This bonus episode is a celebration of golden doodles, (or groodles!), with research-based education about what makes them unique. This episode will help deepen your understanding of your personal Goldendoodle. Or if you're considering a golden doodle, I'll be addressing the most common questions and concerns so you can make an educated decision on what to look for and how to select the perfect puppy to add to your family. During this episode, you'll learn what desirable traits from both breeds can be enjoyed in a Goldendoodle package, and which behavior traits will need a little extra work. We will discuss health concerns, testing you want to look for from a breeder, temperments, coats, colors, and much more.
Of course, Goldendoodle parents (or prospective ones) will enjoy this episode, but there are some juicy takeaways for any doodle lover!
Key takeaways include:
- Goldendoodle parent poll results ( minute 2:40)
- Golden Retriever traits that carry into Goldendoodles (minute 4:28)
- Poodle traits that Goldendoodles carry (minute 7:29)
- Hybrid Vigor? (minute 11:03)
- Surprising facts about red Doodles (minute 15:05)
- Surprising facts about mini-Doodles! (minute 17:14)
- Next Thursday's bonus episode breed mix is… (minute 19:18)
Goldendoodle health testing requirements can be found at https://www.goldendoodleassociation.com/about-gana/health-testing-requirements/
If you want to bring your Doodle parenting to the next level, sign up for The Doodle Pro™ Society waitlist now! Members get exclusive access to The Doodle Pro™, Doodle training modules, and live Q&A's with world-renowned guest experts (that would usually charge $100's each to book a virtual session). Visit thedoodlepro.com/waitlist to be the first to know when doors open again!
Read transcript:
Corinne Gearhart- The Doodle Pro™:
(transcript is autogenerated)
In choosing which breed to discuss first for our five International Doodle Dog Day bonus episodes, I chose Golden Doodles, not just because of their enormous and long-lasting popularity, but because they're one of the first two we know of that was intentionally bred on the dog scene.
In 1969, Monica Dickens, the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens, bred the first doodle variety on purpose by breeding a golden retriever with a standard poodle in hopes of gaining the benefits of each breed. Dickens Soughts, gentle nature of goldens and the athletic intelligence of poodles with the bonus of nonshedding. This mission continues in the breeding of golden doodles. To this day, golden doodles are the most popular breed I personally see in my work with doodles in Denver, Colorado. While I personally have worked with hundreds of golden doodles, I wanted to hear from the people who knew them. I pulled hundreds of Golden
[00:01:00] Doodle parents across the country asking them why did they pick their golden doodles?
I love using their words to describe their experience with Golden doodles. Susan p said We needed a dog with less shedding and allergies. The Golden Doodle was our decision because we wanted the sweet goofiness of the golden and the smartness and the hair of the poodle. So far, we have 13 years of the most wonderful dog ever.
Sherry G. Shared. I love golden retrievers. I had mine for 17 years after she passed. I needed companionship and loved the retriever traits with the beautiful poodle look. It turned out to be the best decision. Our willow is the sweetest, kindest, and most loving dog, so smart and intuitive.
And Susan t said she chose a golden doodle for their sweet loving nature with fierce intelligence. When I gathered the data [00:02:00] from the hundreds of Golden Doodle parents I pulled, there were some special reasons they were attracted to Golden Doodles in particular, 22% said how friendly and happy they are.
18% said how allergy friendly and non shedding their coats were. And 15% chose their unique intelligence. Compared to other doodle mixed families, I uphold many more Golden Doodle parents noted the gregarious and eager to please nature of the Golden Retriever as the most desired feature of their dog.
Now, let's look under the hood to see why Golden Doodles have the. That these parents love so much as there aren't hundreds of years of golden doodles, understanding who they are mixed with to get this great dog is crucial. Golden doodles are not a recognized breed standard, and many golden doodles on the market and puppies available are mixed straight from a poodle and golden retriever.
