You're not kidding about the initiation by fire! Wowsers! But I do understand being a purists as I am a horse breeder and breed a very old line of Saddlebred sport horses. However, I do understand that sometimes new blood needs to be brought in, even if you're having to go back to a breed that helped found the breed that you have.
I honestly feel that there is plenty of room for both the Poodle enthusiast as well as the Labradoodle lover.
Here was my response to her accusations; kind of long but to the point:
Dear Blank,
While I can appreciate your opinion, I have to respectfully disagree. The pure dog breeds that we have today were created in the very same way as the Austrailian and American Labradoodles are; breeders had a purpose for the type dog they wanted to create, and bred towards this goal until it had been achieved. The Standard Poodle came about in the same way as most every other dog breed . This goes for horses as well and I am quite well aware of this as I have been breeding for some time.
There are always unethical breeders out there in it for the money whether breeding supposedly "designer dogs" or purebred dogs. No matter how you slice it, whatever is popular at the time ends up being produced by unethical breeders. I do not believe the Labradoodle is a designer dog; I believe they are here to stay. In my opinion, the combination of the Standard Poodle and the Labrador (in varying percentages) with careful, knowledgeable breeding, produces a dog that stands out in its own right. I believe this combination produces a dog with an exemplary disposition, great beauty, great intelligence with fantastic trainability, and unbelievable emotional depth and intuition. This, in my opinion, is the perfect family and companion dog with the added advantage (to varying degrees but it is becoming more stabilized) to provide people with a dog that is more hypoallergenic and sheds less.
The Labradoodle is a "breed in evolvement". I would prefer, wanting only to breed American Labradoodles, that the book always be open to bringing more Poodle/Lab blood at any time it is needed as opposed to the book becoming closed.
While I agree with you that there are many breeders out there throwing anything together with a Poodle and calling it a "Doodle this or that", there are also many breeders who are breeding responsibly and producing generation after generation of healthy, handsome, happy dogs that are much valued by their people and fanciers. These dogs, because of their hybrid vigor and also because they have to pass stingent health exams for ethical breeders to even consider breeding them, have less health problems than I have seen in most of the purebred dogs whose gene pools have gotten too small. Many of these pure dogs, just like with purebred horses, are bred towards the conformational "fad" at the time; which ends up leading to heavy inbreeding and linebreeding because of the popularity of certain lines that are winning at the shows. In my opinion, this is where many of the genetic health problems attributed to certain breeds comes from and what "sets" them in a particular breed. Also, just as there is a problem with people showing horses only "in hand", dogs that are shown "in hand" tend, many times, to be bred less to the original conformational standard and more to what becomes an exaggerated conformation (again, the winning "fad" at the time) and this also leads to many problems with the body and the breaking down of certain parts.
I believe that stringent health exams should be passed for the ethical breeder to breed any dog. I also believe that the dog should prove itself useful in a capacity other than showing.
As for buyers suing, I believe a health guarantee should be offered by any reputable breeder. And yes, a breeder should live up to that contract and be prepared to do so. The same should happen with purebred dogs, with the breeders of purebred dogs just as at risk with being sued as anyone else.
Lastly, many dogs are in shelters, both purebred and non-purebred; cross-bred and backyard mutt. Perhaps, according to this morality, we should ALL stop breeding for awhile and just start adopting dogs from the shelter until the shelters are empty?
I am not emailing back because I really wanted to get into a philosophical discussion about the why's and wherefores of breeding dogs. I was interested in what you are breeding because this is the standard of dog that I am looking for. You breed very nice dogs! If I were not concerned with the quality of my dogs, don't you think I would try and pick up an inexpensive Poodle of questionable breeding so that I could jump on the designer Labradoodle bandwagon?
Most people who have the absolute joy of owning a well bred Labradoodle, as I did, certainly have nothing negative to say about their ownership experience. My vets loved mine as well as the public everywhere we went.
I wish you well in your Standard Poodle breeding program. :roll:
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But I didn't post all the things she said. Suffice as to say I addressed each and every issue and accusation she brought up. I felt I had to defend the Labradoodle and its responsible breeders.
Anyway, still looking for that female. My male is HUGE. Very tall, very elegant; he is pale gold, shading, with a loose, wool-like coat. The texture is not really soft but not like a pure Poodle's. How can I say it's like somewhat rough on the top but when you press into it's soft underneath. Each wavy curl is separate to the skin from the other. Not "hair". I'm not a stranger to breeding high quality horses and know it when I see it in dogs. But I need more education regarding Labradoodles and mine in particular. Oh, he has the rose colored- nose and eye rims and the "ghost eyes"--amber- gold with the green in the center.
I will pm you when I can get away from the kids!
Jennifer
