whilst sadly that adventure ended in tears, I still do and always will have an adoration towards Pugs.
Other small dogs? Not so much.
Infact nothing brings out the groan in me than heading down to the local dog park for a bit of socialising training and play with Leela, only to find it overrun with this:
I don’t know what it is specifically about Poodles, but they are the dog of choice for middle-aged neglected Taiwanese women who for one reason or another aren’t in a relationship and feel the urge to fight off their child rearing instincts.
The end result is an absolute onslaught of glamorized and pampered brown scruffy poodles. Black ones exist too but, perhaps due to a Taiwanese cultural stigma against all things black, are not as common.
Thankfully this particular specimen of princess poodle wasn’t waiting for us at the dog park, but rather was excitedly prancing around the floorspace of her (there’s no such thing as a male poodle) owner’s scooter while she ordered some fried street food.
Ordering the same food, I found myself with a few minutes to kill so took the opportunity to have a little photo-shoot with princess – much to the delight of her owner.
Well I assume it was delight, between my girlfriend and the owner there was waaaaaay too much squealing and embarrassingly loud hysterics at a level that no two grown women should be seen or heard making in public.
Anyway, getting back to princess we had the pearl necklace with flashy jingly bits:
The earrings (at least I think that’s what they were):
And of course to top of the ensemble… Hello Kitty dog sandals:
Easily the worst case of animal abuse I’ve ever seen in Taiwan, I can only imagine the horror that is day to day life for this poor dog. Lord knows a dog’s feet weren’t made for walking about…
Getting back to my interaction with princess poodle owners though and my animosity towards them, it’s not so much the dogs that piss me right off as the owners.
Princess is after all as princess does.
Whilst nothing is more comedic than watching a princess poodle owner dolphin dive with a look of abstract terror on their face, rising to hoist their precious above their heads as we pass, it’s less amusing at the dog park to have noisy princess scream and squeal everytime “killer” gets near their princesses.
“Killer” of course being my barely 40cm high Formosan Mountain Dog half-breed who is obedience trained to a fault, has big floppy ears and looks like this:
Perhaps if I dressed her up in earrings, slapped a necklace on her and bought some pink slippers we’d get an entirely different reception…
Having had my pug puppy mauled by another dog I totally get the “watch out” mentality of small dog owners but seriously… Pogo was killed by a 1M tall giant hulk of a Doberman whose slobber ridden gaping mouth was so wide I could have stuck my entire head in it.
Leela is barely bigger than the poodles she’s running around and only does so wanting to play. She’s never shown signs of aggression towards anything, even our rescue budgie Hank:
I can appreciate that the princess poodle owners don’t know this but cmon, we’re going to bring a puppy eating destroyer of worlds to a public dog park… to play with other dogs?
Riiiiiiiiiiight.
Mind you nobody else seems to care (other small dog owners included), just the princess owners and their princess poodles. I really don’t know what it is about the breed that attracts these type of people but male or female, it does seem to be pretty consistent.
Personally? Outside of walking Leela if I see anyone with a poodle in a social situation I’m breaking world records running in the opposite direction.
December 27th, 2012 at 3:17 pm jet(Quote)
Poodles can be pretty cool dogs, but like any dog, it depends on their owners! Leela is adorable, if you had her in australia ppl would probably mistake her for a black lab pup.
December 27th, 2012 at 6:10 pm CP(Quote)
Can’t agree more about the issue of little dogs in Taiwan and the ridiculous pampering of them, from pushing them around in baby strollers to this silly outfit which is astonishingly stupid. The little sandals look cute though.
Nevertheless, I would never ever put any of this on my dog.
December 27th, 2012 at 6:44 pm Jeff L.(Quote)
What worries me the most is what will happen to that poodle, or any dog, when it gets old, sick, or loses its cuteness.
We all know, unless things have changed, that this poor doggie may get dumped on the streets some day. I can withstand the dressing up and all AS LONG AS there isn’t neglect at the end of a dog’s live.
