Dixie's Doodles Alumni

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Comment by Dixie Moore on May 15, 2010 at 1:04pm

I don't know, and I've wondered that before too. Maybe Beth knows?

Comment by Minga & Malu & Costa on May 15, 2010 at 12:56pm

LOL, true mutts indeed! My favorite kind of dog :)

It was funny when I was filling out the Microchip information and my profile, and it has a place to say is the dog pure bred or not...I hesitated, because in Australia, it IS a purebred dog by their standards! Heehee. But I know what you mean about the genetics.

Any idea why a purebred poodle doesn't make a good service dog?

Comment by Dixie Moore on May 15, 2010 at 12:27pm

I'm not an expert at genetics by any means, but I know that once you get past the first generation, the percentages are not calculatable. I will try to explain that....

The first generation is 50% poodle and 50% lab because the puppy gets half of its genes from each parent. That's pretty straightforward. If that puppy grows up and is later bred to a poodle, the offspring gets 1/2 of its genes from the poodle parent, so it is at least 50% poodle. But it gets 1/2 of its genes from the parent that is 1/2 and 1/2. So potentially it could get all poodle genes from that parent, all lab genes, or some combination of the two. So when you have a 2nd generation dog it is impossible to determine what percentage of the genes are lab or poodle. You only know that it is more than 50% poodle.

And so on, as you advance the generations.

Additionally, the developers of the breed in Australia were not forthcoming about the exact breeds used. When we first got our dogs from them, they had a grading system that said A1, A2, A3, etc. Many of the dogs in the pedigrees were not identified by breed. It was a huge shock to all of us when Angela Cunningham told a reporter that 6 breeds were used in the development of the breed.

Once we knew what those breeds were, breeders in Australia and here in the US did our best to decipher what was what.

So, as an example, I will post Malu's sister's pedigree here. It's not a jpg though, so I don't know if it will render. Here goes:
Pearl Pedigree.pdf

If you take a look at Pearl's pedigree, you can see Poodles interspersed through it. That's because at times Poodles were added back in for coat correction. Also, if you look at the dogs on the right side of the pedigree, like Diplomat, we know who his parents were, and we know that one was a Poodle and one was an Australian Labradoodle, but that is as deep as we can go into Pearl's pedigree because we never received any ancestry for Diplomat's parents, and there are lots of other dogs in the same boat. The developers will not or cannot give us the information, so we have what we have. Great dogs with pedigrees that only go so far back.

In the whole scheme of things, some day it won't really matter. There are lots of breeds that don't have the early beginnings of their ancestry fully recorded. As long as we go back as far as we can and keep good records going forward, it will be fine.

So, looking at Pearl's pedigree, and knowing she is Malu's sister, you can see how hard it is to answer that question. My answer is that Australian Labradoodles have up to 6 breeds in them, and that many combinations of the breeds are possible.

Comment by Minga & Malu & Costa on May 15, 2010 at 11:46am

Dixie,

I was wondering if you had an idea of the percentage of Malu for each breed? I was just curious, as alot of people are always asking me if he is 50/50, etc. I tell them I am pretty sure he's not an even mix, but don't know!

Comment by Minga & Malu & Costa on May 15, 2010 at 11:43am

Casey IS cute Kathryn!

Comment by Minga & Malu & Costa on May 15, 2010 at 11:40am

I actually will be in Austin the weekend of the 29th, by my brother is graduating from high school that day!

I use Advantage, used to use Sentinel. Comfortis works well too though. I prefer Advantage over Sentinel simply because if we go someplace new and a flea gets on my dogs, it will be killed. Sentinel doesn't do that, so if you are going places where there are a lot of dogs and you don't know if they are flea free, you could get some fleas. Comfortis will kill them too, but it is pricey, so I have stuck with Advantage.

Comment by susan toalson on May 15, 2010 at 10:57am

My Alfie's on Heartguard and Confortis. I love the Confortis because it's a pill, and I don't have to smear that oily junk on his back. I've never seen a flea on him.

Comment by Beth Lord on May 15, 2010 at 9:19am

OK, I'm having withdrawals today...my Alfie's on puppy swap so I'm doodle-less for a month or so!! He's going to get some great experiences with a very experienced puppy raiser in Fredericksburg though, so I'm happy for that. I'll be getting my swap dog on Monday, a German Shepherd by the name of Petey. Wish me luck! ;-) Perhaps if there's another play day sometime after Alfie comes back home we could join you...I know he'd enjoy it and so would I.
Regarding parasite preventives...for what it's worth, our guide dog pups are on Sentinel and Comfortis. I love Comfortis because it actually kills adult fleas too. I've never seen a flea on one of our dogs and that's a wonderful thing!! :-)

Comment by Dixie Moore on May 15, 2010 at 9:05am

Hi Kathryn, and welcome! Casey is out of Bella and Radicchio's litter from last summer. He is a sweetheart!

Comment by Christine & Shelby on May 15, 2010 at 8:54am

Merrill.... Shelby is only on the Sentinel as well... and I have never seen a flea on her. We did one advantix treatment as part of phase 1 of her puppy care plan, but so far I am just using the sentinel as well. Shelby is 6.5 months! OMG - Shelby is 6.5 months.... unbelieveable!!!

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