Doodle Basics
“He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart.” --Author Unknown

Last Changed
2022-01-22
   


Australian Labradoodle

 
The true Australian Labradoodle has six parent breeds and originated 20 years ago in Australia.  In addition to the Lab and the Poodle they have infused some blood of the following breeds.  The Irish Water Spaniel, Curly Coated Retriever, American Cocker Spaniel and English Cocker Spaniel.
 
Temperament and Soundness are the two KEY elements in a good family companion. They must not be sacrificed for any reason.


General Appearance:  The Australian Labradoodle should be athletic and graceful, yet compact with substance and medium boning.  Joyful and energetic when free, soft and quiet when handled.  They should approach people in a happy friendly manner with eye to eye contact.  Keen to learn and easy to train.  They have a free flowing wavy or curly coat that does not shed and is possibly non-allergenic.

Size: Sizes are still "somewhat inconsistent" with no definition between male and female at this time.  Accurate prediction of size, even by an experienced breeder, is not expected at this time.  Size is measured to the top of the shoulder blades (withers) while standing squarely on a level surface.

Much care is needed when breeding both the large and small dogs.  Large dogs can suffer from rapid growth that can lead to structural problems.  Soundness is of utmost importance.  Over size is a major fault.  Care must be taken to keep the miniature Australian Labradoodle a solid athletic robust dog.  The dwarfing of dogs can lead to many genetic and temperament disorders.  Minimum size attention is of the utmost importance to maintain a healthy little dog.  Most Australian Labradoodles will weigh more than their height reflects.

STANDARD: 21" TO 24" The "Ideal" size for a standard female is 21 to 23 inches and for a male 22 to 24 inches.  Weight range tends to be 50 to 65 pounds.  Tillman below is a large standard F1 labradoodle, he weighs 110 lbs and is 25" tall this is oversized and way bigger than the standard.  He is my daughters dog..
                           


MEDIUM: 17" TO 20" The "Ideal" size for a medium female is 17 to 19 inches and for a male 19 to 20 inches.  Weight range tends to be 30 to 45 pounds.
                  


MINIATURE: 14"TO 16" The "Ideal" size for a miniature is 14 to 16 inches with no correlation between height and sex of the miniature Australian Labradoodle.  Weight range tends to be 16 to 25 pounds.  



Body:  Height (to wither) as to length (from sternum to point of buttock) should appear square and compactShoulders should have good angulation with firm elbows held close to the rib cage. Upright shoulders is a fault. Hindquarters should be of medium angulation with short strong hocks. Top line should remain level with strong loin and level croup. They are a galloping dog therefore flanks should rise up from a brisket set just below the elbows, but should not be excessively deep. Ribs should be well sprung but not barreled. Overall they should appear square, balanced, athletic with good muscling.

Movement:  When trotting should be purposeful, strong and elastic, with good reach and drive, giving the appearance of "going somewhere".  When happy, relaxed or at play will prance and skim the ground lightly.  Excessive tightness in the hips will produce a stilted action and is considered a fault. 

Tail: Set relatively high and preferred to be carried in a saber, can be carried below the topline or "gaily" above.  Curled possum type tails are undesirable.

Head:  Sculptured, broad, well defined eyebrows, medium stop, eyes set well apart.  The head should be clean and chiseled and fully coated as on the body, legs and tail.

Ears:  Set moderately flat against the head, base should be level with the eye.  Leather should be of medium thickness and when gently drawn forward should reach the top canine tooth.  Ear leather reaching beyond the tip of nose is considered a severe fault.  Ear canals should be free of excessive hair, and not thick and bulbous.  When inquisitive and alert the ear set should rise to the top of the head.  Thick/heavy ear leather is a fault.

Eyes: "Slightly" round, large and expressive, always offering eye to eye contact when engaged in activity with a human.  Protruding or sunken eyes are a fault.  Watery or tearful eyes are a fault.  Wide round or narrow almond shaped eyes are considered a fault.

Eye Color:  Eye color should complement and blend with the face color.  Black, Blue, Red, Dark Chocolate and Silver dogs must have dark brown eyes.  All shades of Cafe', Milk Chocolate, Gold/Apricot, Cream and Chalk should have dark hazel to brown eyes if they have black pigment.  Caramel and dogs with rose pigment may have either dark eyes or "ghost" eyes.  Ghost is a hazel color range much the same as it is in humans.  Flecking with different shades of hazel with green and a blue/green make this eye color quite unique.  Ghost eyes must always remain soft in appearance.  Cold staring expressionless appearance in all eye colors is a severe fault.

