What are the top things we need to educate about?

[Adina P]

Hi DK friends!

DK started an Instagram account just over a week ago and I'm trying to intersperse bits of education between photos. So far we've shared info on:

-- finding a rescue
-- choosing a responsible breeder
-- why doodles are not "hypoallergenic"

Now we can break each of these down into smaller bits of info and CONTINUE to educate on specifics, but wondering what you think are top priority OTHER topics worth doing education on via social media?  Some ideas I have are on poodle facts/history and retriever facts/hx for the sake of education on the parent breeds...but what else?

What should other doodle owners and potential doodle owners know?  What do you want to shout from the mountain tops?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It doesn't make you sound like a person to me. I feel the same way about certain breeds. 

[Stacy]

There are breeds of dog (I'm not naming names) that have literally been bred to be dog aggressive. Just like you would breed a dog with a strong drive to retrieve or to point birds. We can ignore the human aggression for a minute. But if dog aggression is embedded in their genetic code, I really worry about them out frolicking with all the dogs at the dog park. It's like letting your border collie into the sheep pen and being surprised that they herd.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yep. 

There are also breeds that have been bred to be human aggressive. A man had one of those at my little dog park recently. The dog was very well trained, very friendly, and was completely under the control of her owner, and I was still nervous. And I will mention the breed. Presa Canario, which is the breed that killed that woman in San Francisco in her own apartment building years ago, and is banned in several countries. 
I can't understand why people want dogs like that. You want a dog that people are afraid of, who will protect your home and family, let me introduce you to a breed that fills that bill and more, can be trained to do just about anything, will bond to you like glue, fall madly in love with your children, and also lead you around town if you happen to go blind....GSD anyone? 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

The herding drive is so strong that Riley often gets herded at the dog park lol.  Poor girl, they think she is a sheep.

I agree there are some breeds that are just naturally more aggressive because they were bred that way.  Luna was always picked on by bully breed dogs at the dog park.  It didn't matter if she had met them before or not, they almost always did not understand her "back off" signals and she often ended up pinned to the ground and one of us had to step in and rescue her.

[Stacy]

I struggle to answer the question of why someone like me, a soft dog person, would want a dog with aggressive tendencies. I follow a dog trainer who gets those types of dogs almost exclusively. Some of the videos are really scary. It's almost unheard of for him to be working with a golden retriever or a doodle or a lab.

It's one thing to have a chihuahua who is a little tyrant - you just pick him up. When the dog outweighs you by 50 pounds he needs to be really well trained. And don't get me wrong. I love some of the giant breeds. Great Danes and Irish Wolfhounds are some of my favorite dogs. I'm constantly amazed at their size.  I would love to have a wolfhound. My issue with them is their life expectancy is so short. They also have some health issues and would cost so much to feed! There are so many breeds that are reasonably easy to live with. Do a little breed research. Why make life harder than it needs to be?

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

My neighbor has a 6-7 month old irish wolfhound puppy being trained as a service animal.  He is already taller than Riley.  I'm sure he is very sweet but a dog that huge is way beyond my comfort level!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Irish Wolfhounds are wonderful sweet dogs but the wrong choice for a service dog. Makes me think whoever is behind this doesn't really know much about service dogs. :(

And of course, "real" service dog agencies never place puppies. 

[Stacy]

I can't speak for all the Wolfhounds in the world, but the two I know are truly gentle giants. They are so sweet. They could take you out with a tail though - they almost touch the ground and it's like 3 feet long. I think of them as slow and lumbering, but they must not be as slow as I think because they run Fast Cat. But every time I see them get up or lie down I swear they're thinking, do I have to? It's so far. And they consistently knock the bar on an 18" jump. I don't think they're really jumpers.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

They don't have to be jumpers, lol. They can step over most bars. :D

But they do jump. And run like the wind. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Some info I found:

An Irish wolfhound is a sighthound, related to the borzoi and greyhound. The greyhound is the fastest dog breed in the world at 45 mph. Other sighthounds fall somewhere between 30 and 40 mph.

As every dog within a breed is different, one Irish wolfhound may top out at 40 mph and another less than 30 mph. To find out the wolfhound's capabilities, consider one of the prey he was bred to hunt: the wolf. As mentioned, the gray wolf, when at his fastest, has a top speed of 40 mph over short distances. The wolfhound would, by necessity, have to keep up with his prey to kill it. This fact would place the Irish wolfhound's top speed close to 40 mph.

[Stacy]

I can't wrap my head around the idea of them being fast. I need to go see it, I think. 

Speaking of the wrong service dog. There's a lady in the CGC class who told me that she's training her Great Pyrenees as a service dog. I can't see it. For one thing that dog is blowing coat everywhere. I can't imagine many restaurants would be super pleased with a service dog whose hair is in everyone's soup. I heard the instructor last night telling her that if she really meant service dog and not therapy dog she needed specialized training. And the dog is terrified of the long line. Nice dog, I'm just not sure it's a service dog candidate.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The "service dog" stuff is a whole other issue I could spend hours ranting about. People get any dog from any source and claim to be training it for service. And the scams that abound are horrifying. Unscrupluous low lives who get some poorly bred doodle from God knows where and sell it online sight unseen for $4000 as a "trained service dog." DRC has been contacted by more than one person who fell for this scam. One dog wasn't even housebroken.