Are well meaning breeders breeding problems into our doodles?

[DeeDee and Sheila]

I put this discussion on the debate page and didn't receive any replies, so I'll try it here on the forum.  I am hearing about many doodles that have tummy problems.  This HAS to come from the poodle side in my humble opinion, because I've owned a couple labs and have never even heard of a lab that wouldn't eat anything, including panty hose if given the chance.

Then Sheila had Perthes disease, basically getting her hip socket cut off bc of a genetic blood disease whereby the blood wasnt reaching up to the hip bone.  Breeder paid costs up to the price of the dog/ or I could have sent 7 month old Sheila back to breeder (not an option in my book).  Luckily only one hip was involved, 2 would have been over $5000 in expenses. This disease CANNOT be tested for, period.  But it occurs in many types of small dogs and my daughter who is a vet cried w/ me when she heard Sheila had it.  It involved a horrible operation at U of Illinois that almost killed Lil Sheila. Then we had 4 mos of swim therapy 2x/week at the U of Illinois, which was costly and was a 3 hr round trip for treatment. She still uses only 3 legs sometimes when tired and then I give her a pain pill.  It was a nightmare.

The breeder told me she would pull Sheila's mom off the breeding line, the dad was already retiring but had bred hundreds of puppies, so we didn't thing it was him.  But she didn't pull Sheila's mom off the line as promised and she is still breeding Sheila's mom , although with a different sire. She is also using a male puppy from THAT breeding as a future breeder. I asked my daughter and U of I and they said they know it's genetic, but they don't know if its due to a recessive gene or if it could be a gene from just one dog.  My daughter's opinion is that the breeder is "playing with fire" and her undergrad degree is in genetics.

I am disappointed about this and wonder how a good, sturdy breed is going to be built if breeders do these things (and this was a reputable breeder).

What do you dkers think?

 

[Pat and Traveler]

Yes, DeeDee--Trav's mom let him know in no uncertain terms that the milk bar was closed.  :) 

I know you love Sheila--what's not to love??  But it is heart-breaking, expensive and exhausting to have to go through what you've gone through.  My heart goes out to you all.  Sheila is a lucky girl to have you. 

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Regarding the breeders trying to make the doodles too small, many owners don't realize that a lot of breedings are done through AI... artifical insemination. This is especially true if the sire isn't owned by the breeder of the dam, or when there is a large size disparity, as in F1 mini-doodles. In real life, it would be extremely difficult for a 12 lb. poodle to mate with a full-size Golden Retriever or Labrador mom, which is the parentage you often see in the first generation minis.

(I know this doesn't apply to ALDS, but as long we're on the subject...)

I'm no expert, but it seems to me that if a breeding couldn't or wouldn't occur naturally, it's probably not a good idea for it to occur artificially, either. This is not the proper way to "downsize" a breed, and I also think it leads to some orthopedic problems. There are instances where both parent dogs' hips were tested and found to be fine, but the offspring had HD and other problems. In my mind, this could be the result of combining genes from two dogs of such extremely different sizes that maybe they shouldn't have been combined in the first place.

[DeeDee and Sheila]

Hi again.  I thought I should tell you that Sheila's breeder has omitted from her website both Sheila'a mom and her half brother as breeders.  I don't feel any sense of triumph or victory, though.  I wasn't trying to win any wars or trash anyone.  And a good relationship has been spoiled.  She did the right thing and I am so sorry the whole arguement happened.  Thanks for listening guys.  Maybe we actually helped our doodle population.  Meanwhile we've got the 8pm zoomies, so out we go to enjoy the rest of the evening.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I am glad to hear this DeeDee because I do think the breeder is ethical, but was listening to her 'sources' without paying attention to the whole picture as the dog buyer sees it.  We all want our dogs to be as perfect as possible - even our rescues.