Standard Poodles Downunder - Standard Poodle Puppies Breed Information

DESIGNER DOGS
A Question of Breeding
The Weekend Australia Magazine - May 7th & 8th 2005

It started with the labradoodle, a labrador poodle cross. But Austraia's designer dog craze could be leading breeders into dangerous territory, writes Liz van den Nieuwenhof.

Michelle Offen is too bust balancing motherhood with her work as a screenwriter to be fussed about fashion whims. The only exception to this is one of the great loves of her life: a very trendy and widely admired labradoodle. "When I take Dougal to ur local park, I'm reminded of certain actor parties where people greet you with, "Hello, how are you and who's your agent?" Now it's "Hello is that your dog and who is it's breeder?"

To her growing dismay, Offen has discovered that there is a great deal of snobbery attached to owning a sort after "designer dog"- a mixed breed that has been re branded with a catchy name. "Some people do get precious about their labradoodles, spoodles and schnoodles, but at the end of the day they are mongrels", retorts Offen.

Correction: designer mongrels. Like so many other must haves they coma at high end fashion prices, with some labradoodle puppies reportedly selling for as much as $3000 each, depending on their colour and coat.
What began as a marketing "gimmick" to find homes for a couple of unwanted crossbred pups is now a thriving export business, with breeders across Australia exploiting the growing popularity of Labradoodles (Labrador/Poodles) Spoodles, (Spaniel/Poodles) Schnoodles, (Schnauzer/Poodles) Cavoodles, (Cavalier King Charles Spaniels/Poodles) Groodles, (Golden Retriever/Poodles) and Roodles, (Rottweiller/Poodles).
some breeders are even mating Labradoodles with Labradoodles.

It's all a source of great anguish for Wally Conron, who was once flattered to be listed in American Encyclopaedias as the man who first bred the Labradoodle. That was before the ensuing "designer dog" craze took all the gloss of what was a noble cause.
"I have opened a Pandorra's Box", laments the 76 year old retired dog breeder from Geelong, Victoria. "I'd be the first to coe out and admit that. It's a pity, really, because where money is involved people stop caring about ethics. I did it for a purpose.

That was back in 1989 when Conron who worked as breeding and puppy manager for the Royal Guide Dogs Association in Kew, Victoria, came to hear of a blind woman in Hawaii who was in desperate need of a guide dog that wouldn't trigger her husband's allergies to dog hair.
Conron came up with the idea of crossing one of their best Labrador bitches with a Standard Poodle. (Poodles have wooly coats that are hypoallergenicand they don't shed seasonally like other dogs).

From that forst litter of three puppies, only one passed the allergy test after hair and saliva samples were sent to Hawaii. "But then we were left with puppies that had to be placed in homes to be reared as Guide dogs. We had a three month waiting list for Labrador Pups, but no-one wanted these because they were cross breds," recalls Conron.

desperate to find them hoes, he turned to the association's public relations team for help. "That's when we came up with the name Labradoodle and launched a public appeal through the media", says Conron. "Between you and me, it was a gimmick to get thse pups into homes because no-one wanted them. It's amazing how people will fall for a gimmicky thing."

Fall they did ! The phones rang hot for weeks withpeople wanting "those dogs with the funny name". Conron confesses he, too, was rather taken by the shaggy-haired scene-stealers. They had wonderful temperments and were a joy to train. Before he retired 11 years ago, Conron had bred 31 Labradoodles for The Royal Guide Dog Association and of those, 29 qualified as remedial and guide dogs.

"But then we had gone to great lengths to ensure the poodles we used did not have any problems," notes Conron, who feels the same cannot be said of many of todays breeders. "My main concern is that people are now breeding them willy-nilly because they are only in it for the money.Now you have got schnoodles, spoodles and cavoodles and they are putting anything to anything without studying the dog's backgrounds.

"I think it is a recipe for disaster because they are breeding with dogs that have hereditary problems," says Conron,who recounts a worrisome incident three years ago when he took his labrador for a walk. "Suddenly thsi woman comes up to me and asks me if I would be interested in putting my labrador to her son's poodle to breed labradoodles. where is it going to end?"

Another concern is that people are being mislead into believing that labradoodles as well as other poodle crosses all have allergy friendly coats and do not shed. "This is not the case and their coats and saliva have to be specially tested," Conron says. "At the Royal Guide Dogs, for instance,we had one litter where there were ten puppies and out of those only two were non allergenic."

There is also alarming eveidence that indescriminate dog breeding practices are producing breeds with such unpredictable temperaments that verts like Rob Zammit - who gainednationwide recognition through his appearances on the television gardening and lifestyle program Burke's Backyard - have become openly critical of the burgeoning popularity of designer dogs.

"it's becoming fashionale to use poodles a lot in cross breeding and unfortunately, I think one of the reasons they're doing so is just so they can use the word "oodle" in the name. The whole thing is about fashion and it's being promoted a lot through the media, especially television," says Zammit.

In fact it has been suggested that he and Don Burke had a difference of opinion over the issue that ended with Zammit quitting the program. Zammit denies it was the reason for him leaving the show, but does admit that he didn't share Burke's enthusiasm for promoting some of the fashionable crossbreds.

Burke insists that this type of cross breeding "is the most positive thing to have happened in the dog world in 100 years."

What could be wrong? My mindset is that hybridising of dogs is well established as sound practice," Burke says. " The fact is that doing these sort of crosses is probably a better way of producing a sound pet than having a purebred, because cross breds are often far better pets and safer for the family.

"On Burke's Backyard we canvassed large numbers of people who have them as pets and found a significantly higher satisfaction rating among people who own these dogs than we have with purebreds."

At his practice, Zammit sees an entirely different picture. "I don't think he (Burke) had the experience of what I had already seen over the years as a vet," says Zammit. like the young couple who ended up divorcing because of their problem spoodle. "They had no children and they really wanted a spoodle. Unfortunately, it displayed the most irrational behaviour," says Zammit." I live,eat and breathe dogs and I pride myself on getting on with most dogs. But not this spoodle. When it was having one of it's bouts of rage I couldn't deal with it. No one could.We tried everything to calm this dog down but nothing worked."

The spoodle eventually became the source of so much marital disharmony that the husband finally issued an ultimatum - it was him or the dog. The wife chose the spoodle."I think the spoodle was the final straw," Zammit observed dryly.

The spoodle is by no means the only troublesome designer dog Zammit has encountered at his busy practice on the western outskirts of Sydney. Much is made of the fact that if you cross two purebred genetic lines you are assured of hybrid vigour - that is, they are more fertile, healthy, mentally stable and have fewer hereditary problems - but Zammit has treated scores of dogs that give a lie to these claims. "even if you start off with what are sound animals you can't be sure how those genes will roll," he says. "Genetics is a bit like throwing paint against a wall. You can't be sure what he resulting shape is going to be"

It may explain why many of the popular poodle crossbreds are presenting with unexpected physical and behavioral disorders that Zammit says should serve as a warnig to people who have their hearts set on acquiring them as companion animals.

There is more of this article to come...... stay tuned!

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