Labradoodle

A Labradoodle is a crossbred dog created by crossing the Labrador Retriever and the Standard or Miniature Poodle.The impetus behind experiments with this type of cross was the desire to achieve an guide dog for the blind that would not shed and so produce a hypoallergenic dog that is suitable for people with allergies to fur and dander. The original Australian creator attempted to combine the Poodle's low-shed coat with the gentleness and trainability of one of the more common seeing-eye dog breeds, the Labrador. This has not yet been reliably achieved in the lower generations of crosses, as Labradoodles have varying coat lengths and textures, and one needs to breed beyond the first generation to begin to have reliable coat type. However, the coat usually remains freer from dog odors than that of some Labradors.The man who first crossed the Labrador Retriever and Poodle for Guide Dogs Australia , Wally Conron, has expressed reservations beyond the look of the coat to confusion about how few Labradoodles are actually hypoallergenic. There is a commonly held belief that all poodle-Labrador crosses are safe for people with allergies, and this is not the case. Conron also stated that "This is not the case and their coats and saliva have to be specially tested. At the Royal Guide Dogs, for instance, we had one litter where there were ten puppies and out of those only two were non-allergenic." The litters Conran refers to were early generation crosses. Non-allergenic refers to more than non-shedding, as many people have allergies to saliva, hair and/or dander. In general, later generations of labradoodles such as the Australian Labradoodles are more consistently tolerated than earlier generations.The Labradoodle is still under development. Strictly speaking, the Labradoodle cannot yet be described as a dog breed because it does not breed true. In breeders' terms, breeding true means that, when two specimens of the same breed are mated.