I just read an article on AOL about the breeder of the very first "on-purpose" Labradoodle. He says he regrets what he started, because he started a trend that went off the charts in an extremely short amount of time. Of course, this might seem like a good thing, but no. Not when you get down to the American outlook on just about everything.
You see, the Labradoodle was meant to be a service dog. The original breeder is actually a service dog trainer. He bred the Labradoodle because he had a client whose husband was extremely allergic to dogs, but who badly needed a seeing-eye dog. He meant for the dogs to be used as helpful companions and life-savers. But what ended up happening was that everyone went and bought a Labradoodle from anywhere they could get it. Don't get me wrong, they are a wonderful solution to the family that wants a dog but has allergic members. However, because these dogs became so suddenly popular, several people saw these dogs as a way to make some quick cash. This problem exists even with purebred dogs, and it has for a long time, and probably always will. Still, that doesn't make it right. These dogs were not meant for people to make money off of them, they were meant to do good and to have a purpose.
This article that I just read also mentioned that there are people who are trying to get the Labradoodle recognized as a breed. This is frustrating, because these people obviously don't know what defines a breed. A breed takes way longer than a few years to develope. Most of the purebred dogs you see are the product of selective breeding and several generations of dogs. These breeds did not suddenly appear in less than a decade to become what they are now. For instance, the Labradoodle is not guaranteed in the second generation to be completely allergy-free. Only a few out of every second-gen litter are hypoallergenic. In order to become a true breed with that trait, it would take a lot more selective breeding and decades of work on the part of breeders everywhere for the Labradoodle to become the well-developed breed that it has the potential to be, and that many others have already become. I'm sure Labradoodles are great dogs, but I don't believe the cross in general has what it takes to become a recognized breed at this stage in the game. It took centuries for every other breed-or at least the ones recognized by the AKC-to be recognized as a breed, because they were bred for a long time and all the dogs of that breed shared many of the same traits. This is what constitutes a breed. Not the popularity. Ha. Those last two sentances summed it all up.
I really wish people would get some common sense. The way America is right now, everyone expects things to happen over night, and it doesn't work like that. Especially when it comes to animals, people just have no common sense or courtesy. No one takes the time to examine the situation, and it causes problems. I hate this about the human race, but there isn't much I can do about it now, is there? But anyway, enough of my ranting about peoples' stupidity(although you'll probably see a lot more of these rants from me in the future, I'm sure).
