Need Advise! Non-shedding doodle has increasing clump-like sparsity on her coat.

[TYoung]

Hello everyone...

My 14 week old Australian Labradoodle is supposed to be a non-shedding baby.  She's been with us since 8 weeks and really never did shed.  for the last 2 weeks, I have gradually seen increasing sparsity all over her back coat.  It looks like clumps of hair have fallen out, yet I haven't found any clumps anywhere.  But, I have noticed A LOT of fur on my black pants and on her brush.  I contacted the breeder s few days ago with a photo, and she has not gotten back to me (grrr).  I was doing a little research and it could be an allergy.  She's on Taste of The Wild Pacific Prairie puppy food.  She was on the same food but the adult version from her breeder.  I made the gradual switch to the puppy formula on the recommendation of the vet, which went seemlesly .  I put about 1 tablespoon of cooked grass-fed ground beef or cooked wild caught salmon on her food to kill the monotony...but not on every meal.  I ran both those by the vet which said those would be fine.  Other than that, she has her grain-free treats, peanut butter, occasional pieces of cheese, and coconut oil.  She is not scratching, or complaining in anyway.  Her stools have been normal.  She's other wise her doodly self.  If anyone has some light to shed on this I would be so grateful.  I'm worried about my baby Hadley :(  Thank you in advance.

[TYoung]

Since she got home from the breeder at exactly 8 weeks...she has not been injured.  She has a pretty relaxed disposition.  She likes her crate (I leave it open all day for her to wonder in and out of).  Im home with her all day.  She has to be crated for certain times, i.e. we go to church, the market, to where she can't go, etc...but never more than 3 hrs or so.  She always seems fine when we get back.  She really goes with the flow.  She is already 90% potty trained.  She pees when she gets excited to see one of us, but that is getting better.  She is so loved...so Im not sure where the stress would be from.  She settled in right away when she got here...which we all thought was amazing.  We have mature dogs neighboring on either side of our house.  They greet each other through the fence but have never played together.  She played and runs all over our front and back yard, and loves to go behind the bushes.  We don't walk her on the street yet, has not been to dog park, etc.  She does go in the car with us to kids extra-curricular.  She does well there too.  So Im seriously stumped.  I feel anxious over it though.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

I would follow Karen's advice and go to the Vet for a skin scraping.   

[Stella]

I don't know what would cause localized patches of hair loss without accompanying itchiness in a puppy that young. I would expect it to be some sort of parasite. Did your vet do a skin scrape?

I have a 6 year old non-shedding multi-gen that has Seasonal Alopecia - his hair falls out along his flanks every winter, leaving bald patches. It grows back again in the summer. This is thought to be due to a melatonin deficiency from decreased exposure to sunlight through the winter.. It didn't begin until he was three years old though.

[Sarah Kuiper]

I'm curious, what was the result of this? Did it get better? Was there a problem?

[TYoung]

Happy to report that my little doodle is doing very well.  It appears that she may have blown her coat early.  She is presently 7.5 months old...so we will see if that was it. She has never had any symptoms that would indicate allergies.  After I gave her her first haircut, she pretty much stopped shedding...amazing!  Here coat is definitely different than it was in the beginning, but she continues to be silky soft and now only loses the fur i brush out which is how it was for the first few months as well.  I brush her every 3 days or so and the amount of fur on the brush is the approximate equivalent of a cotton ball.  All is good :)  thanks for asking.