Cost-What should we be paying?
Prices of labradoodles range from about £450-£2500. We recommend that you do not consider pups on the high end of the price scale. Paying the top price does not in any way reflect the quality of the pup and in many cases just the opposite---in our estimation it simply reflects greed. Buyers should be visiting the breeder and looking at how the pups are reared/the parent dogs/checking health certificates and going with gut feelings that this breeder is doing it for the love of the breed and will be there for support throughout your pups life. This all seems quite basic,but we have had too many phone calls from distraught owners who were taken in by the slick web-sites and jargon and ended up with problems.
Hip scores-why are they important?
Dogs get stiff and painful hips when they get old. That is to be expected. Sadly, some dogs get stiff and painful hips and go lame when they are much younger (four to five years old). That should not be expected. Hip scores are a tool to help eliminate the causes of early lameness.
The dog’s hips are X-rayed when it is about one year old. The X-rays are sent off to the Kennel Club and read by a panel of experts. They look at the roundness of the ball at the top of the thigh bone, the depth and quality of fit of the hip socket, development of bone spurs around the margin of the hip socket, the angle at the top of the thigh bone, etc. Points are given for defects on each side and added together to give a single score for the dog. The lower the score, the better the hip.
The Kennel Club keep records and publish average scores for each breed. To try and prevent puppies inheriting bad hips they recommend that dogs used for breeding should have hip scores lower than the average for their breed. For comparison, Greyhounds average about 6, Clumber Spaniels about 45. An average for Labradoodles has not been published yet so there are not any hard and fast guidelines. It’s a judgement call for the breeder.
For the buyer, be very wary of breeders who do not hip score. Either they do not care about the future health of the puppy,or they are using unsuitable dogs to breed from. There are as many cowboys among Labradoodle breeders as in any other walk of life
Genetics and inheritance is a very complicated business. Being careful with the parents hip scores does not guarantee the puppies hips but it does shift the odds in your favour.
EYE TESTS - Are your dogs eye tested, and why?
Yes. They are checked annually by an animal eye specialist to make sure their eyes are healthy and particularly to make sure that there is no sign of inheritable eye cataracts which only show up later in life.
It is very important that the buyer ask to see the test results to ensure the mother has been tested prior to having the litter. We have heard a great many excuses from so called breeders of why their dogs have not been tested and the bottom line is there is no excuse,but it is up to the buyer to check.
SHIPPING - Do you send puppies abroad?
Yes. We have sent puppies to Bermuda,Switzerland,Sweden,Holland,Denmark and the United States. We were a bit worried the first time, but we use a very experienced shipping company and now know that the pups come out of their travelling crates with wagging tails and full of life. We take them to the airport ourselves and the new owners are waiting at the other end so in some instances, it is less stressful than a long car journey.
Points to note are:-
It is very expensive,often costs as much as a full fare adult.
Airlines usually ask that the pup be at least ten weeks old.
Paperwork leaving the UK is minimal but some countries require specific shots and/or vet checks within 24 hours of departure.
ALLERGIES - Is it true that Labradoodles do not affect people who are allergic to other dogs?
In many cases this is true,but the longer we breed the doodles the more we are convinced that total success is achieved not only by careful selection,but also the importance of attitude cannot be underestimated. We know that some of our owners with multiple allergies still take their medication and have learned to adjust. Mild allergy sufferers usually find they are 100% fine with our dogs,but each person reacts differently. We use to think that if the dog didn't shed it's hair---folk would be ok,but we know several cases where the pup did shed and all was well so that rule of thumb is not full proof. It really is a minefield and a great deal of time needs to be spent with the parent dogs of the litter you want to purchase from and you need to know that there might not be instant success,but with perseverance and the realization that your system needs time to adjust----having a pet in the family can certainly be a reality.
We are hearing more and more stories of "breeders" who claim their pups are allergy friendly--BEWARE. It is a slow process,but a knowledgable breeder will be willing to spend as much time as is needed to ensure a successful match.
When people with allergies enquire about the possibility of a pup we encourage them to come for a visit and spend time cuddling our doodles--one at a time. Sometimes there will be a reaction to one dog and not another.We can then be confident that we know which breeding will work for this individual.
DE-SEXING - Do you insist on de-sexing your puppies at six weeks old?
NO. NEVER.
De-sexing, if and when, is entirely a matter for the new puppy’s owners. De-sexing at such an early age is not a practice most vets in the UK would approve of. Breeders who insist on de-sexing the pup before they sell it are suspected of having an ulterior motive. They want to control the supply of breeding stock.
Restricting the supply of breeding stock is a really bad idea. The number of good breeding Labradoodles in the UK is much too small to satisfy the demand for their pups. If anybody buys one of our pups and is thinking of breeding, we give them all the help and encouragement we can. Both to produce a healthy litter and to find good homes for the puppies.
SHEDDING - Do Labradoodles shed their coats?
Some do. some don't. Even the ones that do shed tend only to have a twice yearly moult, not continuous hair loss like a Labrador. The one’s that do not shed do have to go to the groomer three or four times a year to clean the old hair out of their coats.
Shedding or non-shedding does not seem to affect the allergy qualities of the Labradoodle. Allergy symptoms are triggered by dead skin cells and dried saliva proteins floating in the air and irritating the sufferer’s eyes and skin.
MULTI-GENERATION - Are first- cross Labradoodles better than multi-generation?
That depends entirely on what you mean by better. First- cross Labradoodles (puppies from a Labrador and Poodle mating, some people call them F1) are good healthy general purpose dogs. A few take after the Labrador parent, a few take after the Poodle, most are somewhere in between and have a shaggy look all of their own.
If two first-cross Labradoodles are mated, their puppies are second-cross (or F2). If the breeder has chosen well, the parents characteristics will be concentrated in the puppies and these puppies will be better for their intended purpose, be it gun dog, assistance dog or allergy free family pet than their more random first cross cousins.
Two second-cross dogs bred together produce third-cross (F3) puppies and so on. The numbering gets complicated when, for example, a third cross mother is mated to a first cross father. Some people go by the mother’s generations, some by the father’s, some take an average. We avoid the problem. Anything more than a simple first or second cross we call multi-generation and leave it at that.
For the record. Our aim as breeders is to produce puppies with the coats and temperament to be allergy-free family pets. They might well be good at something else as well, but that is not our first priority.
POODLE OR LABRADOR - Does it make any difference which breed is the mother of the pups?
It does not seem to. We have done it both ways. Our Labrador and our Poodle are both excellent mothers. Many of our puppy buyers have kept in touch as their dogs have grown and we can not find any difference between the Labrador’s puppies and the Poodle’s.