It sounds easy to come up with a new designer dog – just take a couple of dogs, let them breed, and before you know it, you have a new breed, right? Wrong! Ask any Australian Labradoodle breeders about the care and study of their breeding methods and you’ll find a unique and complex story.
The first Labradoodle was a cross between the Poodle and the Labrador, but since that first mating, there’s been a lot of refinement and care in the breeding practices. In fact, Australian Labradoodle breeders have a set of standards that were established to protect and maintain healthy breeding practices and the integrity of the breed.
Breeding of Labradoodles may have started with crossing a Poodle and a Labrador, but it’s become much more complex. Australian Labradoodle breeders select dogs that provide a good gene pool, are free of disease, and offer excellent body formation, temperament and intelligence. They look for Poodles, Labradors, and over the years, have carefully infused other specific breeds one time to make the Australian labradoodle unique and to give them a healthy gene pool. While breeding these dogs, they maintain the care of establishing a line of healthy dogs with the special personality that is common to the breed.
There are plenty of people that have tried – unsuccessfully – to breed Labradoodles. It requires more than just mating two dogs. Unfortunately, most of those breeders don’t follow the guidelines established by the Australian Labradoodle Association. Instead, they use dogs of inferior quality, those with recessive or dominant genes for illness, and even add bloodlines such as retrievers into the mix.
Short Hair Coat – This type of coat shows the more prominent influence of the short Labrador coat. The short hair coat is easy to manage in terms of shampooing and brushing, but does tend to shed to varying degrees.. Of course, frequent brushing eliminates much of the shedding.
Longer Hair Coat – Again, this type of coat shows the influence of the Labrador in the breed. The coat is longer and straight. It is silky, fine and prone to some shedding. This coat requires regular brushing and washing.
Curly Wool Coat – This coat shows the poodle influence. Originally, Australian labradoodles were bred for the ideal coat – a poodle curly coat which looked like wool with soft, tight curls that grow tightly together. This type of coat does not need as much trimming, usually a few times a year. The curly wool coat was considered ideal because it didn’t shed, and would cause few or no allergens.
Fleece Coat – The fleece coat is the true combination of the characteristics of the careful infusions of other breeds to enhance the original foundation stock of the poodle and Labrador mix. As the Australian labradoodle puppies mature, the fleece coat grows longer than the wool coat, and the hair strands kink slightly. This coat has a wonderful rippling quality as the dog moves. Dogs with a fleece coat need regular maintenance around their eyes, ears, and beard to provide good hygiene for the dog.
Australian Labradoodle breeders are committed to producing a breed of dog that can be used as service dogs, offer hypo-allergenic coats, great bone structure, and long-term health. These dogs are extremely intelligent, with gentle, almost intuitive personalities. Good Labradoodles are exceptional dogs, and their Australian Labradoodle breeders are concerned with amazing quality.