retriever parentage makes them mouthy. Their mouths are most active when they are puppies, and your Goldendoodle will use her mouth on you or your children if not properly trained. An easy way to train your Goldendoodle is to work with her natural tendency to retrieve items. Whenever she gets mouthy with you or a family member, put a favorite toy in her mouth; in no time she’ll be grabbing a toy each time she approaches you or starts to feel frisky.
All puppies, no matter the breed, are busy and active. Goldendoodles are no exception. Often, their mellow, calm temperament becomes more apparent as they approach maturity. This is why it is essential to work with a breeder who is actively breeding for good health and calm temperaments.
It is critical for prospective owners to take their time to research and interview breeders before purchasing a puppy. All puppies are cute. Sadly, not all puppies are healthy, nor are all breeders honest and ethical. The work you put in to locate a reputable, responsible Goldendoodle breeder goes a long way toward bringing a happy, healthy Goldendoodle into your family. Ideally, breeders of Goldendoodles breed for sound, genetically healthy dogs with good, gentle temperaments and low- to nonshedding coats. You must do your due diligence, as the popularity of the Goldendoodle motivates many unscrupulous breeders. Carefully read the section later in this chapter on how to choose a breeder on page 10. It will make a significant difference in the quality of the dog you take home.
GOLDENDOODLE COAT TYPES
As a general rule, the curlier the coat, the less likely it is to shed and spread allergens. The Goldendoodle’s hair grows to four to six inches long and usually has a wavy or curly look to it. In the early days of Goldendoodles, coat type could be a hit or a miss. Today, using genetic testing, your breeder can give you an accurate description of your puppy’s adult coat based on length, curl, and probability of shedding.
TYPES OF GOLDENDOODLES
The term “Goldendoodle” covers a multitude of Golden Retriever/Poodle/Goldendoodle combinations. Goldendoodles are identified by two distinct categories. The first, and most apparent, variable is size. The other variable is generations. But to make matters just a bit more complicated, each size can also have generational variables.
What Size?
Not sure which size matches the dog you want, but have a clear picture in your mind? Simply take a tape measure and measure your leg from the floor to where you imagine the shoulders of your full-grown Goldendoodle.
Size
A dog’s size is measured at the withers, not at the top of the head. The withers are the highest part of the back at the base of the neck.
According to the Goldendoodle Association of North America (GANA), Goldendoodles fall into four size categories:
• Standard Range: Height at the withers over 21 inches (53 cm); weight 51 pounds (23 kg) or more.
• Medium Range: Height at the withers over 17 inches (43 cm) but under 21 inches (53 cm); weight 36–50 pounds (16–23 kg).
• Miniature Range: Height at the withers over 14 inches (36 cm) but under 17 inches (43 cm); weight 26–35 pounds (12–16 kg).
• Petite Range: Height at the withers below 14 inches (36 cm); weight generally 25 pounds (11 kg) or less.
Reprinted with permission from Goldendoodle Association of North America (GANA), 2018.
Generations
Until recent advances in canine genetic testing allowed for significantly higher levels of accuracy in terms of coat length, curl, furnishings, and nonshedding in the first breeding of a Golden Retriever and a Poodle, many breeders relied on the antiquated concept of hybrid vigor and their own experience with their breeding dogs. Hybrid vigor derives from the idea that the offspring of two unrelated breeds of the same species will receive all of the parents’ good traits and few of the bad. This works as long as the parent breeds do not have a common gene for a genetic defect.
Genetic testing for coat type has eliminated the need for additional backcrossing and multiple generations in breeding. However, there are many good breeders, prior to the availability of genetic testing for coat type, who invested a tremendous amount of time and energy to develop health-tested breeding lines that produce consistently reliable nonshedding coats—and the quality of the dogs they breed should not be discounted. So, let’s take a look at the various generations of Goldendoodles. You can work with either a breeder who does genetic testing for coat quality and/or a long-time breeder whose experience and commitment has also resulted in top-quality Goldendoodles.
It is critical that both breeding parents and, ideally, the previous generations are tested for, and pass, all the potential genetic defects and diseases (see “Health and Wellness,” pages 44–46).
F1 The breeding of a Golden Retriever with one of the following four sizes of Poodle—Standard, Moyen/Klein (medium), Miniature, and Toy—results in a litter of F1 puppies or First Generation. “F” stands for the Latin word filial or generation. Both Golden Retrievers and Poodles have the recessive gene for long coats; therefore, F1 Goldendoodles carry two genes for long coats. Because of the two long coat genes, many Goldendoodle breeders don’t breed beyond the initial pairing of the Golden Retriever and the Poodle.
F1b The F1b Goldendoodle is the breeding of an F1 Goldendoodle backcrossed (b) with a Poodle. This yields a dog twenty-five percent Golden Retriever and seventy-five percent Poodle. By adding more Poodle into the genetic mix, the likelihood of a curly, nonallergy-inducing coat is higher. As noted above, genetic testing for coat length, curl, furnishings, and nonshedding attributes now make this backcrossing unnecessary. However, not all breeders are up to speed with genetic testing for coat-related genes and may successfully produce reliable coats without genetic testing.
F2 The F2 Goldendoodle results when both parents are F1 Goldendoodles. While this yields a dog that is still fifty percent Golden Retriever and fifty percent Poodle, the F2 is a more genetically diverse dog than the F1. The primary advantage of F2 breeding is the ability to select the most desirable traits from a breeder’s F1 Goldendoodles and reproduce them consistently.
Multigen According to GANA, the multigen (multiple generational) Goldendoodle is the result of breeding two Goldendoodles. However, unlike the F2, one of the multigen parents must be either an F1b Goldendoodle or another multigen Goldendoodle.
Additionally, a multigen Goldendoodle bred to a Poodle is also considered a multigen Goldendoodle.
Reprinted with permission from Goldendoodle Association of North America (GANA), 2018.
