Why do so many in vet med 'hate' doodles?

Me: Ugh, doodles

askbox: *inundated* WHAT IS WRONG WITH DOODLES?????

Me: Mistakes were made! Mayday, Mayday!

But seriously, there's a lot of factors as to why so many people in vet med have an incredible dislike of doodles. I could probably write a 10 page essay but I'm going to try to keep this short.

1- They are 'trendy', and thus come with all the problems that come along with that. Backyard breeders, unethical breeders, any doodle breeder who calls their doodles either 'purebred', 'akc registered', or uses the phrase "you get the best of both breeds" is a goddamned lying liarface... these dogs are bred purely to make money. There's rarely any health testing, almost never temperament testing. It's 'make a fluffy puppy with a cutesy name' and people are DRAWN to cute. I watched many people adopt *huskies* from the shelter because "They're so cute!" NO. BAD.

2- People are rarely prepared to handle the traits of either/any of the breeds that go into doodles, especially those mixed with working-type dogs. The number of labra- and goldendoodle owners who don't understand why their dog is always eating things is aggravating. It's because they're labs/goldens! They eat shit! It's what those breeds just DO. Most doodle owners do no research into the parent breeds at all. This means they are also unprepared for the health problems that can crop up from the parent breeds.

3- People see breeders calling these "Great family pets" and then ... don't fucking socialize or train them so now, as vet staff, we are faced with sometimes 90+ pound dogs that can't sit on command, are jumping all over us, mouthing us, or pissing themselves in terror and wanting to bite our faces off because they're so afraid of strangers. This is not the dogs' faults but it doesn't make us like them either.

4- This seems to be a bit less of an issue now, or at least less of an issue where I am, but a lot of people don't... groom them? Some breeders even specifically say to not get them seen at the groomer before they're a year old???? And people hear "non-shedding" (potentially A LIE) and then... don't.... brush them? So then they turn into a solid felted mat and they become a groomer's behaviour-nightmare-shear-it-like-a-sheep-"What do you mean you couldn't leave the hair long?!?!?!?"

5- Oh gods, the ENDLESS EAR INFECTIONS AND ALLERGIES AND GI ISSUES

So yeah, that's the quick and dirty on why "ugh, doodles"... at least it's a little shorter than a why "UGH, frenchies" would be

6. if i might add from a grooming perspective, they often have a mix of at least 2 different coat types and tend to be extremely prone to matting because of this. Poodle hair doesn't mat nearly as badly as doodle hair. this goes for other breeds too (ie goldens, labs, berners, etc) that they are bred with. It's also harder to give general grooming advice to owners because of the random mix of coat types most doodle owners end up with.

On the other hand, occasionally you get a pleasant surprise with a new client - they say '-oodle' and you go OH NO and block out a double slot and then find out that it did that weird random thing where crossing a double coat with a curly coat resulted in a very light wire coat and it's super quick and easy! We even have one labradoodle we see regularly whose (technically wire) coat is so fine and soft and pale that he honestly feels more like a drop coat and, though he's about 35kg, he barely takes 45 minutes start to finish.

But yes, owners asking me when their puppy is barely four months old 'what will their coat look like when they're grown up?' '... well, do you have photos of the parents?' 'no, can't you just tell me what the breed is like?'

buddy, even if you had an established breed like a golden retriever or border collie I couldn't tell you exactly what that individual dog's coat's going to be like to maintain when they're fully grown (especially without knowing what their gut health and outdoor habits will be like), let alone a cross between that and a completely different coat type. I can tell you about how to use various brushing/dematting tools but as for the rest...!

Why do so many in vet med 'hate' doodles?

Me: Ugh, doodles

askbox: *inundated* WHAT IS WRONG WITH DOODLES?????

Me: Mistakes were made! Mayday, Mayday!

But seriously, there's a lot of factors as to why so many people in vet med have an incredible dislike of doodles. I could probably write a 10 page essay but I'm going to try to keep this short.

