I wonder if you have already heard about this new breed of Labradoodles? Sounds like a joke, I know, but it’s dead serious.
They look very woolly and sheep-like, compared to me, and appear to be bread for people who are allergic against our coat hair and “SMELL”!! (I wonder who dares calling my natural odeur like this!?).
Anyway – this is what I found on Wikipedia:
Labradoodle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 A brown Labradoodle with a fleece type coat. The appearance of Labradoodles may vary. |
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A Labradoodle is a crossbred or hybrid dog created by crossing the Labrador Retriever and the Standard or Miniature Poodle.
History
The Labradoodle was first deliberately bred in 1989, when Australian breeder Wally Conron first crossed the Labrador Retriever and Standard Poodle for Guide Dogs Victoria. His aim was to combine the low-shedding coat of the Poodle with the gentleness and trainability of the Labrador, and to provide a Guide Dog suitable for people with allergies to fur and dander. Guide Dogs Victoria continue to breed Labradoodles today and Labradoodles are now often used around the world as Guide, Assistance, and Therapy Dogs as well as being popular family dogs.
Appearance and temperament
The Labradoodle as a dog breed is still developing, and does not yet “breed true,” i.e., puppies do not have consistently predictable characteristics. While many Labradoodles display desired traits, their appearance and behavioral characteristics remain, from an overall breed standpoint, unpredictable.
As such, Labradoodles’ hair can be anywhere from wiry to soft, and may be straight, wavy, or curly. Some Labradoodles do shed, although the coat usually sheds less and has less dog odor than that of a Labrador Retriever.
Like most Labrador Retrievers and Poodles, Labradoodles are generally friendly, energetic and good with families and children (although as with any dog the temperament may vary between individuals). Labradoodles also often display an affinity for water and the strong swimming ability present in both their parent breeds.
Like their parent breeds, both of which are amongst the world’s most intelligent dog breeds,Labradoodles are very intelligent and quite trainable. Labradoodles can be taught to obey verbal or sign language commands, or both, and remain commonly used as guide dogs for disabled or handicapped persons around the world.
Types of Labradoodle
A group of Labradoodle Assistance Dogs.
A three-month old Labradoodle
There is no universal consensus as to whether breeders should aim to have Labradoodles recognized as a breed . Some breeders prefer to restrict breeding to early generation dogs (i.e. bred from a Poodle and Labrador rather than from two Labradoodles) to maximise genetic diversity, in order to avoid the inherited health problems that have plagued some dog breeds.
Others are breeding Labradoodle to Labradoodle over successive generations, and trying to establish a new dog breed. These dogs are usually referred to as Multigenerational (abr. Multigen) or Australian Labradoodles. Australian Labradoodles also differ from early generation and Multigenerational Labradoodles in that they may also have other breeds in their ancestry. English and American Cocker Spaniel/Poodle crosses (ie Cockapoos), Two Irish Water Spaniels and Soft-Coated Wheaten Terriers have variously been used in some Australian Labradoodle lines. The Curly Coated Retriever were used too, but these lines did not work out and they were discontinued.
Labradoodle coats are generally divided into 3 categories: Wool (with tight curls, and similar in appearance to that of a Poodle, but with a softer texture); Fleece (soft and free-flowing, with a kinked or wavy appearance); or Hair (which can be curly, straight or wavy, but is more similar in texture to a Labrador’s coat) . Labradoodles come in a wide variety of colours, including chocolate, cafe, parchment, cream, gold, apricot, red, black, silver, chalk, parti colours, and generally all the colours that can be found in Poodles. They also can be different sizes, depending on the size of poodle (i.e. toy, miniature or standard) used.
Hey! No fair! I don’t want my French poodle’s blood/race being played with like that!
hmph! 
So sorry, Charity. But they seem to be nice guys!
Hi, Good article. I can certainly understand where you are coming from. I love Labradoodle puppies, especially the first generation (F1) pups. Having seen purebred and F1 pups, I have no doubt about how well the Labradoodle with the hybrid vigor develop etc superior to purebreds.
I have fallen in love with first generation Labradoodles, so now breed them with an eye to producing therapy and service dogs and the best family pets I can. I DNA test all my breeding dogs, offer a lifetime guarantee against 2 dozen genetic diseases, sell on a strict spay/neuter contract that includes an agreement to take back at any time any of my pups that needs to be re-homed. In other words, I go out of my way to breed responsibly and it shows.
All of my breeding dogs are registered, health screened and are good representatives of their own pure breeds. I detest the term “designer dogs” and consider my pups hybrids.
Bred responsibly, these are wonderful dogs with amazing intelligence; loving, people pleasing personalities and great temperaments. I don’t care if they never become a recognized breed, because I’ve seen what’s happened to other recognized breeds as far as health problems from breeding for looks rather than function, etc.
My pups have quite predictable traits both in appearance and personality. I am however very choosy when picking my breeding dogs so that I can know what I’m producing. I believe that a large part of the confusion when comparing Labradoodles comes as mentioned from the variation of the size of poodles used to the type of lab used and the generation of cross a breeder is doing. Obviously a pup from a purebred English lab and a purebred standard poodle is going to be quite different from a second generation labradoodle that has toy poodle and field lab in it and was bred back to a toy poodle. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. While both might be perfectly wonderful dogs, you certainly can’t expect them to be the same.
To truly compare and judge takes a lot more knowledge than most who are dissing these dogs have. Until you’ve studied genetics and really experienced these hybrid dogs, you can’t possibly know what they’re all about.
Thank you for a fair and balanced article on Labradoodles. I see too few of these by people who simply haven’t done their research.