Goldendoodles may have been around much longer than we realize since they are a hybrid dog. Perhaps before the term "Goldendoodle" became known to many of us, someone, some where, had a litter of puppies from their Golden Retriever who accidentally bred to their neighbors' Poodle. Mixed breed dogs have lived upon our planet ever since man set foot upon it.

In 1999, when my first litter of Goldendoodles was born, I called them "curly goldens" because I had never heard of the term "Goldendoodle". It wasn't until someone purchased a Goldendoodle from my first litter that they brought with them a print out of an Australian breeder who had been creating Goldendoodles beginning sometime in 1996 or 1997. I thought the name was odd since most hybrids are a configuration between the two parent breeds...ie...if we think about the Goldendoodle as one part Poodle and one part Golden Retriever, their hybrid name should be "Golden-Poo" or "Gold-oodle" or perhaps "Goldenoodle". Perhaps the Aussies felt the "Doodle" had a better ring to it or was cute like the pups were. Either way, the term "Goldendoodle" stuck and here we are.

In early 2003, the Goldendoodle exploded in popularity and more breeders hopped on the doodle train. Very few took the time to investigate the background of the parent dogs, much less attempt to follow their dogs' bloodlines or delve into any research regarding this lovely hybrid. We took on the challenge. The nice thing about being a breeder is the fact, as a breeder, you will always learn something new! You will never know it all! Every day, every experience will teach you something new. As time went by, the more interested I became at learning more and more about the Goldendoodle dog. I continued with the photographs and the research. Every time a breeder would make a claim about "hypo-allergenic", "non-shedding" coat...I wanted to bust that myth. Every time a breeder boasted a claim about the dogs being "Miniature", I decided to bust the myth. Personally, I like to stay as close to kennel standards as possible when it comes to dogs. This means that I personally believe that those who breed Goldendoodles should stop proclaiming them to be "MIniature", "Standard", "Toy" or "Giant" because this hybrid is not a purebred dog.

Its important that people understand the concept of sizes because so many get the information wrong and thus, when contacting a breeder, they don't know what to ask for. Goldendoodles can be any size regardless of the size of the parents. Purebred dogs fall into size categories because of the fact, they have been refined so much over so many years that their littermates can stay relatively close in size, per individual puppy. Here is what we've come to know and this is a fact whether or not you believe it to be or not. It has been our PERSONAL experience that when two parent dogs come from two seperate breeds, the littermates will not be that close in size relative to each other nor will they be the same size as that of either parent dog.

We have seen the litter be smaller or larger than either parent and the weight difference can be more than 5 pounds between littermates...sometimes more...sometimes less.

We saw littermates stay relatively closer in size to each other when one parent was a Goldendoodle and one parent was either a Poodle or a Golden Retriever. The only explaination I can offer for this is perhaps because the offspring picked up either more Golden Retriever (when the one parent was a Golden Retriever and the other parent was a Goldendoodle) or they either picked up more Poodle (when one parent was a Goldendoodle and the other parent was a Poodle). We always saw a wider size variance with the litter mates when one parent was a Poodle and one parent was a Golden Retriever. Because the offspring has this wide variance, the terminology is "not breeding true". This is why hybrids are not classified in size categories.

Now, perhaps when many, many years pass and should breeders become silly enough to "refine" the Goldendoodle (their perfect dogs being a hybrid...what's to refine?) then maybe...just maybe the hybrid can then become classified into size categories.

Coat colors seen to be a problem for some doodle breeders as well and I'm not sure why. Some breeders will call their "cream" Goldendoodles "apricot" just because there is a tidbit of apricot coloring around the doodles' ears, mouth or back. A Goldendoodle who has hints of Gold coloring about the ears, mouth or perhaps a line down the back is called cream. A solid white Goldendoodle will be void of any golden hues anywhere about the coat. A dark brown Goldendoodle is called "chocolate". A Goldendoodle that has alot of golden hues inside of its coat is called "apricot". There are three shades of apricot for the Goldendoodle:

*Apricot

*Light apricot

*Dark apricot

(we're having trouble with the image bar for now, otherwise we would place photos to show the difference between the apricot coloring. Feel free to access our website at http://www.goldendoodleworld.com )

A Goldendoodle that is dark apricot looks almost red in color. The reason we don't call a dark apricot Goldendoodle "red" is because as the doodle ages, its coat will lighten one shade. If you were to fluff back the hairs in the coat, you will see that the root coloring is very light. As a puppy, a Goldendoodle has strands of hair that is darker in color that is the furthest away from the skin while the hairs closer to the skin is much lighter. This gives the doodle a "two-tone" affect in the coat coloring. As an adult, the coat will lighten and become closer to the coloring of the root hairs. We generally see this with most hybrids and we generally see this with the Lhasa Apso and the Poodle breeds. I believe this occurs with the Miniature Schnauzer as well. The pups are always much darker in color than when they become an adult. Goldendoodles are the reverse of Golden Retrievers when it comes to coat coloring. Golden Retrievers generally darken as they age and Goldendoodles generally lighten as they age.

We don't call Goldendoodles "gold" mainly because their coloring is not the same as the Golden Retriever. Goldendoodles can be of any coloring and have a wide variation of markings on their coat. These are the colors we have personally seen the Goldendoodle to be:

*Cream

*Apricot (both light and dark)

*Chocolate (some call it brown)

*Chocolate with white markings

*Chocolate phantom

*Black

*Silver

*Silver Frost

*Silver phantom

*Tri color (three variations of coloring)

*Parti color (two variations of coloring)

*Any coloring with white markings

*Red (a true red can only come from 2 red colored parents..ie...a true red Poodle bred to a dark Golden, Golden Retriever) and this red does not lighten or darken as the doodle ages.)

