I wish they'd get their facts straight......

[Jennifer Tramell]

Saturday afternoon and I'm enjoying the show "Too Cute" on Animal Planet.  The show is chronicling a litter of dachsunds, chinooks, and labradoodles.  So far I've been amused by the question "Which breed was an Olympic mascot" (didn't know that labradoodles were a breed) and annoyed by the following statement "Labradoodles don't have fur, they have hair which makes them the perfect pets for people with allergies.  Because they shed very little, the need frequent grooming to keep their coat from matting...."  I don't have a labradoodle (two goldendoodles) but neither LDs or GDs are accurately described by those statements. 

 

I just hate the idea that bunches of people are watching this show and suddenly think they've found the perfect dog for their allergies.  (Oh, and I know that these aren't ALDs because they showed a yellow lab and described her as their grandmother.)  I'm accustomed to mis-informed people believing all sorts of things about doodles, I guess I expected more out of Animal Planet.

 

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The sad thing is, people believe this. On the DRC website, the membership questions include this: "Are you aware that some doodles are not allergy friendly, and that many of them do shed?"

Nine out of 10 people say they were not aware of that. And of course, non-shedding and allergy friendly is always mentioned as the reason they would like to adopt a doodle.

[Joanna, Zoe & Bender]

Oh I saw this show! Really cute doodles tho :)
Even bender with curly and plushy fur sheds. I have dark floors so in every corner you can see little fur balls. Somehow they all end up in corners together. And for some reason I'm allergic to his big fat nose. He likes to stamp me with his nose and I have to wash right away or I get itchy.

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

It seems just about every person who has ever met my two will say something about them "not shedding". That seems to be the one universal fact about Goldendoodles that the general public seems to have heard about. Of course shows like these mentioned aren't helping.
Murphy hardly sheds at all, and Bella leaves fur balls all around the floor if I haven't vacuumed in two days, but nothing like JD. I hardly ever find dog hair on my clothes.

[Adrianne Matzkin]

I just wrote to Animal Planet, asking them to look at this discussion and to check out the DRC site. Maybe just wishful thinking but after seeing the doodles that the DRC brought into the program just this week I just had to. 

[Pat and Traveler]

Why couldn't a yellow lab be a grandmother for a labradoodle?  Aren't they blends of poodle/lab?  I watched that show too, and wondered about the 'perfect pets for people with allergies.' 

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

a yellow lab could be the grandmother of a doodle which I think was Jennifer's point.  With a yellow lab as a grandmother, the doodle isn't an ALD, the kind of doodle least likely to shed. 

[Pat and Traveler]

No, I still don't get it.  Are you saying an ALD (Australian Labradoodle) can't have a yellow lab as a grandmother?  If so, why not? 

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

the ALD has other breeds mixed in along with the lab and poodle.  Plus the ALD is the result of  breeding 2 ALDs which were both breed from breeding 2 ALDs.  Sort of like the American multi-gen.  No labrador in the recent lineage.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I may be able to make this explanation easier.

If a puppy had a purebred lab for a grandparent, that would mean that either the puppy's mom or the puppy's dad was an F1. The ALDs parents are all higher generations, not the F1s.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Forget the Austalian part. Any dog with a lab grandmother, not sure where part of the discussion came from, would be a second generation of some sort not a multigeneration. I believe that's how it would work.

[DJ & Chance]

I don't get it.  Out of all doodles, why is an ALD supposed to be least likely to shed?  

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

That's not true anyway. An F1B is least likely to shed. But maybe people say that about ALDS because the shedding breeds like the labs are further back in the pedigree. Of course, cocker spaniels shed, too, and there are cockers as close as one or two generations back in some ALDs.