My Non Perfect Doodles

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Appealing, adorable, non shedding, easy to train, great with kids and other dogs etc etc etc.  I love perusing the various doodle websites and am a sucker for cute videos of sweet doodle babies.  This feeds the same need in me that has me oooing and aaahing over adorable baby pictures.  But I often leave these sites with a heavy heart. How realistic are these claims?  How much is sales hype? How much is this selling a dream?  For non shedding read copious and frequent grooming and if you can't/won't do it yourself then insert very expensive frequent trips to groomer.  You get the picture.  A quick glance through some of the groups here will do any prospective buyer the world of good.  Good Breeders/Bad Breeders?  Giardia, parasites, genetic illnesses, injuries, vet insurance the list goes on and on.....

So for those of you who love puppies here is a little snippet of my day.  I got up at 6 am to bring Boris out for morning pee and poop. It's freezing cold here by the way and he spends 15 minutes finding the perfect spot while I shiver.   Back to bed we go and Riley and Boris are now on the bed and I can't find any place to put my feet. At 8am we all get up and it's breakfast time.  Boris goes out to poop and comes back in with poop trailing all over his behind.  I am in a terrible rush but spend half an hour cleaning poop off him so I miss breakfast.  This involves using my fingers to remove poop as the shampoo is doing little to shift it.  During the day my partner comes home to feed and let the boys out.  I collect them at 3pm and drive them 40 minutes to day care so they can run off some of that energy while I do some work.  At some point during the day I collect the worm meds and order dog food  ($140 gone like a flash out of my account.)  I get home and we spend ten minutes doing some much needed training as Boris is learning bad habits from his brother and is jumping up.  I am going away for three days on business on Wednesday and this has necessitated lots of planning so the boys remain well cared for and get plenty of exercise in my absence.

My boys are easy, they get on with everybody and are total love bugs BUT they are hard hard work.  Our lives revolve around their needs.  Every thing we do or plan takes them into account.  For websites to be realistic they need to ask hard questions.  It's one thing buying the 'perfect' puppy.  It's quite another achieving that expectation.

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

So well said Nicky and the comments too.  I needed to read this as I am in a real struggle at the moment. 

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

Oops lost the rest of my reply.  I am in a struggle over one of my "perfect" puppies - Stuart.  Stuart is not hyper in the sense that he can't relax - but he is the most high energy dog that I or my husband have ever seen and we have had several Labs and 1 Golden in prior years.  We have talked about that fact that we believe that very few people could handle his energy and that he would have been "dumped" due to this.  We have managed due to dh being out of work but I'm in panic mode as today dh is heading to China for a week - leaving me alone while Stuart who now runs 3-6 miles each morning and I DO NOT.  LOL.  He is spending between 1 - 2 HOURS a day swimming in the pool and then fetches his ball for at least an hour every evening.  Mix in some walks with his brother.  I wish I was exaggerating but I'm not.  Add in his medical problems and the shedding and I think Stuart might have had multiple owners.  Rooney is comparision is so super easy but with all the expenses we did actually have a conversation a few days ago where we talked about the boys being our last dogs.  In 15 years I'll be 70 and there is no way that I could handle a "Stuart". 

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

oh my gosh that is a LOT Of excercise.  I don't know how you handle that.  I don't have enough hours in the day right now to be able to do all that.  I have been feeling guilty because my two have only been getting walks on the weekends when I have more time but at least I have been able to take them to doggie daycare every day during the week which seems to tire them out.  Major credit to you Jane for working so hard to give Stuart the exercise that he needs!

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

Like I said - I'm in panic mode because Stuart is a two person dog - it takes dh and I both to keep him exercised.  The next few days will be pretty rough on both Stuart and I - lol.  If he doesn't get enough activity he will (all 67lbs) get the puppy zoomies in the house and the watch out the furniture goes flying, Rooney gets the rough end of it and watch your knee caps!!!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Jane, It looks like you are going to have to start running :) Just think, we can be in matching bikinis by the next cruise! All kidding aside, I think I have it easy. You are right. Not many people would be able to keep up this exercise routine and I applaud you and your husband for loving Stuart like you do.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Jane, I know exactly what you mean.  Have you tried Stuart on the treadmill?  To be honest I really don't know how we'd be able to meet all of Murph's exercise requirements without the treadmill.  Living in CT there are many days where we are limited by the weather.  Even when the weather is fine I can only walk about an hour at a time and then I'm "done"....but Murph could keep going. 