You really want to understand the genetics that feed into this phenomenal dog. Genetics [00:03:00] do matter. Let's discuss the golden first. The golden's temperament and traits are often one of the most desired pieces of a golden d. In general, they live from 10 to 12 years and range from 55 to 75 pounds. Of course, the females are on the smaller side and males on the larger, they are renowned for being great with young children, other dogs,
and affectionate with family. They're also known as heavy shutters with their long double coat. They need lots of daily exercise, are easy to train, outgoing, loyal, and eager. They often love a good meal and bonus treats so they could be prone to being overweight. I can't blame them for that. What's not discussed often is the difference between a field in Golden and a show.
Golden. When you think of a typical golden retrieve. Most people think of the boxier blockier head, big bone shaped with gold to cream colored coats. This is the one that you see being shown in dog shows and around your [00:04:00] neighborhood.
A show Golden is bigger, thicker, and stockier. With a longer coat and more obvious heavy shedding. They have less drive than their fielding counterparts and are often calmer and need less rigorous training.
The field in Golden is less common, but very important for us to know about, and I'll tell you more on why. The field in Golden was bred to hunt. They're even more of a working dog than the traditional show. Golden. They're meant to be in a field all day, retrieving gun down foul.
They're smaller, slimmer, and boy are they athletes. They're built to run, jump and swim. All day. They have a very high drive and need a job. If they don't have an outlet to channel that drive and energy healthily, you'll often see their intelligence show and chewing forbid, and objects in the home, stealing socks, et cetera.
That extra brain power can come back to bite you if their demanding training needs aren't [00:05:00] met. Speaking of biting, they're still very eager to please and friendly, but they can be more mouthy and rough and TMB than the show Goldens as their mouths were meant to carry foul game. While the field golden is also loving and aims to please, they have much more energy.
And that's saying a lot. If we're comparing them to a show Golden, their coats are a darker gold to a red and they're shorter coat length can feel like they have less shedding.
Golden Retrievers can bring their own health issues to the table. That means that when any dog is crossed with a golden retriever, like our golden doodles, are crucial health tests like hips, elbows, eyes, and cardiac needed to ensure you're carrying
the desired traits of the golden and leaving the undesired health issues behind. . Now let's talk about the poodles that we'd be crossing with the golden retriever to make our beloved golden doodles. Poodles are very affectionate families, great kids, and are pretty good with other dogs, [00:06:00] but they do need more focus on positive socialization early and can be on the sensitive side.
And Barky poodles are loved for their incredible intelligence, athleticism, lack of Dr. And non shedding coat. Three different sizes are recognized in the poodle breed toy, mini and standard. You might hear of additional sizes like teacup, moan, or royal, but those aren't recognized by the AK seed. So we'll focus on the ones that are formally recognized in the Breed.
Standard toy is an average of eight pounds and they live for on average 10 to 18 years. Toy poodles and mixes with them are more fragile at they're small size and aren't recommended for families with small children as they can get hurt easily by accident. Toy poodles can have health issues specific to their size, like patella lation, which means a dislocation of the kneecap or a collapsing trachea, which means the wind pipe can flatten during [00:07:00] inhalation.
As they are more fragile because of their small size. They're not a fit for young children, but they do make excellent companions for an older family and someone who wants a dog eager to be on their lap or be able to travel with them wherever they go. Next up is the mini poodle at an average of 13 pounds, and they also have a lifespan range of 10 to 18 years.
Surprisingly enough, they often have the highest energy of all of the poodle size. Even higher than the larger standard poodles health issues to test or watch out for include epilepsy, cushings, and progressive retinal atrophy. Standard poodles who live an average of 12 to 15 years range from 40 to 70 pounds.
They're prone to hip dysplasia, Addisons disease, and bloat. I raise the health concerns from both golden retrievers and poodles because
while we can get the desired traits from each in our Golden Doodle, we can also get both sides. Health issues, many people say that poodles are [00:08:00] human in a dog's body, unlike their golden retriever counterparts.
