June 2007   Winston
Winston is a 2-year-old white Standard Poodle who calls Reston, Virginia home. Before Winston came along, his owners, Kevin and Neal, had never owned a Poodle. Actually, Neal was on record for having an outright aversion to Poodles—he never understood the show clip and considered Poodles to be totally high maintenance. Kevin first laid eyes on Winston when he was a 4-month-old puppy living in a Maryland pet store and recovering from a nasty bout of pneumonia. Kevin kept returning weekend after weekend to check up on him. Finally, Kevin took Winston home for a trial run to see if Neal could warm up to the idea of living with this breed of dog. The little angel quickly found his way into everyone’s heart (even Neal’s) and the rest is history.

According to Neal, Winston exhibits all the character traits “Poodle people” rave about to “non-Poodle people.” He’s smart, clean, loyal, inquisitive, energetic, mischievous, and always the center of attention. On his daily walks around Lake Anne, he elicits smiles and affection from fellow strollers. He loves to play with his neighbor, Jill, a black standard poodle. Winston’s a regular at Dogtopia Tysons Corner and tears a wide swath through the gym with all his buddies. He loves to travel, and has been up and down the East Coast.

Winston told Kevin and Neal that he loved his photo shoot with Lee and Donna, but mostly the part where he got to run around the backyard with Dakota. Winston proudly gave one of his portraits to his Grandmother this year for Mothers’ Day.

Visit our Poodle page in Gallery 1 for another great photo of Winston.

Click here to read about a previous Dog of the Month winner.