I followed the pattern to the letter, and my first attempt came out looking like some bizarre alien dog. It was NOT cute. So, I had to unstitch & rework the pattern slightly when it came to joining the head and neck to the body and doing the eyes and hair. I also had to add dowels into the neck to keep it upright. Finally, I re-worked the sweater neck to cover up the front closure on the body because it looked rather rough and unpolished compared to the rest of the poodle as a whole. I’m MUCH happier with the finished product after adding my own tweaks and touches.