Poodles can also be very picky eaters. Some people will say, Don't dress up their food, because when they get hungry, they'll eat. Poodles laugh at that suggestion and will often dry hea from an empty stomach before eating boring or stale. Kibble. When you mix the golden and poodle, you don't know if you're gonna have a voracious eater or a picky one.
Poodles were bread as hunting dogs and retrievers, just like they're golden counterparts. They're extremely intelligent and easy to train. They have the highest mental stimulation needs and trainability, but they also tend to. They are a very vocal breed when training a poodle or a dog mixed with them, you must remember that they're more sensitive than most other dogs you've been around.
Even a rougher tone of voice can trigger submissive pain. It doesn't matter if the loud voice or background arguments or with the poodle or not, they feel stress and [00:09:00] conflict. They're excellent jumpers, which is great for athletic feats or agility training, but can add an extra challenge when you're trying to train your dog to be polite, greeting your guests.
They could be skittish and are prone to separation anxiety, so early in frequent positive socialization from the beginning of their time with you is. now when we have this combination of the fabulous golden and the fantastic poodle, we get our golden doodles. When selecting or parenting a golden doodle, you need to be prepared for the traits that come from both.
You are not always going to just have the easy laid back golden with just the non shedding feature of the poodle. You might get the highly sensitive barky side of the poodle with a more shedding coat when you're combining these two breed. That is, unless you're working with a breeder who has done very careful testing and has bred for personality and the traits you desire, you might get a combination of [00:10:00] the most desirable of both or what you see
as the least desirable of both. So very careful Research is important. What is often called hybrid vigor can be true,
When both parents are rigorously health tested, the offspring of those two dogs can often outlive both of their parents' life expectancy. I'll include a link to the full list of recommended health testing in the show notes, but briefly, they should include offa hip clearance. DNA tests for eye issues, canine bleeding disorders, and seizure issues, and patella checks for toys and mini sizes. Genetic tests can run for more than $250
and offa X-rays of hips more than $500 each for the parents. So when you're paying a premium for your Golden Doodle puppy, I highly suggest you do so with a breeder who is also, is equally invested in the health and wellbeing of their puppies. Let's talk coats. Since poodles are non [00:11:00] shedding and golden shed volumes, the genes and generations of golden doodles matter greatly.
It's more than could be covered here, and I'll devote a future episode to explaining furnishing gene testing, F one versus F two B, B, et cetera, their maintenance needs are extensive, and I encourage you to listen to episode six of our podcast to learn how to brush, bathe, and schedule grooming for your doodle.
I'm allergic to dogs and I do great with golden doodles that have a furnished or more poodle like coat. But remember, there's no such thing as a truly hypoallergenic dog. If I was allergic to saliva for. The coat being curlier wouldn't save me. In addition to having a real live teddy bear as a family member, there are a lot of color options for that coat as golden retrievers come with the light gold cream to the reds.
Poodles come with a lot more colors.
Poodles can be bred in apricot, black, blue, brown, cafe, a lot [00:12:00] gray, red, silver, silver, beige, and white. Oh, yes. Golden doodles can come in black. They don't just come in golds and reds. They can also come in what's called abstract coats, which is a white muzzle and a little tuxedo on their chest, or a party coat, which means more than 50%.
I'll include a picture in the show notes of my late poodle. We named her Hershey as she was a rich chocolate brown as a new puppy. Whoops. Poodles come with a gene called progressive fading or G locus and black, blue, brown, and red coats. That means they often have a fading gene in their coat will gradually lighten.
If you pull back on a golden doodles, muzzle hair, and look at the roots, you can usually see where they're likely heading towards in their. The fading starts usually around six months and can go to two or three years before they reach their final coat color. So that dog we named [00:13:00] Hershey ended up not having a chocolate color at all, and she turned out to be what's called a silver beige.
You could see for yourself in my show notes. Then we just doubled down on the chocolate theme and named our black kava P Nest. It doesn't make any sense, but I'm always outvoted in my house with pet names. My most embarrassing secret, I don't even love chocolate that much. I'm more of a salty chips kind of gal poodle.