*White (A true white Goldendoodle has no golden hues anywhere about the coat)

The Goldendoodle has only three coat types. The proper terminology for their coat types are:

*Shaggy

*Smooth

*Curly

Some breeders use terms like "fleece" or "wool" or "wooley" which are completely inappropriate terms for the Goldendoodle. Perhaps if they were sheep, they could then use the term "fleece" and "Wool". The Goldendoodle has a single coat of very fine hairs. While they appear to have a very thick coat, the truth is their hair is very fine in texture with lots of volume. They shed one hair at a time or several hairs at a time, at various phases and stages from birth to the age of one year. The coat that your Goldendoodle has at the age of one year is the coat it will have for life.

*Please see our other articles regarding shedding. The smooth coat as well as the shaggy coat are just as low shedding as the curly coat providing the breeder does NOT breed two Goldendoodles together that have more Golden Retriever traits or does NOT breed a Goldendoodle with more Golden Retriever traits to a purebred Golden Retriever. Anytime a Goldendoodle is bred to a Goldendoodle, the breeder MUST ensure that neither Poodle within the

Goldendoodles' genetic structure are closely related and both Goldendoodles MUST have twice the Poodle themselves in order to keep the coat low shedding. Even still, the breeder will NOT obtain all offspring within the litter of this sort of pairing as having a shaggy coat. There will only be 1 or 2 pups with a shaggy coat, the remainder will be a smooth coat. When using a Goldendoodle to a purebred Golden Retriever, it is of the upmost importance that the breeder NOT use a Goldendoodle with a shaggy coat if they are to provide their buyers with a low shedding doodle from that type of pairing. The Goldendoodle MUST have a curly coat and MUST be a sire and not a dam. The Golden Retriever within that Goldendoodle sire must NOT be closely related to the dam Golden Retriever it is paired up with for mating. This will allow the offspring to have a Golden Retriever personality and continue having a low shedding coat. In this type of pairing, the majority of the litter will have a shaggy coat and one or two of the pups in that litter will have a smooth coat, but the coat will still be low shedding.

Some people, including breeders, misunderstand what the term "F1B" actually means. Every dog....regardless of whether its a purebred or a hybrid....comes from a "first generation" creation if neither parent are directly related. I've had some people tell me they thought that "F1B" meant that the doodle came from a Poodle/Goldendoodle pairing and that "F1" meant that the doodle came from a Poodle/Golden Retriever pairing. No. This is not correct and no, that is not what it means.

"F1" Goldendoodles mean that the Goldendoodles have parents who are NOT closely related to each other. Even if a Goldendoodle is bred to a Poodle, the offspring are still "F1" (first generation) if the one Poodle parent is NOT closely related to the Poodle within the Goldendoodles' genetic structure. What "F1B" really means is that the offspring come from a "backbred" lineage. When a Goldendoodle is an "F1B", it is a Goldendoodle that has come from the following method:

A breeder creates a litter of Goldendoodles using a Golden Retriever and a Poodle parent. They keep a puppy...raise it....place it their breeding program and then turn around and breed that kept Goldendoodle back to its Poodle parent or close relative. That is what "F1B" means. Breeders who mean something else entirely are not properly using the term "F1B". The "B" itself means "back bred".....the offspring came from parents who were backbred...mainly its a nice way of saying their dogs are inbred which we wouldn't do even if our dogs were purebred. When Goldendoodles come from inbreeding, its genetic risk factors increase tremendously. It is always better to have first generation Goldendoodles rather than those who come from inbreeding or backbreeding. The genetic flaws are far less when offspring comes from a first generation just like humans. Children who come from parents who are closely related have a miriad of flaws....both physical, mental and emotional. The same can occur with dogs. I remember seeing the term "F1B" come about right around the year 2003. This began after people purchased goldendoodles from original breeders who created Goldendoodles using a Golden Retriever and a Poodle and decided they were going to breed their purchased Goldendoodle to a Poodle.

These were the people who came up with the "F1B" term and these are the same people who continue to use the term inappropriately. Down through time, new breeders began using the "F1B" term simply because they had read it from someone else who was using the term the wrong way and so it goes. It reminds me of when I was a child and someone would tell you a story and then you'd tell someone ELSE a story and the story was changed or embellished and then the next people down the line got the story wrong and soon, the original story wasn't any where close to the end story! This is why there is alot of misinformation about the internet with regards to Goldendoodles and breeders. There are experienced breeders who write about what it is they know and what it is they know comes from actually seeing and doing and then there are copycats who copy the wrong information because they got it from a breeder who also had their information wrong as well and placed the information on their site just because it "sounded good".

Much of what I've learned about the Goldendoodle came from doing. It came from photographing the coat changes; It came from documenting the evidence where colors and sizes are concerned and it came from trying various things. Breeders come to their experience through doing. Not just reading. I myself like to know things by doing things and seeing these things for myself. When I read something I don't quite believe, I attempt to bust myths when I read them or hear about them.

Of course, my earlier assumptions back in 1999 changed over the years as I learned new things about the Goldendoodle dog. As I said, a breeder is constantly learning new things on a day by day basis. We don't know it all nor will we ever know it all.

Author/Breeder:http://www.goldendoodleworld.com