Twiggy

Canen Cha Cha Cha

22/06/2006-27/09/2017
The portrait above was drawn from a number of photographs I took of Twiggy aged 8, some of them with a gate with a Virginia Creeper plant growing on it in the background, while she was recovering from emergency surgery for pyometra. I don't usually draw backgrounds, but in this case I had to draw the red leaves as I think they emphasise Twiggy's beauty in the autumn of her life.

Twiggy was Hobson's mother and Indi's aunt. Twiggy came to live with me throughout most of 2014. It was hoped Twiggy would be able to have a final litter here before retiring, as the person she previously lived with was not in the right position at the time to breed from her, but unfortunately this was not to be, as Twiggy developed pyometra and had to be spayed. Twiggy went to live with a lovely couple and another poodle in Kent. Twiggy's loving family sadly had to make the difficult decision to say goodbye in 2017 after a number of tumours appeared on her body, which were followed by sudden rapid weight loss and deterioration of quality of life that suggested whatever was causing this had spread internally. We will miss Twiggy and remember fondly the time we had together.

    

    

Twiggy was a 24" tall brown bitch from the old Canen line, bred by the late Shirley Bell who passed away early in 2012. Twiggy was one of very few Canen poodles left from the old core bloodline. (n.b. As of 2016, there remain a few poodles from the old Canen line left alive, but all are now too old to breed. There are a handful of scion lines descended from them today.) The majority of standard poodles today have in the region of 50% Wycliffe contribution to their pedigrees. Twiggy was 15% Wycliffe contribution and also had low influence from the Old English Apricot lines (the only bloodline other than Wycliffe to have a significant impact on today's poodles).

I should probably mention this here because people seem to be landing on this page from Google searches and it's been brought to my attention that some incorrect information is floating around. There is no evidence that poodles from any bloodline are 'healthier' than others. Poodles as a breed are not 'unhealthy' and all bloodlines will produce dogs who have an issue of some sort from time to time. Bell herself, as was common among breeders of her generation, and without meaning any disrespect to her memory or her family, did not carry out any health testing on her dogs. Health tests would simply not have been available when she first became involved in breeding, and when they did become available, established breeders used to their way of doing thing would have had no reason to start using them. She lived and died in rural Wales and I believe lived in England at an earlier time of her life. Her line descends from British bloodlines that existed in the British Isles at the time of its inception, and the genetics of these dogs survived because she chose not to use the popular sires from the show ring of the times she lived through. The dogs from the line as it was originally bred came in black, brown, cream, and occasionally apricot. The Canen bloodline along with all other 'old' bloodlines around the world that are different to the 'modern' popular lines are important for the long-term survivability of the gene pool and the breed as a whole. Something being 'different' does not mean it is 'better', but all bloodlines in a breed need to survive in order for the breed to be conserved for the future.

COI (15 generation)	15%
COI (KC Website)	9%
% Wycliffe	15%
% OEA	18%
Colour genotype	Ee bb

View Twiggy's pedigree on PHR.

Twiggy was a friendly poodle who loves a stroke and a cuddle. She stayed close on walks, and was very responsive to commands. Twiggy was about 24" to the withers with a solid, sturdy build with fantastic rib spring and prosternum. Twiggy had very dark eyes, darker even than a lot of black poodles do.

Health testing results

Test	Date	Result
BVA Eye Test (hereditary cataracts)	February 2014	Not Affected
Genetic Test: von Willebrand's Disease	February 2014	CLEAR
Genetic Test: Degenerative Myelopathy	February 2014	CLEAR
Genetic Test: Neonatal Encephalopathy	February 2014	CLEAR
Thyroid function blood test	March 2014	Normal

Twiggy's temperament profile (What's this?)

Food motivation	HIGH
Toy motivation	LOW
Mouth quality	MODERATE
Prey drive	MODERATE
Attitude to owner/family	MODERATE
Attitude to people	MODERATE
Attitude to dogs	MODERATE
Attitude to playing	MODERATE
Proprioception	MODERATE
Sensitivity to Correction	MODERATE
Affinity for water	MODERATE
Gunsteady	YES

Twiggy was never hip scored, but throughout her life she remained sound and could run as well as any of my dogs (see video below) and jump in and out of the van with ease.