Why I Only Breed Australian Labradoodles
Okay, I’m just going to say it.
I think the Australian Labradoodle is the best doodle breed.
There. I said it.
And if you’ve spent any time looking for a doodle puppy, you already know there are A LOT of doodles out there. Goldendoodles, Bernedoodles, Aussiedoodles, Sheepadoodles… you can pretty much put a dog breed in a blender with a Poodle and somebody somewhere is probably breeding it.
But at Berrybrook Doodles, I only breed one.
Australian Labradoodles.
And that isn't because I don't think the other doodles are cute. Trust me, I have eyes. All doodle puppies are adorable. That's how they get you, but that's also how you could bring home a high energy herding cross breed that chases the kids around the house and barks non stop...we see you Aussiedoodles, (Australian Shepherds mixed with a poodle.)
For me, that breed is the Australian Labradoodle.
It's the dog we brouoght home to be our family pet in 2006 and she changed our lives.
The Australian Labradoodle started with a purpose in Australia in the 1980s, when service dog trainers were crossing breeeds in an effort to develop a guide dog that could also work for people with allergies.
Breeders spent generations selectively breeding for temperament, coat, structure, health and consistency. Other breeds were eventually incorporated into the development of what we now recognize as the Australian Labradoodle.
That history matters to me.
Because I don't want to just produce a cute doodle puppy.
I want to produce a wonderful dog.
I want smart. I want trainable. I want affectionate. I want social. I want a dog who genuinely wants to be with its people. And most importantly, I want a dog with the temperament to hopefully be a fantastic companion and family member.
That's what I love about the Australian Labradoodle.
They are incredibly smart, but they aren't just smart for the sake of being smart. They tend to be very people-oriented. They want to participate in whatever you're doing. If you're cooking dinner, they're interested. If you're folding laundry, they're interested. If you go to the bathroom alone, apparently that's suspicious and they need to investigate.
Bathroom privacy? Never heard of it.
And while every individual dog is different, the Australian Labradoodle has been developed with companion temperament in mind. I want friendly, confident, social dogs that can fit into real family life.
That's a big part of why I don't feel the need to breed five or six different doodle breeds.
I've had people ask me why I don't add Goldendoodles. Or Bernedoodles. Or Aussiedoodles.
And my answer is pretty simple: I don't want to.
Not because I think those dogs can't be wonderful. They absolutely can.
But when I look at what I'm trying to accomplish with my breeding program, I don't see a reason to change what I believe is already a pretty great recipe.
Take the Goldendoodle, for example. Golden Retrievers are wonderful dogs, but they also have some serious breed-specific health concerns, including a significant cancer burden. That doesn't mean every Goldendoodle will develop cancer, of course. But health and genetics matter to me, and I think they should matter when we're deciding which dogs to put into a breeding program.
Then there are Bernedoodles. Who doesn't want a teddy bear with four legs? I get it. They're adorable. I can also breed the triphantom pattern i nthe ALD.
But Bernese Mountain Dogs have their own significant health challenges and, as a breed, a shorter life expectancy than I would want to build my breeding program around and they are known as being aloof at times. I am looking for a connection between my dogs and their humans.
And Aussiedoodles? Also adorable. Also smart. But Australian Shepherds were developed as working herding dogs, and that can mean more herding and working instinct than some families are looking for in a companion dog.
I don't want my dog trying to herd my children across the kitchen.
I have enough going on.
This is where the Australian Labradoodle makes so much sense to me.
I love the combination of intelligence, trainability, companionship, temperament and coat. I love that this breed was developed over generations with the goal of creating a consistent companion dog rather than simply making another cute cross.
And I really love that responsible Australian Labradoodle breeding involves a tremendous amount of health testing and ethical standards that my associations insist on to reduce the burden that dogs can have on shelters. We are required to have a spay and neuter agreement and a genetic health warranty.
This is the part that isn't nearly as fun to talk about as puppy pictures, but it matters enormously.
(but hey, puppy pictures and let me throw this one in)
At Berrybrook, health testing isn't something I do because it sounds good on a website. It is part of deciding which dogs should be part of my breeding program in the first place. Hips, elbows, patellas, eyes and genetic testing are all pieces of the bigger picture.
Because dogs are living creatures, not appliances with a five-year warranty.
There are no guarantees in breeding. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. But I can make thoughtful decisions. I can health test. I can study pedigrees. I can look at generations of dogs. I can pay attention to temperament. I can be picky about which dogs I breed.
And that's exactly what I want to do.
I also choose to breed multigenerational Australian Labradoodles.
You'll sometimes hear the term "cross-back" when talking about Labradoodles. A cross-back means breeding an Australian Labradoodle back to a Poodle or Labrador Retriever to bring those genetics back into the pedigree.
That's not what we do at Berrybrook.
Our dogs are very multigenerational Australian Labradoodles, with generations of Australian Labradoodle pedigree behind them. That history gives me something important: information. I can look at the dogs, their parents, their grandparents and their pedigrees and make breeding decisions based on generations of information rather than simply looking at two cute dogs and thinking, "Yep, those puppies are going to be adorable."
Because let's be honest. Two cute dogs are probably going to make cute puppies.
But cute isn't enough for me.
I want wonderful.
And that's really the heart of why I only breed Australian Labradoodles.
I don't need the puppy superstore.
I don't want a puppy buffet.
I want to know my breed inside and out. I want to know the pedigrees behind my dogs. I want to understand the health testing. I want to watch how my dogs develop and how their puppies grow. I want to learn from every litter and use that information to make the next generation even better.
That doesn't mean I think Australian Labradoodles are perfect. No breed is. They're still dogs. They will steal your socks, follow you from room to room, stare directly at you while ignoring a command they performed perfectly five minutes ago, and somehow take up the entire bed.
"Did I do that?"
But when I look at the Australian Labradoodle as a whole, I genuinely believe this breed brings together so many of the qualities families are looking for in a companion dog.
And after all these years, I still love that.
So yes, Berrybrook Doodles only breeds one breed.
Australian Labradoodles.
Not because there aren't other adorable doodles out there.
But because I believe I've found the one that I want to put my time, energy, experience and heart into.
I don't need to breed everything.
I just want to breed what I believe is the best doodle breed.
And for me, that's the Australian Labradoodle.
Yep.
We got this one right.
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