My name is Dawn Zack and Calliope Poodles was created by my love of poodles. I’ve loved and lost a number of them since I was very young. My first poodle was a shelter dog my parents brought home for my 4th birthday I think. He bit a kid at the party and went right back to the shelter. My first keeper was Sassy. She was an oversized toy, black phantom girl. I’m sure she was “backyard bred” but she was the best companion, smart and very loyal and super trainable. She lived to 13 and stayed in the States with my grandparents when we moved overseas and we didn’t want to subject her to a 6 month quarantine. I was heartbroken to have to leave her. When the parvo vaccine first came out, in the 70’s, she got the vaccine and then got parvo! She did survive though.
I got involved with Poodle Rescue of Houston in 2005 and was instantly fascinated with exhibiting poodles in conformation. While living with rescues I acquired my first show prospect and co-owned her with a friend and mentor, the rest is history. I’m indebted to several great poodle people and continue to learn from them. All of my poodles live in the house and several sleep in the bed with us. I feed raw food, treat them to regular dental cleaning, although they don’t need it as often with them chewing raw meaty bones once a week and they get lots of exercise in our large yard. I do not over vaccinate, but all of my dogs and puppies are vaccinated very conservatively for their age and health status. I’ve been blessed with very healthy dogs and would like to think I have a little something to do with that!
I have managed to whittle down my poodle variety of choice to miniatures and will no longer be breeding toys or standards. It’s not because I don’t love the sizes, I just can’t do it all. I’ve lived with and love all 3 varieties. I strive to create the highest quality poodles by taking advantage of all health testing available, feeding high quality food, lots of exercise, and socializing my puppies well. I hope you will love my poodles as well!