furnishings

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

If you dog has furnishings can you assume that he/she at least F/IC without doing a IC test? Someone at work today was asking me about furnishings and generations. I had no idea you could even test to see if your doodle could possibly have a flat coat. I thought it just happened to some doodles lol. I love learning about the generations, I think its endlessly interesting.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Furnishings are more about genes than generations. All F1s are carriers of the I/C gene, or as Optigen puts it:

"Designer dogs such as Labradoodles and Goldendoodles represent crosses of breeds in which furnishings are absent (Labradors and Golden Retrievers) with the Poodle, a breed that bears furnishings.  For this reason, all first generation "doodles" have the desired phenotype with proper furnishings but genetically are obligate carriers of the normal RSPO2 gene without the insertion and can potentially produce progeny with the Improper Coat phenotype."

If your dog has furnishings, he/she has at least one copy of the gene for furnishings. The only reason to test would be if you were planning to breed. And it's not about "flat" coats either, because that;s a different gene, the one for curly coat. Separate test. There are three genes involved in the "doodle" look: one for curl, one for furnishings, and one for length. genetics. Genetics can get very complicated, lol. You can have curly coated dogs without furnishings, and you can have flat coated dogs with furnishings. 

As for generations, there are 7th and 8th generation ALDs without furnishings. It all depends on which genes get passed along.  

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Gotchya! I never knew about the 3 genes to the doodle look. It makes me wonder what Yeti's genealogy is like. I've always loved the long coat look but I feel like Yeti's coat is too curly to get long. Is that a thing lol? I wonder if people assume that doodles with long hair have "flat" coats.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Curly coats can grow very long, but it requires a LOT of combing and brushing. 

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Something mr Yeti really despises lol.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I was never able to let my poodles' coats get really long. It's just too hard to keep them from getting matted. 

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

Absolutely! Even though it's the look I love so much, it's not worth the discomfort. We just did a short cut for summer 2 weeks ago and even at the short length he is still getting decent sized mats.

[Laurie, Wally & Charlotte]

How old is Yeti? For both of my dogs, when they were between 7 and 12 months old, I needed to brush them almost constantly to keep up with the mats. Now that they're older, it's not really an issue. I comb them every week or so, but they don't mat like they did when their coats were changing as puppies. Yeti's coat looks beautiful!

[Cynthia Whitfield]

Karen, how many poodles  have you owned over the years?  I have seen you comment about your poodles occasionally for various discussions. I want to know if your poodles ever seemed kind of nervous.  My 3 year old ADL labradoodle looks almost completely like a poodle and never mats.  However, he is kind of a nervous guy.  Is that a somewhat common poodle trait?  When the mailman comes to the porch, for instance, not only does he bark, he whines anxiously between barks.  We have been unsuccessful at training (even with a trainer) him not to bark and fly to the door anxiously.  Any thoughts?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

We had two growing up and I owned one as an adult, along with a schnoodle who had a Poodle coat. The Toy Poodle we had as kids was a bit high-strung, but not the Standard and not my Miniature. Very calm, secure dogs. I've also spent a lot of time with other people's poodles and found them to be sweet friendly dogs as well, although the toys can be whiny.

There's no way for me to say this without ruffling some feathers of doodle breeders if not doodle owners, but here goes. The very best Poodle breeders, those who breed for soundness of structure as well as temperament, are not selling breeding dogs to doodle breeders to make mixed breed dogs. Not for anything in this world. So with most doodles, you are starting out with less than great specimens of Poodles in the lines. That's not meant to insult anyone or stir up controversy, it's just simply fact. I'd also add that in many ALDs, you have American Cocker Spaniels, which are also known for not having the best temperaments, in the lines, so some of the anxiety you see might be coming from your dog's cockapoo ancestors as well. 

All I can say is that a well-bred Poodle is not nervous or anxious. They do tend to be sensitive dogs, though. 

[Ginny Nightingale]

I would agree with almost all of this...but there are Poodle breeders with very sound dogs who DO allow breeding with frozen sperm--but the pedigree is not allowed to be distributed--they would certainly be chastised or even ostracized by their fellow breeders. It does not happen often and you have to have connections in the purebred world--such as someone who bred poodles or labs in the past and is  well-known to the AKC folks. Certainly not a backyard breeder!

[Cynthia Whitfield]

Thanks so much for the reply. Simba is 3/4 poodle, and again, as I said, there is much more poodle than doodle. The picture with my profile is my younger dog, Kenyon, not the 3-year-old I am talking about.  Simba really does seem high strung. And I really appreciate your being upfront with your experience because it really makes a lot of sense to me now that I've read your thoughts!  And sure enough, Simba does have Cocker Spaniel as well as flat-coated spaniel. Years from now when it's time for another dog, I think I might go to a good poodle breeder. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It's so much easier to find a good Poodle breeder than it is to find a good doodle breeder, too. Although they don't have anywhere near as many litters or pet quality puppies for sale, so you have to do some legwork ahead of time.