Laura says that red poodles are the craziest and wildest of all poodles. Of course there are no peer-reviewed studies to back that up, but the legend is persistent amongst trainers. This might be because there are shorter lines of lineage for red poodles, , and if you were to be an unscrupulous breeder looking only at profit, that is the color that will get you the highest dollar.
Red poodles are much rarer than other coat colors. They're only recently being used in show . And they don't have as long of a lineage in show lines. they are now the rarest and most popular in the [00:14:00] US and in China. But the most popular look for golden doodles right now is the deep red color, and that's often pulled. A fielding golden line. So if you're drawn to that dark red golden doodle, you need to be aware of the fielding golden's temperament and the qualities they're bringing to the table.
So with that red golden doodle, you're talking about a higher energy dog. A dog who's shedding might be less obvious, is a bit smaller and thinner, more athletic, and can get into some more trouble and be mouth. Genetics matter. If you pick the redder Golden Doodle. Be prepared for some extra training and diligence to help them channel their drive in healthy ways.
Sho Golden lines cross with poodles can grow into being more mellow. They still are a higher energy dog, but more mellow than their field counterpart with less rigorous training needs. , when I discuss the different colors that poodles come in, you might know I didn't mention Merle or Phantom.[00:15:00]
. Neither of those color schemes are registered with akc, which means that if you're looking at a golden doodle that comes in, a Merle or a phantom coloring, . A different breed has been bred into the poodle or doodles line.
While Merl is a beautiful coat, this genetic trait can cause blindness and deafness if both parents carry the Merle gene. If you have decided that Merl is still your choice in a coat, make sure you're working with a very careful breeder who's running extensive health tests on both lines so that you know your dog is not at risk for those serious issues.
If you're going with a mini golden doodle, remember, miniature poodles often have the highest energy level of the poodle sizes, and that's of a high energy breed already crossing with the high energy breed of goldens. So if your golden doodle is much smaller than the golden retriever breed standard of 55 to 70 pounds, they're likely crossed, but the miniature.
Then if you get the red [00:16:00] mini, they likely have the field in golden lineage. If you're looking at your red mini golden doodle right now and going, Oh, this made sense, you're not alone. , Doodle genetics are just like your own. your children or your siblings can have the same genetic makeup and family tree. They are likely raised in the same home with the same lifestyle and similar experiences, but one child or sibling is a more boisterous one and another is a total bookworm.
They likely don't completely break the genetic mold, but can fall on different ends of the family spectrum. While genetics are excellent predictors, work with a skilled breeder to choose the specific golden doodle that matches your lifestyle and needs most closely. I adore golden doodles and some of the best dogs I've worked with have been golden doodles.
I'm glad they're one of the longest lasting doodle mixes, and I'm [00:17:00] thrilled to be here to support you parenting your Golden doodle. If you wanna bring your Doodle parenting to the next level, sign up for the Doodle Pro Society. Wait list now to hear when doors open again for our membership. There you get exclusive access to me the doodle.
Doodle specific training modules and live q and a with world renowned guest experts that would usually charge hundreds of dollars each to book a virtual session with. All included in our membership . Visit the doodle pro.com/waitlist to be the first to know when doors open again.
On next Thursday's bonus episode, we'll discuss the other longest known doodle mix Labra doodles, to close. I'll share a couple more quotes from Doodle parents who shared with me why their golden doodles stole their hearts. Lori p. I have always loved golden doodles, playful traits, but not their shedding and poodles are so [00:18:00] smart.
Golden retriever plus poodle equals perfect. And Sue d said, when we were researching breeds we knew we wanted less shedding a smaller dog intelligence and a good companion.
We had all of that in our mini doodle Leo. Now that Leo has crossed over the rainbow bridge, we have fortune once again in our new doodle, Alfie, who has become the center of our lives and hearts, doodles are exceptional.
I couldn't agree more. Sue
