Labradoodles as a Breed
About Labradoodles
The labradoodle is a lively and very friendly companion. They can be boisterous for the first 18 months and will benefit from early training. Labradoodles are very gentle, good with children and enjoy being part of the family unit. They are not recommended for but can adapt to living in a small home or apartment as long as they have room to move and receive adequate daily exercise.
History
Labradoodles were first popularised in Australia during the early 1980s when the Australian Guide Dogs Association set out to create a guide dog that would be safe for allergy sufferers. Breeders experimented with Labrador/ Poodle crosses, on the premise that the poodle’s wool-like, non-shedding coat was thought to be hypoallergenic. The program achieved only minimal success and although it continues, is done so on a very small scale.
However, this interesting crossbreed was found to have plenty of other pleasant attributes and soon caught the attention of the wider community. Demand for the ‘shaggy dog’ grew.
Nowadays the Labradoodle is regarded as one of the most popular of the crossbreeds.
Common traits
Breeders of the Labradoodle have set out to create a dog that displays the best attributes of the Labrador and Poodle, whilst hoping to eliminate undesirable health and temperament issues. Called ‘hybrid vigour’, this mating of two different breeds (hybridising) reduces the likelihood of the offspring exhibiting genetic problems that are common to each of the individual breeds, making the offspring more ‘vigorous’ or healthy.
The Labrador and Poodle can both suffer from heritable disorders, but, importantly the main problems each may suffer are not common to both of the breeds.
As far as temperament goes, the Labrador Retriever is a much loved and ever-faithful companion. They are friendly and loving dogs (especially of their food), which, combined with their intelligence, contributes to them being easily trained.
Poodles in particular are regarded as one of the most intelligent of dog breeds. Although known to become neurotic if over-pampered, this trait can be tempered with the more calm nature of the Labrador, making the Labradoodle an intelligent, friendly, human (and probably food) orientated individual.
Why a Labradoodle?
- Low shedding, allergy friendly coat.
- Intuitive nature, good potential as therapy dogs.
- Great with families and kids.
- Intelligent, easily trained and eager to please.
- Good natured.
- Sociable.
Labradoodle Sizes
Labradoodles come in all shapes and sizes.
Here at Floradoodle, we breed Medium sized Labradoodles.