Teeth:  Scissor bite only is acceptable, being neither undershot nor overshot.  Miniatures must not have crowding teeth.

Nose:  Large square and fleshy.  Pigment: Black or Rose.  Pigment should be strong.  Black pigment dogs must have dark brown eyes.  Pink spots or patches on nose, lips, eye rims or pads are a fault.  Dogs with rose pigment can have dark hazel, brown or ghost eyes.  Eye rims should be rose as should nose, lips and pads.  Pink spots or patches are a severe fault.  Rose should be a rich liver color. 

Neck:  The firm, well muscled neck should be moderately long, slightly arched and flow into the well angled shoulders with no appearance of abruptness.  The neck should not be coarse nor stumpy and should lend an air of elegance to the dog.  A short thick neck is a fault.

Color:  Any solid color including Cafe' and Silver is preferred.  White on the chest and toes is acceptable.  Light chalky coarse hairs (kemp) sprinkled through a dark coat is permissible but very undesirable.  Parti (patched) and Phantoms are considered an acceptable color.  Parti can be any color (except Phantom) with white on face, head and/or body.  Phantoms are any shading or two tone coloration such as a Black dog with lower legs showing a soft toning of silver or gold or a dog born dark with a golden shading at the roots or a slight brindling effect.   It is normal that all colors may show bleaching and discoloration over the top coat.  This is called sunning and is quite expected and acceptable, as the Australian Labradoodle is an active dog and often a service dog that enjoys the outdoors.  Weather bleaching or sunning must not be penalized.

The Breed Standard of Excellence colors are:


Apricot/Gold, Red, Black, Silver and Blue - must have black pigment
Caramel, Chocolate, Cafe', Parchment and Lavender - must have rose pigment
Chalk/White 

 

    Caramel Ice with a chalk colored coat brown nose

  


Apricot Cream and Cream (all shades and combinations of cream are acceptable) - may have rose or black pigment. The rose or brown nose dogs in this color shade are classified as Caramel where the black nosed dogs are apricots or creams....A caramel ice is on the right and apricot is on the left.

 

      

.

Caramel:  A rich Gold/Apricot very much the color of its namesake - caramel through to a deep red - must have rose pigment. 

                                                      Caramel Ice liver nose cream colored coat

 

                    Meidum Caramel

 

                                       DARK caramel



Red:  A solid, even, rich red color which should have no sprinkling of other colored fibers throughout the coat.  A true Red must not be lighter at the roots than at the tips of the coat.  Red can fade somewhat with age, and senior dogs showing paling of coat should not be penalized.  All have black noses.

 

 



Apricot/Gold:  The color of a ripe apricot on the inside.  A true Apricot must not be lighter at the roots than at the tips of the coat, must have a black nose.  It can come in varying shades and may fade as the dog grows older.  White splashes are acceptable.

        

 

.

Blue:  A dark to medium smoky Blue.  Blue also belongs to the Rare Color Group.  Blue dogs are born Black but will have Blue skin and undertonings at a young age.  Any other color throughout the Blue is undesirable.

Silver:  Born Black but will have more of a grey skin and will develop individual silver fibers at a young age.  Silver dogs can take up to 3 years to color out and become a beautiful smoky grey through to a light iridescent platinum and varying shades in between at adulthood.  Uneven layering of color in the silver is normal. Dog below is Ziggy out of Black Beauty and Gus as a puppy on the right and at 9 mos old on the left..

 




Chocolate:  Dark and rich, born almost Black, they maintain a dark chocolate throughout their lifetime.  Color should be even.  Any other color throughout the Chocolate is highly undesirable.  Chocolate belongs to the Rare Color Group

 

 

.

Cafe':  Born Milk Chocolate of varying shades, and have the same gene as the silver dogs, often taking up to 3 years to fully color out to multi shades of chocolate, silvery chocolate and silver throughout.  When given plenty of time in the sunshine, they develop stunning highlights.

 

 



Lavender:  A Definite, even smoky lavender chocolate, giving almost pink/lilac appearance.  Lavender dogs are born Chocolate and can be difficult to distinguish at a young age. 

 MillCreek Labradoodles Kira as adult

 Kira as a puppy

 

.

Parchment:  Born Milk Chocolate, will pale to a smoky creamy beige.  Paling usually starts from an early age often as early as 6 weeks.  As adults they can be mistaken for dark smoky Cream from a distance.  Parchment belongs to the Rare Color Group.

Kipling

 

Black: The most under appreciated color.  Blacks should be solid however they can have a frosting of silver through their coats or chocolate highlights.

