"The difference between Goldendoodles and the Golden Retriever"
"I started out a Golden Retriever fan and turned into a Goldendoodle fanatic." That's the comment we hear all the time. No surprise, either! I fell in love with the Golden Retriever back when I was a young child. I became a breeder for the Golden Retriever in 1996 after my tour ended in Germany as a soldier; We became a breeder for the Goldendoodle in 1999. Had anyone told me that I would create the most fantastic hybrid on the face of this planet, back in 1999, I would have told them they were seriously mental! I was a purebred dog fanatic through and through....that is, until the day I met Miss Henny Penny. In a way, I have my many years estranged, evil sister to thank for my reasoning at creating the Goldendoodle dog. It was, after all, she who abandoned Henny at my mothers' home in 1996. Henny was a Golden Retriever/Poodle mix. My mother, not being a dog person at all, called me and asked if my husband and I could drive down to her home in Florida to take Henny back home with us since my sister just left her at my mother's home and never came back to get her. It sounds very cold on both parties' part, I agree....but I was more than willing to make a 24 hour, round trip drive to bring Miss Henny back home with me because she was not only beautiful, she was the sweetest dog I had ever met and both she and I bonded the first time we ever met.
Why my estranged sister left her at my mother's home, I'll never know. She's has had abandonment issues for years. At any rate, we drove down to my mother's home and we picked up Miss Henny and we did bring her back home to live with us. She was spayed which was fine by me. We didn't rescue her to breed her. We rescued her because she was worth rescuing. We fell completely in love with Hennie the first time we ever met her and she made our lives complete when we brought her to our home in NC. The reason I even began my Goldendoodles in the first place was because Miss Henny had to be euthanized in 1999 after her kidneys began to fail. She had an inner ear infection when we brought her here to NC after picking her up from my mothers' home. We took her to our vet when we noticed she was acting strange and Our vet prescribed her "remidyl" for the inner ear infection after making his diagnosis. At the time she was prescribed the medication, we did not know that the rimedyl caused many health issues for dogs, including death. Miss Henny's kidneys began to fail in early '99 and unfortunately, we had to put her to sleep because her situation was terminal. Years later I discovered the company that makes this medication for dogs had multiple lawsuits against it for the medicine causing death as well as other issues for dogs. Having her put to sleep was the worst day of my life. We still miss her to this day. She had a personality like no other dog I had ever owned. She was very personable and was a terrific friend to both myself and my husband. It was sheer agony not having her at our door to greet us with her happy, smiling face!
I had never been a Poodle fan. My favorite breed was and still is, the Golden Retriever. On occasion, I would assist a breeder friend of mine with her Poodles. She needed help shaving them down on occasion and if I wasn't busy, I'd go over and help her groom her dogs. One day I went over and as I was looking at her Poodles, one particular boy caught my eye. I could see Henny's face in HIS face and jokingly I asked my friend...."What do you suppose the puppies would look like if I bred that poodle to one of my Golden Retriever females?" We laughed about it and we joked about what we'd call them. "Curly goldens"? "Golden-Poo"?? "Goldie-Poo"??? The list went on. Never did the name "Goldendoodle" even come to mind. To make a very long story short, I purchased my first Standard Poodle (see right) and named him "Scisco's Kid". A happy dog with a very calm temperament and very laid back, I fell in love with him immediately because he was very pretty, very calm and very laid back. In our first litter of Goldendoodles, one female puppy could have passed for Henny's twin! I was in instant love and our Goldendoodles began. Scisco's Kid was neutered in 2007 because of his age. We retired him. He's a lovely dog even now!
