The idea behind the German Border Poodle was simple, combine the three most intelligent breeds: the German Shepherd, the Border Collie, and the Poodle, to produce an even more intelligent breed.
Such was the thinking of Ivan Splott, intellectual and cheese collector.
Although never having owned a dog previously in his life, Splott figured there was nothing that couldn’t be learnt from books and so he immersed himsefl in study until his first dog, Ingrid, a German Shepherd from Hamburg, ate his volume ‘Dog Breeding for Beginners’ in an attempt to get his attention.
Two decades later and Splott had succeeded, when a descendent of Ingrid, amongst others, gave birth to the first genuine litter of German Border Poodles.
In 1963, A German Border Poodle called Nell was leading Bobby Fischer in the US chess championship, until she was disqualified during game five for eating the Queen's knight.
German Border Poodles make terrible house dogs, as daytime TV bores them rigid.