MICRO doodle & which breed best Labradoodle, Golden, Austrailian for my preferences?

[a.k.a. Rodney]

hi, i have been advised this is the best way to get great feedback on my questions..

i am looking for a Mellow, highly intelligent, easy to work with doodle. That also must fit a size requirement as i travel frequently on planes, and would want the dog with me.

i have been in contact with a few breeders that claim they are producing MICRO doodles now 

9-15 lbs. multigenerational 14'.  Some breeders are saying they have worked for years to produce this dog. Am i naive to accept this as fact?

i am also  possibly interested in a dog that i can train for therapy work, probably working  with seniors at a care center.The dog needs to be 14' or less & between 9-15 lbs. I have 8 grandchildren ranging from 1 yr. to 11 yrs. old. The dog will be socialized well, but i prefer a non shedding dog..some kids have allergies as well as i have asthma.

Dogs generally don't affect me..Cats do!!

Big question is difference between labradoodle, goldendoodles & austrailian doodles for my preferences. Which would fit best for my needs?

Any helpful thoughts, suggestions or tips..very welcome and of course breeder recommendations

thanks in advance

[F, Calla & Luca]

: ) So true.

[F, Calla & Luca]

The other site sounded more legitimate perhaps. but they are breeding golden retrievers to miniature poodles and getting first generation pups. Needless to say, but they do say,they need to use artificial inseminatio. This size disparity between parents is worrisome even if the parents are health tested. but without really searching I saw no mention of that.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The other one is a BYB. I would be concerned about the lack of genetic health testing, health issues, and the conditions under which the dogs live,not to mention there's going to be a certain degree of shedding,  but they do appear to be a bit more honest at least.

[a.k.a. Rodney]

OK, this is what I was hoping for & looking for....an honest discussion about these practices and " breeders" I saw the red flags, but wasn't sure ...I've never done this before. My last dog all my neighbors had pups from same breeder...it was a no brainier then!
I hear all of you...I got the message & I appreciate your, concern & candor.
Now where do I go to find a reputable breeder
I really do want a doodle ..... Do I have any shot of finding an honest breeder of smaller ( 30 lbs or less) doodles
Btw, I do know a dog from the breeder who is offering financing & franchising....it's an exceptional pup!!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Okay, so now we're at 30 lbs or less; that's a big difference from 9 to 15 lbs. There are a lot of reputable breeders breeding mini doodles. Start with the links in the What to Look for in a Breeder article. Look around the site here, join the mini doodle groups, talk to people. BUT- and this is a big but- you've heard from several people who bought minis who were told their dogs would be 20-25 lbs and ended up 40 and 50 lbs. Are you going to be okay with that? Starting out with wanting a dog under 15 lbs and ending up with one who is more than three times that size? Just to have a "doodle"?

Again, there is nothing magical about the combination of retrievers and poodles. They are not "perfect" dogs, contrary to the media hype. We all love our dogs, but I loved all of my dogs of other breeds, too. There are lots of breeds just as good tempered and intelligent, and more reliably non-shedding. The temperament of any given doodle is depednent on the dog;s parents' temperaments and the dogs experiences and training...a combination of factors with a lot of variables.

When you say this dog from the franchise breeder is an "exceptional" pup, on what are you basing that? Exceptional in what way?  What makes this particular dog exceptional compared to other dogs? 

[Donna K & Quincy]

I have no doubt that they can have some great pups, I have a great pup that I fear came from a less than ideal breeder but that was when I was ignorant of all the bad breeders out there. So far I have been lucky with my doodle and he hasn't had any major health problems. Having said that, is this the kind of endeavour that you would want to knowingly support?

There are lots of honest breeders of small doodles but there is no guarantee on the size. In the words of Forest Gump, you never know what you are going to get. Good luck with your search.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

I would think that they would have to mix so much mini poodle in there.. you should probably just get a tiny poodle since the dog will be something like 7/8 poodle at that point if they did the downsizing correctly.

Or another small purebred dog (how about a Havanese? I hear they are wonderful).

[F, Calla & Luca]

I agree with the thought that breeding down too small over less than many,many generations may be a recipe for trouble.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Wow, so many things going through my head with regard to this post.  The first one is Joanne's mention of "Franchise".  I'm stunned, appalled, I don't even know what to think about that.  Haven't seen that before.  The next thing is I we have over 10,000 members here and I don't think I know of anyone that claims to have a "micro-mini" Doodle of any sort.  I think I only know of one off hand that would fit in the size category.  I guess one of my major concerns is there are so many of us here whose breeder said our puppy would be X number of lbs and we ended up with 20 or 30 or even 40 lbs more.  What is going to happen if your little Doodle ends up too large to fly?  You are going to be really borderline on this with a Doodle.  We had a toy poodle for 16 years and she was only 14 -16 lbs but she was too tall.  She couldn't stand up and turn around in the airline size crate so she couldn't fly.  You also mention that you "could" get the puppy registered as a therapy/service dog to fly but not sure how long that would last as people are abusing that!  #1, a therapy dog is not allowed to fly on a plane.  They do not have the same rights as a service dog.  Then, if you are planning on this dog being a service dog shouldn't it be coming from a licensed/registered service dog training facility.  You just really have a lot of requirements that in a mixed breed dog are hard to guarantee.  (Size, non-shedding, personality, allergies, asthma etc).   Don't get me wrong, there are breeders that will tell you they can guarantee every one of them, but in reality they can't!  Then what happens to the dog when it is too big to fly or it sheds and you or the grandchildren are allergic?   I saw on your page where I believe you had Maltese before.  I would think you would be closer to being able to fulfill all these requirements with a purebred dog. 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Great points!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Doodles are mixed breed dogs and there are no guarantees with any of them.  If size and coat (non-shedding and allergy friendly) are critical for you and you want a calm "therapy dog" temperament, I really don't think a Doodle is your best choice.  I would go for a toy Poodle from a breeder with a long history of breeding for temperament and groom it like a Doodle.  Honestly I have never heard of a "micro Doodle"....I know of no reputable breeders who are doing this.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I have seen tiny minis on reputable breeder sites but I never saw them called micro.