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My husband and I are considering adopting a 16 month old labradoodle from my friend. The dog was bred by my friend's aunt and is a second generation doodle (both parents are doodles). The dog is cream color, very long legs, tail curves over the back, slender body and face, straight hair on legs and wavy hair on back. Boby shape looks more like poodle but hair looks more like lab.
My friend has 4 small children (three are under 7), lives in an active suburban neighborhood and runs three businesses out of her home. She and her husband want to get rid of the dog because he is "too much dog for our family." My friend has not had the time to train the dog or take him to obedience school. They want to get a smaller, older, trained dog that is a better fit for their young family.
I have observed the dog's behavior at her house. He is great with the kids, loving and friendly. But, he is very high energy and runs around outside a lot of the time (they have invisible fence). She does not have him inside the house much because he is untrained and, therefore, unruly in the house (70 punds of dog bouncing around like he is still outside). The dog is caged trained and sleeps either in his cage in the garage at night or on his bed in the front foyer (which is closed off from the rest of the house).
My gut feeling is that is in a opportunity to get a great dog that will be a great companion, but he definitely needs behavior training. He loves to play fetch and he does know the words sit, down, shake, and come. He does those things, gets his treat, and bounces off again. He definitely does not know "stay."! He also does not know how to walk on a leash (he only knows how to drag you around behind him). At 16 months, he is still like a lovable, affectionate, bouncing, untrained puppy.
We live in the country and have 13 acres of land. We also have a 10 year old son who has wanted a dog forever and we have always said, "when you are older." My plan would be to start with putting the doodle on a long line outside with access to shade and a large dog house with food and water. We will enroll in obedience school immediately. We (the whole family) would spend time playing with the dog outside and also practicing our behavior training. We already own a large dog crate so in inclement weather he would be in the house in the crate. As he becomes more trained, we would gradually allow access to the house over small time periods. I should also say that I have a registered quarter horse that I have raised from a yearling, so I am familiar with the time and committement it takes to train an animal.
Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Are we insane to do this? Has anyone else taken a Doodle that was over a year and trained him to be civilized?
One more thing - as a child I was forbidden to have any pets. But all my friends had either labs or doodles, and they were all fabulous. Hence my interest in this dog.
I apologize for the length of this posting, but I wanted to acurately explain the situation. All advice would be really appreciated. Thanks. Sara
My friend has 4 small children (three are under 7), lives in an active suburban neighborhood and runs three businesses out of her home. She and her husband want to get rid of the dog because he is "too much dog for our family." My friend has not had the time to train the dog or take him to obedience school. They want to get a smaller, older, trained dog that is a better fit for their young family.
I have observed the dog's behavior at her house. He is great with the kids, loving and friendly. But, he is very high energy and runs around outside a lot of the time (they have invisible fence). She does not have him inside the house much because he is untrained and, therefore, unruly in the house (70 punds of dog bouncing around like he is still outside). The dog is caged trained and sleeps either in his cage in the garage at night or on his bed in the front foyer (which is closed off from the rest of the house).
My gut feeling is that is in a opportunity to get a great dog that will be a great companion, but he definitely needs behavior training. He loves to play fetch and he does know the words sit, down, shake, and come. He does those things, gets his treat, and bounces off again. He definitely does not know "stay."! He also does not know how to walk on a leash (he only knows how to drag you around behind him). At 16 months, he is still like a lovable, affectionate, bouncing, untrained puppy.
We live in the country and have 13 acres of land. We also have a 10 year old son who has wanted a dog forever and we have always said, "when you are older." My plan would be to start with putting the doodle on a long line outside with access to shade and a large dog house with food and water. We will enroll in obedience school immediately. We (the whole family) would spend time playing with the dog outside and also practicing our behavior training. We already own a large dog crate so in inclement weather he would be in the house in the crate. As he becomes more trained, we would gradually allow access to the house over small time periods. I should also say that I have a registered quarter horse that I have raised from a yearling, so I am familiar with the time and committement it takes to train an animal.
Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Are we insane to do this? Has anyone else taken a Doodle that was over a year and trained him to be civilized?
One more thing - as a child I was forbidden to have any pets. But all my friends had either labs or doodles, and they were all fabulous. Hence my interest in this dog.
I apologize for the length of this posting, but I wanted to acurately explain the situation. All advice would be really appreciated. Thanks. Sara
