Standard, Medium or Mini?

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

I had placed this as a blog post but at the suggestion of Ann and support of Adina I am pasting it into a discussion, here it is:

Recently a group of breeders have had an ongoing discussion of what size the emphasis of our programs are. It has been a great conversation and we have enjoyed a glimpse at why we all choose to develop specific directions.

We would love to hear from doodle owners ~ what kind of doodle owner are you? Did you begin your search with a knowledge of what size dood you wanted and narrow the possibilities from there? Or maybe you had one ideal in mind but went another way? Maybe color, sex, generation or availability infuenced it greater than size?
We all make choices with specific criteria after health and temperament, which we will just assume is at the top of all of our lists ~ was size one of your highest priorities, or was it further down?

We are looking forward to this being equally enlightening as our previous discussion and thank you for letting your voice be heard = )

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Yes Nancy that is correct.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I would have liked a dog in the 25-40 lb range. That seems perfect to me. When I started looking for a dog to adopt, that's what I had in mind. Then I met my great big goofball, and as they say, the rest is history. If I were going to get a puppy from a breeder, that's the size I would ideally want.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I would like to add that I really prefer the appearance of the F1 standards to any other kind of doodle; I think they have the cutest faces & most unique appearance, by far. Like Adina, I prefer the looks & temperaments of big doodles. But the size of my home & yard, and my age & single status, would make a smaller dog much more practical for exercise purposes and in case of emergencies. I always worry that I will have to get Jackdoodle to an emergency vet and won't be able to get him into the car. If I were younger, married, and/or had a big home & yard, I would want another F1 standard without question.

[Steve Drury]

We had been dog owners for decades including a black lab, a couple lab mixes and our favorite---a sweet, loving golden retriever. After our last two died of old age in 2003 we had no intentions of getting another dog. Then one day I spotted a really cute dog in the local paper's "Rescue Dog of the Week" feature. They weren't sure what it was and it was gone by the time we were able to visit the pound. But in the meantime I had started doing research. With what I've learned I'm pretty sure it was a labradoodle.
As it had been close to 20 years since we had gone looking for a dog, I don't recall even knowing what a labradoodle or goldendoodle was. But when I discovered golden doodles in my reasearch I was hooked. I read everything I could find about these dogs for several weeks. We loved our golden but she was big and messy. She shed enough in a week to knit a blanket. I loved the idea of a dog that would inherit much of the golden's temperament without the shedding. Golden's are fairly smart, easy to train, very obedient and anxious to please. I previously knew nothing about poodles---never had any interest in the breed. I was amazed and impressed with all I learned about poodles in my research.
To top it all off, golden doodles are the cutest dogs on the planet.
As to size, we had always snubbed little dogs. We preferred "real" dogs. As much as I love the appearance of standard golden doodles, we did not want a dog that large this time. In my research I discovered the breeder we eventually purchased from.
They breed only F1 medium size GD. The stud is a cross between a standard poodle and a miniature poodle. They advertise that their females are typically 30-45 pounds; males 35-55 pounds. This is the perfect size for our current stage of life (close to retirement) and lifestyle.
When the breeder started talking to me about temperament testing I was very skeptical. None of our previous dogs had come from a professional breeder. They were rescues except for our golden which came from someone who wanted to breed her two AKC goldens before she got them fixed. But we told the breeder about our lifestyle and what we were looking for from a dog; what we liked about our previous dogs. She explained the testing and said she had the perfect dog for us. I was still skeptical when we made the decision. But our Daisy--now 6 months and 29 lbs--is turning into the exact dog the breeder said she would. She is enthusiastic but gentle; very affectionate; and has not yet met a person or animal she doesn't want to be her new best friend. We are looking forward to training her to become a therapy dog.
In summary our priorities were F1 only, medium only, proper temperament, preferred female, preferred light color.
BTW...I'd love to give the breeder a plug; we are very pleased with the dog and the service from these folks.
They are the Big Oak Ranch in Oregon. (TheGoldenDoodles.net)

[SD Suz - Mom of 3 Doodz]

Wow--I read your post and from the responses so far, it appears even Doodle owners have different descriptions for their dogs' sizes.

We have what we consider two mediums and one mini, all girls & all multi-gen Australian Labradoodles. Tassi is about 18" and 39 pounds, Keela is 14" and 18 pounds, and Java is 19" and 37 pounds. In researching dogs in early 2004 we only knew we wanted a non-shedder due to my allergies & did not want a big dog, I wanted a female, but we really had no thoughts about colors. Then came Tassi, only about 15 weeks when we rehomed her from people here in SD & turned out to be apricot cream. She was the beginning of our Doodle love & adventure. Thinking Tassi needed a playmate and we had seen a red standard Doodle, I HAD to have a red one. (Tassi was not amused!) But Keela fit right in, claimed DH's lap as her very own, which made me decide I NEEDED my own lap dog. So along came Java who is big enough for two laps but I cuddle her as often as she'll allow and she melts into that little puppy that arrived almost two years ago. So sweet.

My conclusion is that it's just like having children--no matter what you thought you wanted, and no matter what they look like, you love them and all the time and energy you spend are repaid a million times over. Good enough for me!

