Riverbend Kennels in Ohio

[Julie B.]

Wondering if anyone has a pup from this kennel. I went and visited on Friday and put a deposit on one of their F1 chocolate pups. I am so excited to be getting another doodle! She will be coming home the day after Thanksgiving and her name will be Sydney. Even though the pups are barely 4 weeks I can tell that 3 out of the 4 are going to have great wool type coats. I will be going back up there when the pups are 6 weeks old to make my final selection but I am pretty sure I will be taking the smallest female. She is the second one in from the left. She has a lighter chocolate coat with bronzy highlights and I am thinking she will be more of a latte colored like her dad. Anyway just thought I'd share my excitement with fellow doodle lovers and see if there are others out there with pups from this kennel. Have a great day!

[Adina P]

Mmmmm...a chocolate doodle -- yummy! That will be the color of my next doodle...many many years from now =)

I'm not sure a 'wool' coat is possible in an F1 -- at least it would be quite rare. Wools typically appear in multigenerational labradoodles.

[Julie B.]

Maybe I used the wrong term, but my first love, Luah has a completely shed free, soft curly coat that I don't think is technically a fleece coat so I called it wool. It is possible to get an F1 that has this type of coat but typically the pup is one of the smaller, petite pups in the litter because they have more of the poodle genes in them. Luah was the smallest in a litter of 10 and this pup that I have my eye on is the smallest in a litter of 8. I have taken Luah along with me on my breeder visits and all of them have commented on the fact that she looks like an F1B and how rare it is to have her coat. Keep in mind that the pups in the pic I attached are barely 4 weeks old and they already show lots of curl and thickness in their coats. I hope that they continue to change into a coat that is similar to Luah's!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Julie, the genes for the coat have nothing to do with the genes for size; each characteristic is separate. It doesn't work out that a dog gets more of the "poodle genes" in terms of it being kind of a package deal, lol.
A doodle could easily get a lab's build and a poodle's coat, or vice-versa, just like a human child can get his dad's tall, lanky build and his mom's curly hair, or his mom's petite build and his dad's brown eyes. There is no relationship between size & coat in genetic terms.

[Adina P]

My labby looking F1 LD actually has a much smaller/petite build than my poodley looking F1 LD who is husky and much thicker. Then there's the coat that is made up of a variety of traits. It can look straightish and still not shed...or it can look curly/wavy and shed. There are a variety of factors in coat type that get expressed in different ways.

[Adina P]

Might still be considered fleece =) But I'll have to ask some more experienced breeders (since I'm not a breeder, period) to step in and try to guess.

[Karen & Lucy]

CONGRATULATIONS, you lucky "dog". They are all yummy. I love chocolate!!!

[1xar0x2rcx0li]

Congratulations on a cute chocolate puppy! I am biased, but are they not the best colour. More so than from the look of a coat, you can get an idea from the texture of how it feels. Was the coat hair feeling or did it feel like a soft fleece sweater? Was it thick when you ran your fingers through it? You don't see many wool coats in an F1 and they are very curly by this age, more so in higher generations, but you certianly can get amazing fleece coats in F1. I have had coats that look like those or even flatter in a F1b at 4 weeks old that turned out to be great long fleece coats, but I could tell by the feel that they were fleece and not hair and didnt really get too concered with the amount of wave yet, some coats take a liitle longer to get going. Whe you go back at 6 weeks old take note of how it feels. There will certainly be hair coats in an F1 litter so feel them all until you can tell the difference. Do you care if the pup will lighten over time? Nothing you can do about it but by 6 weeks you can sometimes see lighter fur at the roots which will tell you they may lighten. We have two that just left at 8 weeks old that were brown at the ends but light blond already at the root if you parted the hair to look deep in. Sometimes chocolates just lighten on the face and sometimes they lighten all over their body to lavendar or parchment. I love those coat colours.

[Julie B.]

Thanks for the great advice. I remember the pup's coat was very thick as compared to the other females in the litter but I will try to "feel" the difference when I see them again. If you check out my page you will see that I was lucky enough to have my F1, Luah's coat lighten over time and she is now what I call "taupe" colored. I love the color but I would be real happy with a pure chocolate brown also. The pup that I have my eyes on right now definitely has lighter tones to her fur and she is more of a reddish brown than a true brown brown if you know what I mean! I checked out your website and your puppies are adorable. Glad to see they all found homes. I hope to become a small breeder doing something very similar to what you are doing... getting good health checks and then using my own "pet dogs". Even though I understand why large breeders have to keep their stock dogs in kennels it breaks my heart to think that these loving, devoted doodles are spending most of their early years alone and away from human company. Thanks again for your help!

[Jacque Reynolds]

Hi Julie, congratulations! The pups are so cute! I am certain that you are going to love your new baby!
Sounds like others have weighed in here, regarding the coats of F1 puppies...I just wanted to add my 2 cents... :o)
I think that I understand that your use of the term "wooly" was meant to be fleece...I just want to be sure that you are advised about F1 Doodles, because if you are expecting a better coat, you may be disappointed...F1 coats are sooooo unpredictable...now, it is true that I have seen a very small percentage of F1 puppies with excellent coats...but it really is the exception. Most often F1 coats are more wispy, coarse and shedding...that does not mean, however, that they are bad for allergy sufferers.
We have F1 females in our breeding program...and I ADORE them...F1s have the most wonderful temperaments and intelligence...but they do shed...some a lot. Their coats are coarse...but the up side of F1 coats is that they are extremely easy to groom! A regular brushing and you are done! :o)
I looked at your breeder's site and I will say that the pups are lovely...if you look at the F1 pictures, you will see that most of them are typical F1 looks...but sometimes F1 can be very Labby looking too...in the breeder's pictures, I would be VERY surprised to get the loose, soft curls shown on 3 pictures for F1 and I would be also very surprised to get consistently thick coats like she has shown...it is, of course, possible...but be prepared to see something different as your pup matures. You wil still ove her...but I don't want tyou to be surprised. Also...I didn't see a health warranty...that is an important thing to get. Best wishes!

[1xar0x2rcx0li]

This is what I was getting at with feeling the coat. We have an F1 breeder down the raod that I visit often and have seen many of her pups come back as adults since she also runs a borading kennel. I would say 1/3 of her pups have nice fleece coats (Not as full as an F1b or multigen, but nice), 1/3 have scruffy hair coats that look like a Disney dog, and 1/3 are like labs with longer hair on their muzzle and ears only. So a nice coat is possible, but so is a labby coat.

[Julie B.]

Thanks for your comments. It was above and beyond to find the website! The breeder does guarantee the hips and health of the pups as stated at the bottom of the puppy page. I have not seen the health guarantee so I will email her and ask for it. As I mentioned in a previous post, I already own a wonderful F1 named Luah and she does have a non shedding, fleece coat that has turned a gorgeous silver brown. I have a good feeling about the coats on at least 3 of these pups and since I will have pick of the litter I should be able to get a nice looking girl to take home and spoil! Thanks again!

[Jacque Reynolds]

Oooh...I just re-read your post and noticed that the pups are 4 weeks old, planning to go to you the day after Thanksgiving...if my calculations are correct, she would only be 7 weeks old...if you can keep her with her litter and her mother until she is 8 weeks, at a minimum, she will be so much better off for that time with her mother. Puppies learn so much from their littermates about how to be a dog...and they learn good manners from their mothers...
In some states it is illegal to sell puppies under 8 weeks of age.
I don't want to put a damper on your happiness...but I'd want to know this if I was getting a puppy....