Why Does It Have to Be Poodles?

I have heard that the original version of Dead Rising didn't feature zombified poodles and birds but since the Wii version is modelled using the RE4 engine, Capcom decided to jazz the game up a little by adding them. That's probably the breaking-point for the game as the developers failed to realised that this isn't Resident Evil, you don't have the luxury of standing around trying to take aim at these flying birds coming at you. When frustration sets in, I have even attempted to hurl/swing my melee weapon in that direction hoping to land a direct hit at these poodles and birds. Sometime it works but you can clearly see these poodles are not designed to take such hits.

Suddenly the most menacing thing in the game isn't the sheer number of zombies but how many of these little bastards lurking among them ever ready to make your life miserable.