Feeling for lumps should be part of your routine at-home examination of your poodle. Dogs can get all sorts of lumps, ranging from benign fatty lipomas to abscesses to cancerous tumors. If you find a lump on your dog, contact your veterinarian so you can get an expert's opinion. Your vet may want to remove it or aspirate it with a needle to look for cancerous cells.

It's scary to find a lump on your poodle. As he ages, they will crop up more and more often, and you'll probably become an expert about knowing when to worry. Make sure your vet feels them, and ask her to keep a map of your poodle's lumps and bumps in his chart, so it's easy to monitor them.