Golden Retrievers are fantastic dogs. I especially love my Goldens because they have been such hardy, happy dogs. But things are not always rosy with a Golden Retriever! Don't get me wrong. They are very loving, good natured dogs. The only downside to owning a Golden Retriever is the excessive shedding. Sure, they love to dig holes to China, but we can forgive them for that fault. Our Golden Retrievers are "field" style retrievers. They have distant Pekay Kennel ancestors. Before breeding, I wanted to learn about their ancestors because I had always heard that Golden Retrievers that had "Gold Rush" lines had multiple hip issues that ran through the lineage. Whether true or not, I didn't want to take the chance of finding out through puppies who would possibly have multiple issues. I had heard very good things about Pekay Kennels and that was the lineage I was interested in. Our Goldens have distant Champion ancestors that are not only companion dogs, but show dogs, Utility dogs and Master Hunters. After researching our Poodles' lineage for 2 years, I counted up to 400 OFAgood, Champion ancestors out of Wycliffe, Bel Tor, Dassin and Eaton lines that dated back to the early 1930s. I made several attempts at going further back, but discovered that many ancestors came out of Sweden, Germany, France and Scandinavia. Without knowing the European kennel club names for each country and how to contact them, I was not able to obtain further information. Researching a dogs' pedigree takes a very long time and is very time consuming but something that I decided to do to find out their family history.
Some American Goldens seem to have a blocky head with a short neck and short snout. This is usually the type of Golden you'll see at a dog show. Our Golden Retrievers have a beautiful round head, short feathering and nice long nose that serves them well for retrieving. Their short feathering serves them well in the field. Our Goldens love water and they love to splash and play in the water! Our first litter of doodles was produced in 1999 a few months after Henny passed away. Beautiful, fluffy, light apricot in color....I fell in instant love. I noticed alot of terrific things about the Goldendoodle! I never saw fly away hairs hovering over them. When I groomed them, I didn't see hairs all over the place. I noticed I could brush and brush and brush their coat and only a single strand would come out here and there. With my Golden Retrievers, there was hair all over the place! You could literally see the hairs flying in the air above the dog. The amount of shedding was incredible. Although both our Goldendoodle puppies and our Golden Retriever puppies acted the same where temperament was concerned, the shedding difference was tremendous. We still saw Golden Retriever features in our shaggy coat, Goldendoodle dogs. When first born, they looked just like purebred Golden Retriever pups with the exception of some crinkling in and about the coat. We noticed that the Goldendoodle coat began to fluff out away from the face around the fourth week of their life. Their body hair began to become fluffy right about the same age.
By the time our Goldendoodles turned eight weeks of age, they had a facial beard sprouting and their hairs were wisping in all directions. Back in 1999, we never had any doodles available beyond the 8th week, so it took several years before we could finally have coat information or any doodles that stayed with us for longer periods of time so that we could document everything we needed to pass on Goldendoodle information to the general public. In 1999, We would have 50 people on a waiting list and only eight pups available, so it was difficult having our pups around long enough to complete our research. That is why we had to start keeping a few back here and there. It was the only way we could document the coat changes and phases and learn for ourselves just what the Goldendoodle dog was all about. When I made the decision to create more doodles, I also made the decision to do as much research on this hybrid as possible. Hence why this website is so extensive now and so very comprehensive. People who are able to obtain the information from my website are able to obtain the info for free, even though it has personally been very time consuming and costly on my part. But I am aware also that because of my website, we've literally helped thousands of people over the years and that is just the way I would want it to be.
Like the Golden Retriever, our Goldendoodles are some of the happiest dogs. That isn't to say that we don't have to break up a fight or two every now and then and that isn't to say all has been roses, because it hasn't. Dogs are still dogs regardless of their breed and no matter how much we want to humanize them, they will never be humans nor will they ever act like humans. Dogs do not seem to have the ability to "reason".
They just have the ability to react and many times they don't react with "reason". We have to love them despite some of the flawed designs of the dog. If we could figure out a way to make them talk to us and figure out a way to get them to flush the toilet and keep clean, it would a miracle beyond miracles. Until we decided to keep a few Goldendoodles and place those specific Goldendoodles into our breeding program, we only saw the shaggy coat in our Goldendoodles. Once in a blue moon, we'd get a curly coat, but the majority of our coat type has been shaggy.
If one were to believe the fanatics of the GRCA (A foundation for Golden Retrievers), one would come away with entirely wacky views from the snooty snoot breeders of the Golden Retriever dog. This particular foundation became incensed over the idea of the Goldendoodle dog. So incensed to the point that some of their members actually left hate messages on our answering machine back in 1999. As if we were the first person on planet earth to breed a Golden Retriever to a Poodle dog! It was after we had our first litter in 1999 that I actually found out the Australians had created this mixture and called it a "Goldendoodle" and I did not know this prior to creating my first litter. I only discovered this because a person who purchased one of my very first Goldendoodle puppies brought with them a print out from an Australian breeder and it discussed this mixture. The site had no where near in depth as to what my site offers, but only that they intentionally created this mixture to help people who who needed an assistant dog but had allergies to shedding hairs that came from the Golden Retriever. When I tried to research the Goldendoodle, I discovered there was no information about this hybrid and so it was then I set out to begin the research on my own. Now thanks to my website, EVERYBODY knows what I've come to know over the years, but YOU get to know it for FREE.
