Encounter with Angry Woman who HATES Goldendoodle

[Discussing Labradoodles & Goldendoodles]

I apologize in advance for awful writing but I am enraged with what happened to me yesterday. I thought to share it and to see if other people have encountered any similar situations and what they did to deal with it.  

I am writing this to share a very strange experience with a very hateful woman I've had yesterday at the dog beach-Dunes Park at New Smyrna in FL.  What kind of person walks up to a stranger and starts a rampage about their dog's breed? I have a 5-month-old Goldendoodle puppy named Lucky, a pug, and a pomeranian. The pug and the pomeranian love the beach and so we thought it would be a nice way to introduce our puppy to the beach.

So here is EXACTLY what happened: I was minding my own business and playing in the ocean with my Pug and Pomeranian and trying to get my Goldendoodle to come into the water.  Along came this middle aged woman with a brown Husky. She asks if we had a Goldendoodle because he was really wet so it was hard to tell what he was.  I was having a hard time getting Lucky to come into the water because he was a little bit scared.   She says "Oh your dog probably doesn't have webbed feet and if he doesn't he won't like the water." She then commands me to look at his foot to look and he does have webbed feet.  And YES he has webbed feet!! Then she proceeds to tell me that Goldendoodles are not a breed. What I have is a mutt and with mutts they are very unpredictable. I said that he is an F1b Goldendoodle with 75% Poodle and 25% Golden Retriever and both breeds have webbed feet.  Then she says "people can call them whatever they want but at the end of the day your dog just isn't a breed and what you have is a mutt." I am pretty pissed at this point and wanted to leave but I let her finish because I didn't want to be rude. 

She goes on to tell me how unlike my dog, her dog is a SHOW dog from a well known Husky breeder with predictable traits.  Goldendoodles are not recognized by the AKC and they should NEVER be but that might change with the young generation.  She complains how the young generation is not well mannered (I'm in my late 20s btw). The young entitled generation, aka my generation, doesn't want to work (yes a common complaint against millennials *eye roll*).  We want a dog that doesn't shed and have that retriever sporty dog personality, but in the end, we don't have a breed.  People are trying to get Goldendoodles recognized by the AKC and trying to change traditions. Your generation is lazy and that's why you end up with mutts.

Why go up to a complete stranger and antagonize them when they are trying to have a nice day at the beach?  She finally tells me that she is a vet tech but proceeds on the tirade about mutts.  At that point, I finally got fed up and told her that what she said was offensive. I get no apologies and she becomes indignant. I told her to please leave.  She doesn't leave and sits 10 ft away from us and so I thought we should go.  As I get up to leave she tries to continue to yell at me she says "Opinions are like a******* and everyone has one."  

I've rescued all my dogs with the exception of the Goldendoodle, I felt kind of bad about that but this is plain cruel. I've also fostered of "mutts" from rescues but have NEVER received anything close to this kind of treatment!!  Have any of you dealt with this?  Thankfully I don't like in a small beach town and most of my neighbors love Lucky.  

What kind of psycho has this kind of serious discrimination against Goldendoodles? Why pick on a complete stranger? What should I do to prevent this from happening again?  I still want to go back to that beach because I am not going to let one person ruin a place I like. 

[33bn7f8evnuyd]

AUTO CORRECT *LIKE --> Live : Thankfully, I don't live in a small beach town and most of my neighbors love Lucky. Yep sorry about the typos. I thought I correct the one that was misleading

[Brittany & JK LaCoste]

Hi there,

I have two doodles myself and am 30 years old.  Honestly, everyone feels entitled to give their opinion these days (jump on facebook for a preview).  Just ignore it is the best advice I can offer.  People don't understand doodle love unless they have one.  She sounds like she just wanted to be heard and is miserable.  Sadly not everyone loves doodles (which is absurd I know!) so you did the best thing, just leave the situation.  Your pup in the picture is adorable, so clearly she has the problem not you :)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

You ran across a mentally ill person. It's best not to engage with mentally ill people. That's the best way to prevent this from happening again. As time goes by, you will be able to tell when someone is asking about Lucky's breed because they think he's adorable and/or are truly interested; they will be smiling at him and probably start the discussion with "He's so cute! What kind of dog is he?" and then you know it's safe to engage, lol. 

Otherwise, you can just say "he's a mix", which is the truth, and walk away. 

[33bn7f8evnuyd]

Everyone except for this deranged person really loves him

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

And it doesn't really matter if everyone loves him or not. As adults, we don't need anyone, let alone a stranger, to validate or approve of our choices. And we certainly don't need to listen to uninvited and unwanted tirades from crazy people. 

[Rosie's Family]

Wow, I am sorry this happened. My Rosie is still a little young, so we don't get her out and about that much, but I have heard that there are people around with hostilities towards designer breeds. I doubt most people will be this rude though.

I was a little worried when we brought Rosie home because all my neighbors adopt from shelters and one even volunteers at a shelter frequently.  But they are really just happy that we got a dog.

Good luck!

[Sam&Bella]

 I am so sorry this happened! That is horrible! I have been reading about this recently and can't believe that a person would do this. I am now prepared just in case something happens;) I bet that at one point, husky's were mutts too!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Well, no; Huskies were never "mutts". None of the recognized purebreds were. But that's beside the point. Normal, sane people don't give their unwanted and unrequested negative opinions of strangers' choices of dog, or car, or home, or family size, or hair style, etc. or condemn a stranger's whole generation, lol. We don't ever have to put up with that kind of rudeness or nutty behavior. 

[Amy and Annabelle]

Like that poster from last night. Seriously what normal person does that? It's like certain people have an agenda and they go looking for ways to preach it. Some people really need to get off their high horse, no one cares about hearing their negative unsolicited opinions. There is no reason to be rude and hateful.

While I fail to understand why people have pit bulls as their family pet, I am not going to confront someone about their choice of a dog, unless I feel threatened by it.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Amen, Amy. 

[Sam&Bella]

I agree Karen!

I always thought that at some point all dogs were "mutts", But were never "classified" as one. Oops!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Many people think that, but it's not true. Just like there are different types of birds that nobody "created "(robins, blue jays, cardinals, wrens, etc) but who just evolved by natural selection, there were also different types of dogs who evolved the same way. And in the case of recognized breeds that were created through selective breeding, it was done over many, many years (75 years minimum) in a very controlled manner.