 

 

Phantoms: Any shading or two tone coloration such as a Black dog with lower legs showing a soft toning of silver or gold or a dog born dark brown with a golden shading at the roots or a slight brindling effect.


 

Parti:  Puppies born with either white base coat with either Black, chocolate, or apricot spots or ticking, very stricking and new to being accepted.

    

       




Coat Types:
Wool:  If you wish to keep a long flowing coat wool coats require
more maintenance, HOWEVER most people love the shorter look. If
this is your preference then you will find the Wool coat very easy to
keep looking great.  Grooming and a scissor trim or electric clip three
or four times a year is about all you will need to do. It is extremely
rare for a WOOL coat to shed, and is the preferred coat type to send
to families with severe allergies.

Fleece: The Borderline coat is a term that was used to distinguish a
mutated gene that started to appear several years ago. I loved the
look, texture and ease of maintenance, and began developing this
coat type specifically. Unfortunately the name was never meant to
"stick", it was just a term I used in my research to distinguish the
coat types. I am thinking about finding a proper name for this coat
type, that in my opinion, is Labradoodle "coat perfection".

INTRODUCING THE NEW NAME
FLEECE COAT are, as the name implies,  is a soft fleece texture,
ranging from soft flowing swirls to more densely flowing  spirals.
Unlike the WOOL coats, you can clip, scissor or shave a "FLEECE"
coat and it will grow back almost perfectly the same.Maintenance is
medium for the most part of the dogs life, However as they change

from puppy to adult coat at 6-12 months of age, They need a good

brushing once a week...

Fleece coats rarely if ever shed. A Guide to slight shedding is the
degree of wavy and curly the less they have the more chance of slight
shedding may occur. Shedding is unlikely but possible.

NOTE: During the age of 6-12 months, during the

adolescent/maturing time you will need to groom your fleece every

week. After that the coat will settle down and maintenance will

return to normal.

Shaving your labradoodle will NOT alter what they coat type is of your doodle.  It will be what it will be shaving will not change what the hair folicle is..sometimes during the transition the hair becomes softer, more wavy or curly...that is just the nature of your dogs coat.

 

F1's  or first generation doodles
(1/2 lab 1/2 poodle)

Coat varies with this first generation cross and can be difficult to determine long term, at least initially.  All of Jades puppies in past litters have wonderful coats ranging from curly to straight and shaggy most are light to little shedding....I am no longer breeding F1's but do know a couple of breeders locally who do.  My labs are now retired and I am focusing my program on the F1b and higher multigen labardoodle who can offer more coat quality and reliability, for non shed and allergy suffering clients....F1's are wonderful dogs, I have 3 that I currently use in my program......

             Below on the left is a hair coat and on the right a fleece from the same litter.

                    

 

 

 

 

 

F1b's or second generation American labradoodles 
( F1 bred back to a poodle.  In other words, 3/4 poodle 1/4 lab)

Coats range form fleece to curly to hair.  Low to no shed rarely any doggy odor due to higher percentage of poodle in this generation.  More allergy friendly...Below is an adult F1b on top this is our Kalie as a 9 week old puppy.  Below are Kalie as an adult . 
                             
 
 
  

Multigen either Australian or American

Variables include coat quality and generation.  That is, if Australian lines are part of the breeding or if dog is an F1b bred back to another  F1b or American multigen.  Each litter will be determined individually.  Australian labradoodles are comprised of 5 different breeds...Lab, poodle, curly coated retriever and spaniel either cocker or English spaniel...

 

Below are two examples of Multigens.  Both are Australian and American line crosses.......Dancer in on the left, Cooper on the right Tucker on far right.  More pictures of them can be seen on the sire and Dam/Sires pages, click on the thumbnail pic of them to open their page.
 
  
                 
Last Changed
2016-02-18
   
 
The American labradoodle (  or EARLY GENERATION cross) is a cross between the Labrador Retriever and the Poodle.  F-1 indicates first cross, 50%Lab and 50% poodle (Benje type appearance). F1B is the second generation or first back cross 75% poodle 25% lab(Sheepdog type appearance). F-1's are normally back crossed to the poodle to achieve the curly or fleece, allergy friendly coat which does not shed.  A Multi Generation Labradoodle or third generation on up is a Labradoodle bred to Labradoodle and sometimes bred back to Poodle for Coat correction. They are typically 75%-85% poodle 15%-25% lab.
 

Labradoodles  can inherit the best of all breeds.  They are very trainable, intuitive and intelligent.  They are loyal to the people they own. Most are gentle and they have the hybrid vigor typical of cross breeds.