[Colleen, Jake & Baxter]

You are my hero for making a commitment to Stuart.  I have had fosters with the same kind of energy that Stuart has and it is exhausting.  Just hear what he does during the day has me exhausted:)

[Karen Kennedy]

Hi Nicky,

I sure hear what you are saying about the dedication of owning a dog. It take a lot of time and effort and a person needs to just love doing it (well most of the time anyway). I am a breeder of Australian Labradoodles and I do not claim that my puppies will be perfectly behaved when you take them home (they of course need training like all dogs), but I do claim I breed a quality puppy. Meaning healthy, happy with good confirmation and temperament. I require all my buyers to sign a contract saying they must do puppy classes and try and pick a puppy for them that matches their family situation. That said, they will still be standing in the cold outside waiting for their dog to go potty :)

Making sure the buyer is aware of the responsibility and time it takes to have a dog I feel is one of my jobs as a breeder. But you are right... those puppy pictures sure look cute! Even I don't get tired of seeing puppies!

Good luck with your boys!!

KarenK

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Hi Karen,

I respect you for replying to this discussion and for doing everything you can to ensure that your puppies are healthy, happy, and placed in the appropriate situations.

That said, the first thing anyone sees when visiting your website, after the adorable photos, is this statement: 

The Australian Labradoodle makes the perfect family pet!

This is the kind of thing many of us here are disturbed about, the statement that any breed or mix as a whole is a "perfect" pet. The fact is that there are many, many ALDs who are NOT "perfect family pets", at least not for the families who gave them up to rescue. The DRC has rehomed dozens of ALDs from reputable breeders, and in almost every case, the dogs were not a good fit for first-time dog owners or a home with children. Amy's Ollie is one of them. We also have a member here who adopted an 11 week old ALD because the original owner was terribly allergic to him, even though he does not shed at all. She believed he would be a good choice because of the "non-shedding, allergy friendly" hype that is all over many breeders' websites. He also turned out to be so reactive to children that he could not be trusted around them, even though the adoptive owner spent thousands of dollars on training and is a very experienced dog owner. Both breeders are members of the ALD Breeders associations and do all the genetic testing, etc. The point is that it is wrong for anyone to state that any kind of dog is always right for any family or any situation, and the dogs are the ones who get hurt by this in the long run. There is no such thing as a "perfect" pet.

[Colleen, Jake & Baxter]

Well I know of a "perfect family pet" that might need to be put down due to his sad, sad misfortune of being picked by his non perfect not too smart owner and not too smart perfect breeder to be the family dog...Good Breeders/Bad Breeders.......Unfortunately it is the dogs that end up paying the terrible price of having to be put to sleep because of the owners negligence.  People believe the lie that these are the perfect dogs for families with children along with thinking they are already trained.  We live in a world where people want instant gratification and they want it now and not to have to work for it. Just because a person spent a lot of money on their doodle doesn't mean it will turn out to be the perfect pet. 

I am not a perfect pet owner but I do try to learn as much as I can about these dogs and I spend way too much time on DK.    My Christmas wish is that prospective owners of these dogs would really do their homework and not buy into all of the FALSE ADVERTISING that many breeders continue to put on their websites.  I just wish I didn't know what I know:(

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

why does the dog have to be put down?  Can't they contact a rescue organization if they can't keep the dog in their home and at least give the poort dog a chance at a happy life?

[Colleen, Jake & Baxter]

He is not with the family anymore (but, they can't wait to have another dog) and is in a place where his behavior is being assessed by a DRC volunteer who is a real Hero in my book.