I was just at Petsmart and a lady was walking across the parking lot with a beautiful Golden Retriever. She stopped me and asked me some questions about my car, as she is thinking of getting one. She said she is a Breeder and was questioning whether a crate would fit in the back seat or not. She asked if I had a dog and when I told her I had 2 Golden Doodles, she rolled her eyes,turned up her nose and made an awful face. "Why would anyone ever consider paying that much money for a Mutt!! That's all they are ya know...mutts." And she went on and on about GD's and all kinds of negative things about them. She made me so mad, I think if she had not had the Golden Retriever standing there beside her, I probably would have run over her.
ooooo man did that line of conversation make me MAD!! I tried to add a comment but couldn't, darn it!! Why would they think that people are willing to spend money on them? Isn't that what the US is about, finding a need and filling it? Free enterprise, Capitalism?? Gee, maybe we could all look at our Doods as Freedom Fighters!! And, I realize that people here post from all over the world, so I mean no offense and don't want to sound all ugly American here, but that made me really protective of my little nipper!!
Oh my gosh! I want to hit those people! How awfull...they have no idea what they are talking about. Saying that doodle breeders don't have standards to breed by...uh ya! Its called the buyer, any informed buyer knows...arrhghghg!!! Well, you all know the rest...but how annoying! I didn't realize people 'hate' the doodle so much.
I found the doodle and thought "OH MY GOSH!" I golden retriever, which we had growing up, mixed with a poodle in hopes of limited shedding. WAHOOO!!! Not to mention all the other positives of a doodle.
I guess we've been lucky. Most people who meet Gus and Lilly are just curious after I tell them they are both Goldendoodles because they look different.
Ya know, you can have a pure bred dog or a blue blood human, but that doesn't mean ya have ANY manners or class at all from either of em! And she proved it! Some of the best humans I know are mutts too! Or think of it this way, wasn't that basically Hitler's line of thinking too??
Being a breeder of the so called 'designer mutt' I get quite an earful sometimes. I just smile and politely point out that mutt implies an accidental pairing while I meticulousy plan and select our breeding pairs. Then I usually start talking about all of the health testing that I do and inquire about theirs. That is about all it takes to tick them off and bring our conversation to an end. We all know they are just jealous : )
As far as I am concerned, all breeds have started out as "Mutts". Just watch the Westminster, when they talk about how a breed came about, it is always about mixing breeds. I belong to a "pure breed" dog club that Lucy's obedience trainer has once a month and no one has ever said anything about Lucy not being a "pure breed". They are always very very nice, including her trainer.
Oh boy! I get fired up over this! One morning when Kachi & I were out walking a nice old couple stopped us to ask about Kachi, and when I told them that he was 'goldendoodle' which means he's half golden retriever & half poodle, the women was like, "oh see honey, sometimes these mixes can be real cute!" I was like (to myself of course), 'mixes? what the heck did you just call my dog?' I was totally offended. I swear even my obedience school trainer was harboring resentment against us (she raises weimeramers (sp) for heavens sake!)until Kachi made all the other puppies look stupid on the final puppy test! I felt like shouting, "Take that, all of you doodle haters"!!
I seem to get a lot of doodle snobs.
My Favorite was this guy who did not know what Jordan was a LD and he was going on and on about labradoodles. He was petting Jordan telling me how cute she was, how good she was. Jordan was maybe 6m old.
Then he asked what she was and told with him with a huge smile and he walked away not saying a word. His girlfriend just said sorry meekly.
For people who question me about the money, I say well obviously I have it to spend.( that one if I am feeling bitchy)(I save that one for the special people)
Or I try to educate them on the history of LD's. (if I feel they will listen)
Mostly I just say All dogs are mutts even the AKC's and then I go into back grounds of different breeds, I always assure them Jordan did not come from a BYB and that LD's and GD's are most regulated breed dogs out there, unlike the 90% of the AKC puppies you see in the paper. I will keep talking until they have enough of me and they end the conversation. I know a lot about dog breed history's so I can go on for ever.
I have found with Myspace sometimes people read what I write and they will later change their tunes in later Anti LD posts.