Despite the fact the GRCA (Golden Retriever Club of America) has been actively trying to put a stop to the Goldendoodle hybrid by writing as much negative garbage as possible about this lovely hybrid on their website, the fact remains that the Goldendoodle dog is NOT a fad and they are HERE TO STAY regardless of what the snooty naysayers proclaim upon their ridiculous websites. Perhaps THEY wish the Goldendoodle dog would fade away, but the truth of the matter is, we've watched our purebred Golden Retriever puppies literally NOT sell while our Goldendoodles sold around them. We even stopped breeding the purebred Retriever for the doodle dog. Many try to encourage people to purchase their dogs from rescue groups or shelters and I have no problem with people adopting dogs from shelters. I've saved quite a few myself, but the problem with adopting from shelters or rescue groups is that you are not always guaranteed your getting a family oriented dog. Many dogs find themselves at the shelters because their owners placed them there. They either abandoned them or neglected them or didn't show them any kindness or love. Unfortunately this can ruin any sort of dog.
The GRCA as well as a few snooty Goldendoodle breeders who popped up on the bandwagon after 1999, want you to believe that only dogs who come from AKC registry or who have had numerous tests completed on them, are the only quality dogs out there on the market. I whole heartedly disagree with this notion. Since I have already discussed my reasons why we do NOT test any breeding dog, on my other pages upon this website, I'm not going to repeat myself upon this page but there is not a single test on the face of this planet, at this time, that can give a buyer 100% protection from their purchased pet coming down with some sort of health ailment at sometime during their life. Because tests are not the best way to help someone who is looking to buy a Golden Retriever or a Goldendoodle, we do highly recommend that a buyer obtain their dog from a breeder who has been around for a very long time and has the ability to observe for many years, the over all health and quality of their breeding dogs. Testing tells you absolutely NOTHING regarding puppies conceived by breeding dogs who have been tested. We have been a breeder for 12 yrs as of Jan. 2008. In our packet, we offer every customer 2 application forms. One is a DNA application form and the other is an OFA application form.
If the buyer wants to know if their Golden Retriever or Goldendoodle has any genetic issues, the DNA application can be submitted to have their purchased pets' DNA profiled by the genetic canine laboratory for a small fee. If they want to know how good or fair or poor their purchased pets' hips are, the OFA application is specially for that purpose and we include the application form in the buyers' binder. We have always stood behind the over all health and quality of our dogs. If a DNA profile determines that a purchased pet has a genetic issue that is causing a problem for the buyer and their pet, we have always agreed to replace the pet. To date, NO ONE has thus far shown us any genetic evidence that their Golden Retriever or Goldendoodle had a genetic health issue in all of these 12 years. A vet can say whatever they want to with regards to a pets' origins of their health issue but a vets' opinion is nothing more than "speculative". A DNA profile will say 100% yes or no whether the health issue is genetic or not by comparing DNA from the dog with the issue to that dogs' parents or lineage. I think we offer entirely more protection from a reality standpoint than breeders who want to sit on their butts proclaiming their dogs are better just because they paid for a few tests on their breeding dogs. A breeder who has testing conducted on their breeding dogs can no more guarantee that you will have a puppy that is completely free from a genetic health issue than a breeder who has no testing conducted. We offer the same guarantee that breeders offer who pay for all the expensive testing and that is that we agree to replace the pet if a genetic health issue has been determined to be just that...genetic. That is the same offer the breeder will offer you, if they test their dogs. What more can they possibly do for you, that we don't ??
Because there are no tests to this date (2008) for the Golden Retriever or the Poodle that can guarantee any offspring as being 100% genetically free from health issues (because dogs can be a silent carrier of defective polygenic genes, we refuse to waste our money on such ridiculously expensive tests).
