Insight needed into Pure Breed Only people.

[Jennifer and Jack]

I am seriously looking for insight because I don't understand......I met a girl online who is a friends sister... We met because of a fund raiser my friend have done for me to help with medical costs for me going to CO.... ( only saying that because she donated money to me that I now feel obligated to give back to her) since I make "her sick by owning a doodle"

I don't particularly care if people like doodle's or not.. I am not one of those people who has to change the minds of other people....

Anyway she is a die hard animal lover..which I totally respect and think it great.. The world can't have enough animal lovers as far as I am concerned... She has three Labrador Retrievers.. Apparently they are the only good dog on the planet.. or other pure breeds are okay but "doodles are an abomination"

Now we had been talking back and fourth, sharing ideas and information..She is a CF carrier, so she doesn't have the disease but carries the gene.... all was going great until she posted that article.. that has been posted on here already and is not a big deal.. It is the guy who thought of creating the Labra-doodle ...the article where he states he is sorry he ever did it because people have gone crazy with it..... making false claims etc.. Most of us have read it and most of us I think agree with it.. It is not right to make claims that they are hypo-allergenic etc...

So when she posted the article... that is when I told her I have a golden doodle.. That I agree with a lot of the article that back yard breeders shouldn't be breeding etc... I commented on how DRC has so many dogs because of false promises from breeders.. I felt like I was fair about the article but that if people wanted one, knowing full well what they were getting into, what harm is it. It isn't like she only adopts shelter dogs and if she did I would understand her point more..but she is buying from a breeder too.

 She called Jack all kinds of names etc.. Jack's feeling's are not hurt LOL but seriously....

Is this common among pure breed dog owners, they think there breed is the only breed that is good? I certainly don't think that about doodles.. I certainly am aware they are mixed dogs considered mutts at this point... I don't care.. Jack doesn't care... 

I get the point about false claims with them and I told her so... Now when she makes posts with questions she says Labrador retriever owners only please answer .. It is laughable

I love all dogs... seriously .. kick me off DK if you want :) but I am pretty sure any dog that was placed in my home I would fall madly in love with....  I do love doodles.. I think they are very, very cute, probably the cutest dog in the world.. 

[Cathy, Fozzie & Shaggy]

"LIKE"

 

[Cathy, Fozzie & Shaggy]

Jennifer I have been sitting on my hands thinking and thinking about how to say exactly what you did!  I just read that "article" posted on facebook by a dog friend whose comment was, I can't stand those type of dogs.  This is a person I do therapy work with, used to facebook with and enjoyed talking dogs with.  I have run into this kind of sentiment several time in the last years from complete strangers who don't know me or my dogs.  Saying, "I refuse to groom them anymore they are just awlful and I can't stand them"; I wasn't asking her to groom my dogs, I was at a horse expo. looking at clippers!!  And a woman who raises/shows curlly coated retrievers said once, I've come to hate those kind of dogs, I'm always asked if my dogs are doodles."  This was at an AKC dog show where Fozzie and I had just earned our CD and RN.  Talk about a balloon popper!!  But I have also been sincerely apologized to by a die hard poodle person who judged me as "one of those people who just wanted the attention of having a doodle".  She was big enough to acknowledge she was wrong and helped me with rally training.

This is a topic that has been on my mind a lot lately.  There are SO many rotten, rotten "breeders" of purebreed dogs but if I took a very poorly breed lab out in public, it wouldn't get as much criticism as my doodles. UGH!!  Folks need to focus on the issue of poor breeding of ALL dogs NOT on the type of dogs people choose.  To each their own!! 

OK - sorry about the rant!!  As I've said this is a topic that has been on my mind and yesterday's FB post was the straw....

 

 

[Marnie, Stanlee's Mom]

Cathy.....I love your doodles!

[Cathy, Fozzie & Shaggy]

Thanks Marnie!!  How could anyone not love a doodle after spending a bit of time with them???

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

Kathy, I so completely agree with your comment about focusing on poor breeding of all dogs.  Heavens know every breed out there has BYBs who are in it for the dollars.

[Debi and Monty Moose]

Jennifer,   After doing Golden Rescue for 13 years, as you can well imagine.... I ran into these kinds of people often.   I personally think you handled her very well and made all the same arguments that we as Rescuers have made for years.  Even though people like this can be incredibly irritating....they are also narrow minded and nothing you say or do will make a difference.  Sometimes you just have to walk away from folks like that.  The bottom line is that we all love our Doodles...no matter where they come from....and would not trade them for anything!  The fact that she called Jack names......just made her pretty petty.  BTW...Jack is a real cutie pie and I am glad his feelings were not hurt!  :) 

[April Cliber]

Can I throw out another perspective?  When I first started breeding doodles I received several emails from purebred breeders that I considered mean spirited, evil and just plain rude!  I had NO prior contact with these people.  They just found my website and decided I needed "an education."  At the time it bothered me...a lot.  Now, I kind of get it.  I would say at least 50% of people who come to me looking for a puppy had and one time owned, and many times recently, lost a golden retriever.  It used to be that when your beloved dog died you would many times get a puppy of the same breed.  People tend to be very loyal to "their breed."   I would imagine that golden retriever and lab breeders are very effected by the "doodle boom."  .....In some ways I don't blame them for being ticked.  They spent decades getting titles for their dogs and carefully choosing sires that will bring out the best of the breed.  Then we sweep in, want those dogs with wonderful pedigree's and titles so we can breed them.....with a different breed.    We then sell the puppies to THEIR customers.  Only after spending eight years working on my own program can I put myself in their shoes.  I would just die if I found out someone bred one of my foundation multigen girls with say a cocker spaniel.  (Yes, I've been asked to sell a pup for this purpose.)  I have poured my heart and soul into my program and have worked hard to achieve what I believe to be the desired multigen.  Not a chance I would want cocker in my lines.  So, yep.... I get it.  People tend to be very loyal to their breeder (Especially show breeders.) and I think feel, in a way, they are defending them when they put down/speak bad about a purposely bred, mixed breed dog.  I think this is the reason for much of the negativity.  I'm not justifying flat out rudeness like you encountered.  Some people are just hateful and mean!  I'm just pointing out a different perspective. 

