Poodles are incorporated into the fabric of our various languages:
Poodles (and cousins) in English
Poodles (and cousins) in French
Poodles (and cousins) in German
Poodles (and cousins) also noted
Here's a start on a bibliography for a yet-to-be-given course, "Poodles in Literature". We've divided this list into three sections: before 1929, after 1929 (longer) and after 1929 (shorter).
The rationale for the 1929 watershed is to probe the accuracy of the following statement: "In 1929 the stage was set [in the United States] for the renascence of interest in the Poodle....there was no popular acceptance of the dogs at this time." (Introductory essay, "The Great Revival," Poodles in America, 1929-1959, vol. 1, edited by William H. Ivens, Jr., Doylestown, PA: 1960, p. 23.)
Poodles in literature, and perhaps particularly children's literature, illuminate popular assumptions. Poodle Lit. pre-1929 yields ample evidence that there was considerable weight of popular acceptance of Poodle in the United States in, and leading up to, 1929. Additional accumulated evidence, for example, production at the Bennington factories of the popular Poodle mantel ornaments (see "Gordon's Poodle Visuals", Bennington) supports this supposition.
Beethoven and Chopin, both Poodle-lovers, surely won't mind at this distance in time being tacked on to a literature section in the Poodle History Project...
The headpiece illustration for this section represents a Roman bas relief from the Age of Augustus, taken from Der Deutsche Pudel (Munich: German Poodle Clubs, 1907), p. 4, where it is credited to Richard Strebel, Der Deutschen hunde...(Munich, 1905). In the reprint of Strebel (1986 reprint of 1904/5 edition), the image appears in vol. 1, p. 19. This is most likely a stele (gravestone); we haven't yet located this object.