1- They are 'trendy', and thus come with all the problems that come along with that. Backyard breeders, unethical breeders, any doodle breeder who calls their doodles either 'purebred', 'akc registered', or uses the phrase "you get the best of both breeds" is a goddamned lying liarface... these dogs are bred purely to make money. There's rarely any health testing, almost never temperament testing. It's 'make a fluffy puppy with a cutesy name' and people are DRAWN to cute. I watched many people adopt *huskies* from the shelter because "They're so cute!" NO. BAD.

2- People are rarely prepared to handle the traits of either/any of the breeds that go into doodles, especially those mixed with working-type dogs. The number of labra- and goldendoodle owners who don't understand why their dog is always eating things is aggravating. It's because they're labs/goldens! They eat shit! It's what those breeds just DO. Most doodle owners do no research into the parent breeds at all. This means they are also unprepared for the health problems that can crop up from the parent breeds.

3- People see breeders calling these "Great family pets" and then ... don't fucking socialize or train them so now, as vet staff, we are faced with sometimes 90+ pound dogs that can't sit on command, are jumping all over us, mouthing us, or pissing themselves in terror and wanting to bite our faces off because they're so afraid of strangers. This is not the dogs' faults but it doesn't make us like them either.

4- This seems to be a bit less of an issue now, or at least less of an issue where I am, but a lot of people don't... groom them? Some breeders even specifically say to not get them seen at the groomer before they're a year old???? And people hear "non-shedding" (potentially A LIE) and then... don't.... brush them? So then they turn into a solid felted mat and they become a groomer's behaviour-nightmare-shear-it-like-a-sheep-"What do you mean you couldn't leave the hair long?!?!?!?"

5- Oh gods, the ENDLESS EAR INFECTIONS AND ALLERGIES AND GI ISSUES

So yeah, that's the quick and dirty on why "ugh, doodles"... at least it's a little shorter than a why "UGH, frenchies" would be

dog groomer here to second the UGH, DOODLES

It's mostly cavoodles and groodles (aka goldendoodles) here, with a fair amount of labradoodles, borderdoodles, moodles (x maltese) and spoodles (x cocker) too. The number of times I've had a client not realise their dog is matted to the skin (sometimes with grass seeds embedded in those mats), or be surprised that they have to brush it ('but it doesn't shed!'), or who say they bought an oodle because they thought it was 'low-maintenance'...!

And many of them, especially groodle, cavoodles, and borderdoodles, can be very sooky or silly or anxious if not very well socialised in general from a young age, including to the grooming salon. Groodles dance all over the table when you try to do anything to their feet, borderdoodles (like collies) can often be snappy for brushing and drying, and cavoodles are very silly and sooky for faces and feet - especially because their owners often baby them and therefore inadvertently reward behaviours like crying and cowering instead of teaching them confidence.

Of course they're not the only breeds for which this is true, but we see so much of them and they're so often under-socialised that you always sigh internally and brace yourself a bit when you see a new dog of any of those breeds on the book.

In the past two weeks, I've had one owner cancel twice on appointments for her six-month-old cavoodle's first groom (please introduce your dog to grooming younger than that), because it just didn't end up being convenient to her on the day. We always try to make a puppy's first groom just a bath and tidy, not taking length off the body, so they have time to get used to the room and the sounds and sensations before having to undergo a full groom; but it's around the six month mark that I find most owners of curly-coated breeds start to struggle to maintain the coat, as it begins to change from the short soft puppy coat which doesn't mat readily.

Side note, we book out three to six weeks in advance. The only reason she managed to get rescheduled twice in a short period is because I put her on the wait list for any cancellations and am actively prioritising her puppy above people that have been on the wait list longer than she has!

Because I'm really hoping I get to see this baby early enough that I can introduce her to the process gently: I WANT to set her up for a lifetime of calm happy grooming; but for that, I need the owner to actually prioritise her dog and actually bring her to me.

(also, yes, ha, I always get a bit of a chuckle out of 'he's not a cross-breed! he's a pure groodle!')