Are GDs "rude"?

[Ellen]

I attended an agility class last night with my mini goldendoodle Riley, and the instructor made an interesting comment about GDs. But I need to give you some context, so bear with me.

It was a great class, but at the end, one of the dogs suddenly lunged at Riley and another dog with teeth baring and lot of growling/barking. Everybody was startled, including the dog's owners. The instructor explained that dogs that are otherwise fine in a leash-free environment sometimes are leash aggressive, which I've heard before.

I piped up and said that it doesn't help that Riley starts wriggling his butt and jumping up and down eager to play with a leash-aggressive dog that clearly has other plans. At this point, my instructor asked if Riley was a goldendoodle and said "Don't be offended, but I've worked a lot of goldendoodles, and they tend to be rude".....i.e., GDs will make the situation worse by approaching a leash-aggressive dog or directly facing an leash-aggressive dog instead of turning its body or head away to alleviate the situation.

I wasn't offended, but I never thought about it in that way. I always thought Riley was just an uber friendly dog that just didn't catch the signals from aggressive dogs. But then I remembered that at the dog park, Riley goes out of his way to avoid aggressive dogs; as soon as a dog growls at him over a water bowl or tennis ball, Riley is out of there! So, I find it interesting that he doesn't act the same way when we run into a leash-aggressive dog that is lunging and growling at him, clearly ready to tear him apart.

So, I put it out to the DK community.......Are goldendoodles "rude"?

[Tricia Harris]

Oh...one more thing....I have a friend that is a dog trainer and she said that Della was very respectful of other dogs boundries...I saw it in action...but I do know that Della loves everyone and does get her feelings hurt when others ignore her.