December 28th, 2012 at 3:33 am mike(Quote)
Ghastly little things. The women at my local park have poodles and chihuahuas (spelling…), but without the disgusting “decorations”. We get on well and they’re not afraid of my dogs, though the poodles aren’t natural play mates for dogs like Leela or mine anyway.
December 28th, 2012 at 6:58 pm TaiwanTeacher(Quote)
Don’t worry about her future, Mates. I’m sure that soon enough our little poodilly princess poo will be given her own motorized Barbie Corvette so that she can take the show on the road.
Ah,yes… There’s something about the way the wind gently lifts the furry ear of a travelling poodle that simply drives the pitbulls crazy!
December 29th, 2012 at 11:27 am Oz(Quote)
@jet
Yeah, I reckon there might be some of that in her. General consensus amongst us is she’s part Taiwanese Formosan, part sausage dog, part greyhound (has the tucked up tummy and can run fast) and part lab.
That pretty much covers all possible bases!
December 29th, 2012 at 11:32 am TaiwanTeacher(Quote)
Ah… yes! She’s just another “Lovable Mutt”! Cheers!
December 29th, 2012 at 3:51 pm chububobcat(Quote)
I can’t stand poodles as a whole be they huge or toys they are all fugly and annoying. But worst of all is the princess poodles.
I know it isn’t the fault of the dog but her wack job owner, but just the sight of them makes me want to punt both their owner and the dog into the next county. *as a side note I don’t advocate punting any dog unless it is a life or limb situation.
In fact I find it wholly disturbing to dress any animal in human clothes because it isn’t natural. Having said that I’m a hypocrit because my mom and me to a smaller extent have and do dress my dogs in the US in a coat and sometimes boots because the ice and rock salt is not good for their paws and causes them distress if they are outside too long.
The coat is because they are short haired dogs so the wind and snow isn’t great for them other than very strong motivation to get done and get back inside.
December 30th, 2012 at 1:00 pm Oz(Quote)
I don’t mind coats (we have a plain light blue raincoat for Leela when it’s raining and we were investigating cold jackets for Pogo) but I draw the line at anything else.
Anything that looks like an accessory and is unneccessary just brings out the ‘omg why would you do that?!’ in me.
March 22nd, 2013 at 10:43 pm Adam Hinton(Quote)
Hi Oz,
let me introduce myself. I’m Adam, a documentary photographer from London. I came across your website whilst researching a possible photographic project I’m thinking of doing in Taipei. It’s something a colleague told me about and sounds visually very interesting.
What my friend mentioned is that there are some women who have decided not to get married and start families. These ladies dress very fashionable and dress up their poodles in fashion accessories and carry them around in their handbags or even push them around in prams. It sounds amazing!
As I researched it I found it was linked to issues about the low birth rate etc. I’ve contacted a couple of local producers but I don’t think they really understood about what I was talking about.
Would you be able to help me out. I’m wondering if they are an clubs or meeting places for people who dress they’re poodles up like this, or shops that supply these kind of outfits for dogs. May be you know of someone else who might be able to help out.
Please check out my website to give you an idea of the work that I do. Thanks for you time and hope to hear back from you.
Adam
March 24th, 2013 at 10:45 am Oz(Quote)
Hey Adam, these women can be seen all over Taiwan although they are mostly concentrated around the cities. Parks in the cities are the best place to find them although you can run into them anywhere.
A friend once observed that over the last ten years or so a lot of the baby shops (prams, food, clothes etc.) were being shutdown and replaced by boutique pet stores.
These stores sell all the weird looking kooky stuff and can be found all over Taiwan. Hell it’s such a big market that pretty much any pet store will have weird outfits for dogs and what not.
Here are some clubs for reference who as I understand it have regular meetups:
http://www.facebook.com/YuZu1119
http://www.facebook.com/pages/%E7%B4%85%E8%B2%B4%E8%B3%93%E4%BF%B1%E6%A8%82%E9%83%A8TOY-POODLE/250012774800
I’d strongly advise getting in touch with someone who speaks Mandarin if you don’t yourself. Good luck!