[Adina P]

Size matters to me. Of course it's not more important than health, but I like large dogs.
For me size is more important than generation and color and gender.
There isn't necessarily a good reason behind this--it's just preference.
There are some breeders I know that have simply stunning (mini) dogs that I wish I could find in extra large :-)
It seems that more and more doodle breeders are going to the minis and mediums--hopefully by the time I'm ready for another doodle there will still be large standard breeders because I sure love those big dogs!
Rosco is 27" to the shoulder and 80-85 lbs. I LOVE his size and don't think I could go smaller than 60 lbs and 22" -- Though height often is what makes a dog look "large" more than 'weight'. 60-80 lbs is my ideal...and tall.

[Ginny Nightingale]

I had an oversize Wheaten as my last dog after having terriers that were less than 25 pounds. My Wheaten was almost 60 pounds--a bit too much dog for me--he was very strong and not at all laid back as they often are. So when i decided on a labradoodle for my next dog after he passed away, i wanted something in the 30 pound range. I know from my neighbor's experience that doodles could sometimes grow way beyond the expected range. When i found a breeder nearby, she had a 7 month old female that she wanted to put out into a guardian home and she was just the right size. As a guardian home, my breeder had the right to two litters, but I own her)She is now 36 pounds and I wuld consider her to be a medium. She has a stocky lab body, but pretty short legs (less counter-surfing-yeah!) I think its great that there are all different sizes.
Unfortunately, we won't be breeding Mattie due to a less than perfect score on one of her tests, but she is one great dog!

[Kelli, Fenway, & Dustin Pedroia]

I am a medium labradoodle owner. When I began my search I thought I wanted a standard labradoodle. When we found our breeder we got on the waiting list and happened to fall into a litter of mediums (Mom was a small standard poodle and Dad was a medium multi-gen labradoodle). We weren't looking for medium necessarily but that was ok with us. Our girl is 8 months old and just over 30lbs. I'm not sure but she doesn't seem to be growing as much so I would bet she'll top out around 35-40lbs. Color and sex weren't high on our list but temperament and generation were. We didn't want an F1 due to the increased shedding possibility so we went with an F1B, which is less likely to shed. Luckily our girl doesn't shed at all. So I guess availability, generation, and temprament played the biggest role in our decision. We're about to get a second doodle (a goldendoodle this time) and it is actually going to be an F1 and a standard. We'll see...

[Roxanne Ochs]

Hi Dianne,

We have a medium size F1b dood. When we were looking for a dog and decided to see about the doodle, we had no idea what sizes they came in until we got to Jodi's site, Living Streams Kennel. I've always had big dogs (collies) and was looking for a big dog but my husband wanted a medium sized female that was non-shedding. CeeGee is 9 months old now, about 18" and weighs in at around 25 lbs and definately leans more towards the lab build. She's a great size, not too small, not too big, not prissy ~ she's a little tomboyish which is great. Her coat is curly. Of course health was the #1 priority followed by sex,size, color.

She's a great dog and her size makes it easy for us to travel with her everywhere we go, even in our kayaks on the river. She's just starting out in agility and has a great athletic build for it and even though she enjoys it, I think her passion using her nose to sniff out all sorts of stuff in the fields and all around.

Have a great week.

Roxanne

[Nanette de la Torre]

I have had both very large dogs (Kuvasz) to large dogs (Dalmatian) to medium dogs (mutt). Knowing that I was going to have two dogs I opted for two medium sized dogs. This in part was due to the fact that my husband is disabled and would need to be able to control the dogs without injury to himself. Another consideration was the jumping capabilities of the poodles. I learned that the large doods could jump over 6 foot fences and that was certainly a consideration for me as I did not want a "Houdini". In completing my research for a dood and a breeder, my criteria were as follows:

1. Breeder - reputation, contract, referrals, and ability to communicate effectively and contract. Until I found a breeder meeting my requirements I was not going to purchase a dood.

2. Lab v Golden: selected golden as I prefer the golden's temperment and color. Also I have a pool and wanted to make sure that the dog was not a water addict. I have met many a golden not liking water (incredible huh) and I figured that I could train my dog not to go in the pool unless commanded if I did not have both instincts in the bread. I am lucky in that my dood is not water addicted.

3. Size - medium for reasons as described earlier.

4. Generation. I opted for first generation (F1) as I did not want one breed to be predominant and therefore the look of the dog impacted.

5. Temperment: This was important because I needed to have a calm dog. Still working on "calm" command and is slowly getting it since dog is reaching 2.

6. Coat - I opted for the soft curl as I prefer what I call the "rastafarian" look over the shaggy look.

7. Sex - I would have preferred female but ended up with male. In the end it really did not matter as dog was going to be fixed anyways. Love dogs no matter what the sex.

End result I have a great dog. In the future, I will only have one dog and will stick with a medium. The only regret is I that I didn't hear about this breed sooner!

[Marianne *OZZY & ZOEY]

I never thought about size when I got Ozzy...I did not want a mini dog just about a 30 to 40 lb dog like the one that passed away suddenly this year. I knew I wanted a dog that did not shed and I read about the doodles and that they were great dogs and did not shead....Ozzy does not shead and he is an F1...I have now realized that you don't know what you get with an F1 Ozzy is much larger than his mom and his dad. The vet says that he should weigh in over 100lbs when full grown. Now I just got a mini and Zoey will max out at about 20 lbs.

[Adina P]

Oh...I don't think you have to worry about Ozzy hitting 100lbs. That's awfully high since he's only 60 lbs now...is that right? Rosco was 85 lbs at 9 months and settled at about 80-85 lbs for his final weight. I think Ozzy is close to his max.