Do doodles play best with other doodles?

[Frannie & Callie]

Last night, I hosted a dog party at my house. In addition to Callie and Bixby Foster Doodle, I'm also keeping my friend Hallie's dogs Sydney (a 13 year old lab mix) and Bella (a 4 year old g-d only knows, but she's cute mix) while she's out of town (turns out that it's not so easy to walk 4 dogs and to keep them from eating each other's food!). Well, yesterday was a scorcher so I invited my friend Robyn and her 8 month old doggie Louie (a shi-tzu/spaniel mix) and my neighbors Ryan and Dana and their 5 month old goldendoodle puppy, Einstein all over to play inside, where there's cool water, ice cubes, and air conditioning.

 

So...six dogs in my tiny little townhouse. Let the games begin!  First, everyone played keep away with the antlers. Then, tennis balls were thrown and stuffed animals were tugged. All dogs were having a good time but I noticed that the three doodles (Callie, Bixby, and Einstein) played together more than they did with the other dogs, and they played with each other in a different way than they played with any of the others. None of the other dogs laid on each other and played "land shark" (which is what I call the all doodle ear and beard biting game where you see so many teeth that if you didn't know your dood, you might be a little alarmed!). The doodles liked to play chase with each other, round and around the coffee table and then, as if they had discussed it, they would all change directions very suddenly.

 

Callie always likes to play with any playful dog but it was just last night that I noticed that she really has a totally different doodle play with other doodles and was curious if anyone had similar experience.

[Ellen]

I've also been told by daycare staff that Riley tends to play more with other doodles, and I think it may be their energetic style of play. When Riley and I run into other dogs while walking, he will spin in place so quickly that he'll startle the other dog because his derriere sometimes hits the other dog. Unless it's a puppy, the other dog usually backs away as if saying "Whoa dude, you're too much for me!" During doodle romps, Riley likes to wrestle with other doodles, both of them jumping at each other. I thought that he would have grown out of the puppy wrestling stage, but some 2 1/2 years later, he still loves to wrestle! I wonder whether it comes from the "poodle" side because we ran into a couple of standard poodles one day and they did the same spin-in-place move as Riley and were very springy.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

My trainer actually was the first one to point out to me that Doodles seem to prefer to play with each other, and I believe that it's totally true. They do have their "quirks" (like zoomies, and the shark teeth thing), and they seem to be much more comfortable with each other. Frannie, my boys do that chasing thing around the coffee table all the time (changing directions "mid stream").

[BG and Gavin]

Oh yes! In fact just yesterday Gavin met a new doodle girlfriend while out on a walk. They got straight down to business with the "land shark" thing (lol). They took turns being on top and I could count every one of their teeth. The other interesting thing I notice is that when he plays with other doodles they are practically silent - no barking or growling or groaning or snorting, only the sound of snapping teeth and heavy breathing.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

You're absolutely right! That teeth snapping thing used to scare me to death, but they're never hurting each other.

[cheryl & oliver]

Frannie, funny this came up today, Oliver was at the groomers and there was a 10 mo. old golden doodle, a girl, and they were just playing and hanging out together, while the other 2 dogs that were free, waiting for Moms to pick them up, were not with the 2 doodles. They just seem to gravitate to one another...Yup, Doodles seem to know other doodles...Just my opinion of course...Go Callie, Go Callie, #1....I vote at least 3x a day for her...she is so beautiful...

[Carol and Banjo]

I love that you had a "dog party"....lucky pups!!!

[Adrianne Matzkin]

My girls definitely are happier to play with Doodles. Charli always seems to pick out a doodle coming through the dog park gates and goes running. Same thing on the beach. Samantha only plays with another dog until she finds a ball on the beach. Never in the park.
There IS something different about doodles. I don't know what it is but it is!

[Eva (Lilo and Rocky)]

cute, love reading about the doodle love fests! My Rocky does not play with any non-humans, whereas Lilo plays with dogs of all breeds and sizes. Her best friend is a 90lbs pitbull/boxer/lab mix who loves to wrestle and chase. Somehow, he always ends up on his back with Lilo on top of him. They both love it. Another good friend is a poodle and she and Lilo typically gang up on other dogs. I've even seen them "high five" each other by butting noses if they did something particularly cunning! Cracks me up every time. The only dogs she won't play with are dominant agressive dogs; she seems to know instinctively which dogs are up to no good and steers clear of them.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

My observations from lots of dog parks is that doodles DO play together more often than not and do play differently with each other. Other breeds may do these things also, but doodles wrestle and look ferocious with their teeth bared while ear and beard biting = all in good fun.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Being as I have organized and hosted about 10 doodle romps with anywhere from 8-18 doodles at a time, it is amazing to watch how they play and gravitate to eachother. I think their form of play is unique to them and when you watch them with other dogs it seems other breeds just don't seem to tolerate or participate in doodle play for very long. And we all know how they can play till they drop!!! Doodle play is floppy and frompy and clumsy and teasing and biting and ear pulling and fur flying and " chase-me and then I'll chase you" kind of play. Most other breeds seem to just run along side eachother without much interaction, then out of nowhere comes a bark or growl and the running stops. Or they are snapping and snarling at eachother and then go onto something else. Not a whole lot of play going on to me it seems.
I also find that more doodles than any other breed are pretty good about ball chasing and retrieving and again will chase balls till they drop.

[Kendra K. Rhoton]

Yes, I notice this all the time. We would go to the dog park and Remington would ignore every dog there EXCEPT for doodles. He seems to lock himself to any doodle in sight! It is funny really.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Do you think it's like humans where we gravitate towards like-minded, like-lifestyles, like-professions in people. I find just about all my friends are nurses or have something to do with a medical field. Most are athletic and health concious, etc. Even we probably will go talk (human play) with some fellow dog owners at the dog park, but barely say hello to others. Hum? Thoughts anyone?