Training the labradoodle puppy is a must( see training section), they thrive on love, attention , routine and discipline.  If your don't train them, they will train you as they are very smart and will have you figured out as a push over quickly. Start their training as soon as you get them home.  They love toys and things to chew on.  Overall, they are friendly, fun loving, quiet and calm.  They make wonderful pets.

For more indepth detail of the breed click on the link below.  This web site is an excellent resourse for doodle information of any kind.

Labradoodle Design by Wally Conron

My Story: I Designed a Dog,

by Wally Conron

Printed 7/10/2007 by http://www.readersdigest.com.au/

Determined to source the most suitable guide-dog for a client, I unwittingly turned the canine world upside down

While working with the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia as its puppy-breeding manager in the early ’80s, I received a request from Hawaii. A vision-impaired woman there, whose husband was allergic to dog hair, had written to our centre in the hope that we might have an allergy-free guide-dog.

“Piece of cake,” I thought. The standard poodle, a trainable working dog, was probably the most suitable breed, with its tightly curled coat. Although our centre bred and used labradors, I didn’t anticipate any difficulties finding a suitable poodle.

It turned out I was wrong: after rejecting countless poodles with various problems, some two years and 33 disappointing trials later, I still hadn’t found an appropriate dog for the job.

In desperation, I decided to cross a standard poodle with one of our best-producing labradors.

The mating was successful, but it produced only three pups. We sent coat and saliva samples of each pup to the Hawaiian couple, and the husband found one sample allergy-free. At last we were getting somewhere, but a big job lay ahead. The pup had to grow up and prove suitable for guiding work; and then it had to be compatible with the visually impaired client. We had a long way to go.

With a three to six-month waiting list for people wishing to foster our pups, I was sure we’d have no problem placing our three new crossbred pups with a family. But again I was wrong: it seemed no-one wanted a crossbred puppy; everyone on the waiting list preferred to wait for a purebred. And time was running out – the pups needed to be placed in homes and socialised; otherwise they would not become guide-dogs.

By eight weeks of age, the puppies still hadn’t found homes. Frustrated and annoyed with the response to the trio of crossbreeds I had carefully reared, I decided to stop mentioning the word crossbreed and introduced the term labradoodle instead to describe my new allergy-free guide-dog pups.

It worked – during the weeks that followed, our switchboard was inundated with calls from other guide-dog centres, vision-impaired people and people allergic to dog hair who wanted to know more about this “wonder dog”. My three pups may have been mongrels at heart – but the furore did not abate.

It was 1989 and the publicity surrounding the new designer dogs went national and then international. A new world opened for countless people who had once thought they could never enjoy the delight of a pet pooch.

With this kind of response, I knew we were on to a winner, and I took the decision to breed more of the labrador-poodle crosses. So I contacted the then Kennel Control Council of Australia, hoping to find the names of reputable breeders who were breeding standard problem-free poodles.

“If you use any registered dog for your programme, that breeder will be struck off the register and never be allowed to show or register their dogs again,” the council’s spokesperson warned. Nor did he budge when I explained that the dogs were being bred to help vision-impaired people.

The breeders themselves were split: many did subsequentely threaten me or propose litigation if I used their progeny in my breeding programme, while others offered their services free to the guide-dog centre.

While all this was happening, I continued training Sultan, the original non-allergenic pup. He eventually went to Hawaii, amid intense media coverage, where as the world’s first labradoodle he bonded beautifully with his new owner and her allergic husband.

Interest in the labradoodle continued to escalate and inquiries poured in from all over the world from people wishing to either purchase or breed the dogs. But

I quickly realised that I’d opened a Pandora’s box when our next litter of ten labradoodles produced only three allergy-free pups.

I began to worry, too, about backyard breeders producing supposedly “allergy-free” dogs for profit. Already, one man claimed to be the first to breed a poodle- Rottweiler cross!

Nothing, however, could stop the mania that followed. New breeds began to flood the market: groodles, spoodles, caboodles and snoodles. Were breeders bothering to check their sires and bitches for heredity faults, or were they simply caught up in delivering to hungry customers the next status symbol? We’ll never know for sure.

Today I am internationally credited as the first person to breed the labradoodle, but I wonder, in my retirement, whether we bred a designer dog – or a disaster!

Retiree Wally Conron, 78, still keeps two labradors, Rocky and Jazz, but his first love is for horses. He has nine of his own that he breeds and trains when he’s not giving riding lessons to horse-lovers in rural Victoria.