Goldendoodles and Labradoodles
Personality
A doodle is a cross between a Labrador Retriever or a Golden Retriever and a Poodle. These dogs take on characteristics of both parent breeds. A doodle is a friendly, intelligent, affectionate dog that is very trainable and does well as a family pet. Doodles are wildly popular as pets and as service dogs because they tend to have a lower shedding coat than their shedding parent breeds. Because they are a hybrid of breeds, their personality can vary depending on what the breeder looks for in parent dogs. If the retriever parent is a high drive hunting dog and the poodle parent is a low to medium drive show dog you can expect the majority of the puppies to have a medium energy level. This is part of the reason that our temperament based selection process is valuable to you!
Because of their recent popularity, there is a wide spectrum of personality types among doodles. Be sure to do your research! It is important to find a breeder who focuses on the temperament of their dogs and not just their looks if you want to have an idea of how the personality of your puppy will develop.
Our doodles will be low to moderate energy dogs that will be happy to hike with an active person or family but will also be happy to stay at home and cuddle on a rainy day. Remember, not every puppy in a litter will have the same temperament so be sure to talk to the breeder about the specifics of what you are looking for!
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Grooming
*Doodles have many different coat types and their grooming requirements depend on their coat type. These different coat types will also dictate if the dog will shed and how much.*
Doodles tend to have a more involved grooming requirement than their lab or golden retriever parents. They tend to take after their poodle parent in this respect. Depending on how fast your particular doodles hair grows, you will need to trim their coat regularly. This can be done by a professional groomer or you can learn to do it yourself.
If you intend to keep your doodles hair long it will need to be brushed daily. You should use an appropriate brush to thoroughly brush out your doodle and then use a metal toothed comb to be sure you can brush through the hair and remove any leftover knots to prevent matting. With shorter hair, you may not need to brush your doodle as often but you should still brush them to maintain a healthy, tangle-free coat! We tend to brush every other day but for short hair 3 or 4 times a week should be plenty!
You can bathe your doodle as much as once a month and you can teach them to be comfortable with being blow-dried so that they do not stay damp all day. Nails will need to be trimmed 1-2 times per month depending on how short you would like them to be.
You will also need to clean out your dogs' ears. Some doodles will grow hair in their ears and some will not. Most professional groomers will remove this during a groom. This will require some training and a lot of treats because it is not something your dog will sit still for naturally!
Make sure you are prepared for the grooming requirements of a doodle before you get one! They are not low maintenance in regards to grooming.
Size
The size of a doodle can vary greatly because of the poodle parent. Typically, Doodles from our kennel will be standard in size. But doodles elsewhere may also be mini or medium-sized and you should consider this when looking for a doodle. Pay attention to the size the breeder predicts the litter to be as well as the size of the parent dogs in order to somewhat predict the size your puppy will be. Weights can range from 15 to 75 pounds and you will want to be sure you look for the size that is right for your family. Our doodles will typically be 50 plus pounds fully grown.