Doodle Back Cross

[Cosmo]

I was wondering if anyone has seen or has a Goldendoodle back crossed with a Golden Retriever and not another poodle, still technically an F1 B.
I have only read one other article where this person stated it had been done and they really liked the temperment as the Doodles ended up with a bit more retriever. However, I think it would still be really hard to predict the shedding factor or coat type?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I have only heard of this being done once, by a brand new breeder, who admitted it was not a smart thing to do. What you end up with is a dog with 3/4 of its genes from the GR, and a very very high likelihood that it will shed. In humans, curly hair has what is called "incomplete dominance" over straight hair. This means that if a parent with curly hair and a parent with straight hair produce a child, the child is likely to have wavey hair, neither curly nor straight, but somewhere in between. The straight hair gene is recessive, so in order to get a child with straight hair, it has to have been passed by both parents. Assuming that it works the same way for dogs (admittedly a large assumption) an F1 goldendoodle would be capable of passing on a gene for either the straight or the curly hair. If bred back to a poodle, who is only capable of passing on the curly gene, you get a better chance of having dogs with the curlier coat. (If C=curly and s=straight, the possible combinations would be Cs (wavey) or CC (curly). But if you bred the doodle back to a retriever, the possible combinations would be Cs (wavey) or ss (straight)...there is no genetic possibility of getting a true non-shed poodle coat, since the retriever can only pass on the recessive gene. Again, I am not sure how much of this applies to dogs, but I believe most breeders would not backcross a doodle to a retriever.

[Cosmo]

Thank you, that is very helpful information.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm glad to be of some help. As I say, I'm right up there on human genetics, but dog genetics don't always follow the same rules with regard to which of the pair is dominant and which recessive.
Regarding shedding vs non-shedding coats, it really is very easy to know if a particular dog will or won't shed, but unfortunately, only with adult dogs. Non-shedding breeds, such as poodles, Bouvier de Flandres, wheaten terriers, etc., have hair that is like human hair in that it never stops growing. It has to be cut regularly like human hair, or it will grow & become matted down into itself, or "cord" like human dreadlocks. Humans do not "shed", leaving hair all over, but when we brush our hair, we do find some in the brush. It is the same with the non-shedding breeds.
All shedding breeds, like labs, goldens, collies, German shepherds, etc., have hair that reaches its natural length and stops growing. These breeds never get haircuts. The hair falls out in its time, (sheds) and is replaced with new hair. There are differences between breeds; shepherds and labs shed continuously throughout the year, day in and day out. The longer-haired shedders, like goldens & collies, "blow" their coats primarily twice a year. So you can look at any adult dog with it's natural coat, and know if it sheds or not...if it needs to have haircuts to keep its hair at a constant length, it's a non-shedder. Unfortunately, no way to know with puppies.

[Zoe, Benny and Tyler]

Hi,
actually Benny is that kind of dog. His mom is a Goldendoodle and his dad is a Labrador. The family where he is coming from is not breeding, they just have a Doodle and a Labrador so the puppies were an "accident".
If you are interested how this crossing looks like just take a look at the pictures in my profile. His fur is straight to wavy but not curly and yes: Benny does shed. Actually he is loosing more hair than our 2 cats together. But as we didn't get Benny for any allergy reasons we can live with that.
I hope this helps.