[Ginny Nightingale]

Very good point April--many of the people interested in doodles want LESS shedding than they had with their purebred retriever --(if they say NO shedding, I quickly tell them not to expect that!!) This is really taking away business from those breeders. I have a very good friend who raises labs--she was dubious about my doodles and my breeder at first, but now recognizes that the pups are gorgeous and healthy and the parents are all health tested--she loves my pups now, but is definitely being affected by the number of people who want doodles instead of labs now. The doodle breeders are riding on the coattails of the retriever breeders who had the most popular breeds for so many years that the reputation as a great family dog is already established--doodles just happen to POSSIBLY shed less and that has attracted people to the doodle.

By the way, she has told me that if she ever let one of her labs be bred to a poodle, the lab breeders she knows would immediately drop her from the ranks--they REALLY frown upon it--she is tempted because her labs sell for 1/3 the price of a doodle around here! Go figure!!

[Cathy, Fozzie & Shaggy]

THANK YOU APRIL!!!!  I do see your side of this issue and were I a reputable breeder, I believe, I would feel the same protectiveness of the hard work and achievements made and rightly so!  It's the rudeness and disrespect for me as a person and my dog(s), my friend(s) that I'm so proud of, that is so very difficult to ignore, tollerate, or accept.

Friends of mine deepley involved in improving their line of AKC champion silver poodles and would NEVER let their titled and tested dogs to be used as part of a doodle mix, would also NEVER be unkind to me for my choice of dog or unkind to my dogs!!  Nore would I be-little them for their pure breed convictions.  It's about.....

R.E.S.P.E.C.T!!!

April, I sure hope I get to meet some of your multigen puppies some day!!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Thanks for posting this, April. People need to try to understand it from the purebred breeders and fanciers points of view, too. 

And for the purebred poodle breeders and fanciers, it can also be very insulting when the non-shedding part is brought into it, because their dogs already are guaranteed not to shed at all, so why do they need to be mixed with something else? To think of those gorgeous coats being thinned out with Retriever genes is like a knife in their hearts. It's very hurtful and insulting to constantly hear "I don't want a poodle", "I want the Golden temperament with the poodle's hair". You mean, you only want my dog for her hair? What's wrong with my dog's temperament? 

[Jennifer and Jack]

This girl is not a breeder and has no intention of becoming one. Her dogs however are Champion whatever ( I don't say whatever disrespectfully, I say it because I don't know.. something about their legs, show etc)  and if you look on her FB page all you see is pictures of them with ribbons for winning all different things..... I would imagine for her it is about keeping the breed pure.

An article came out recently that doodles are the most trendy dogs now...Good. Breeders work hard to ensure we get health tested doodle's it is true.. I am very closely involved with my breeder as I run her fan club page with almost 500 members currently.   They work hard but because doodles are trendy you are able to charge more for them, I would imagine eventually the price would go down... I don't know that for a fact.. but I would imagine....even with all the health testing done....even with declawing, deworming, micro chipping, I still think some day it will go down.

I will say it again, I am sold out for doodles because I have one, I think they are so precious and I am not in anyway trying to be disrespectful to a doodle because I love them, I love the look of them etc. For the life of me, I will never understand though how they have  hybred vigor? I am as mutt as mutt can come, Irish, German, Italian, Indian,  Dutch, and Lord knows what else... Shouldn't I then have the best genes from all of that? I should be healthy as healthy can be if that were true? 

For the record I have TWO known genetic diseases.....One that is chronic and one that is considered to be life shortening to say the least.... I don't get it the whole this will create a healthier dog unless it is a recessive disease specific to only that breed then maybe... I don't know. 

I wanted to believe with my whole heart and soul and still do that Jack got the best of the best.. Both of his parents lineage is pretty darn near perfect.... (so was mine as far as sick genes) 

I say if you are going to buy a doodle, do it for the love of the breed.. Not because they offer anything more then love, a good snuggle partner if you are lucky and an amazing companion..... don't do it for the hypo allergenic thing, the attitude that they are healthier then the purebred dog.

Just do it because you love a Doodle and that is good enough reason and don't expect anything else ..We all pray for health for our dogs, we all pray for long lives for them... I do.. I love so many of your doodles that I don't even know.. I have cried tears when they are sick, when we have lost one... They are amazing dogs.. Jack doesn't shed anything at all.. works great for me, but if he did shed I wouldn't give him back that is for sure

Again I LOVE DOODLES, but I am not fooled by what they offer anymore then what I think a dog can offer..but doodles are my poison ..

This girl is a fanatic and I know that sounds like I am pot calling the kettle black but for real... she is all about the awards, ribbons, showing and I am completely opposite, I am all about firm poop, titer vaccines and glad if my dog doesn't jump up on you when you walk through my door.

lesson learned different strokes for different folks.

[April Cliber]

I'm with you Jennifer!  I am over the top NUTS about doodles too!  Obviously I think they are the best dogs ever!  The lady you dealt with sounds nutty and I wasn't defending her at all!  I was just trying to add some insight as to why some people act the way they do.