Well, yes, you voluntarily joined a thread where you were clearly outnumbered.
And you didn’t answer the questions I asked - why did you choose this mix rather than either of the two original breeds?
If it was a rescue, it may just that this dog was available at the time you were looking for one, and that you did not seek out a breeder for the purpose of buying a mixed breed dog.
No one here blames the dogs for their mixed breed status. We question the breeders’ intentions, which is usually just money grabbing.
For those who are “waiting for people to die”, held back by a generation that has made itself too high a bar of gatekeeping …
You might consider breaking away and forming your own club. It can exist in parallel to the older club, and function as the more effective outreach to people who are newer to the interest. Everyone gets to stay in their comfort space.
Many interests and sports tend to develop the same problem, the leadership is not keeping up and it is hurting the passing down of knowledge and passion to the future. That tends not to change as much as expected, as over time many of the current participants morph into old people who continue these ways.
There is nothing wrong with setting up two groups, one that comforts and maintains the older more staid participants, and one that develops the future of the interest.
The danger of gatekeeping is that it is so effective that the interest dies off with the older group.
When strict gatekeeing happens in a younger group, the group does not grow and becomes a closed and peculiar system that may or may not self-maintain into the future.
The history and behavior of committed, long-term groups is in intriguing study in humanity.
We have considered all the options. The only solution is to win a majority of board seats, which may have actually happened in November. And the reasons the progressive members want to be involved at the national level are multi-faceted, involving our outreach, membership growth, breeder support, finance/budget, national events, etc.
I don’t think anyone needs to be a “gate keeper” but it’s unfair to expect individual breeders to take up the charge to educate the general public. That is (supposed to be) one of the main functions of a parent club.
Our Board is mainly interested in one national event. Which might have been fine in the hey days of purebred fancy where breed clubs needed no marketing and didn’t need to provide value to members. But those days are long gone.
We’re doing this in standard bred chickens finally, and there is some resistance from “the old guard.” The FB page is now posting side by side comparisons of well-bred birds and their hatchery counterparts and talking about some of the differences. I think dog breed clubs could be doing similar, really getting them out there and showing why it would be better to find a well-bred individual. The Poodles especially could really use some good press, as has been mentioned many times that what most folks like about the doodles is already present (and often better, like the coats) in actual Poodles.
I don’t know how many on here follow TikTok much but there’s a creator with a Sheepadoodle named Bunny that is doing the communication buttons and is wildly, massively popular. Bunny has anxiety and some other quirks. The lady has chosen a purebred Poodle for her second puppy rather than another doodle. I wish she would talk more about why.
I’d guess the ‘why’ may be what someone above alluded to : probably that the parents of the doodle were not the best examples of good breed temperament.
I agree that many doodles are hyper- anxious misfits. Not at all what I remember the full poodles were back in the day. Standard Poodles ‘used to be’ considered one of the best all around family pets- as promoted by many vets who saw them regularly.
Like many breeds I guess the poor breeders have created many poor examples of those breeds.
Quantity over Quality.
I probably wasn’t very clear, the lady DID say why (because the doodle is neurotic, basically) but I wish she would talk about it more frequently is what I meant.
I will bet the sign gets them all sold, however many they have. And yes those puppies will end up in a home where someone drives by a sign and thinks “I’ve been thinking of getting the kids a puppy, and doodles are supposed to be cute and don’t shed - right?”
One of the best dogs I ever had was a pup I got from a guy giving away a litter out of the back of his truck. I was looking for a dog, but it was still a bit of an impulse acquisition. I knew good and well that the best source isn’t likely to be the guy with a box of of oops dogs in a Walmart parking lot…but it happened. At least they were giveaways and not advertised as anything other than the hound/lab crosses they were.
I don’t think anyone disagrees. We’ve all owned/seen the best dogs EVER that were the farthest thing from an akc recognized breed, ain’t nothing wrong with that. But paying 4 figures for that dog is reprehensible. And don’t get me wrong if you want a dog and you have the money and you want to pay a lot of money, that’s nobody’s business but yours. But the vast majority of these buyers think they’re buying into some kind of temperament and health guarantee for the price they pay and that’s just not right.
The lady that pointed me to my Welsh Terrier is a good representative of that type of breeder. She is one of the top, top breeders in the U.S. and although she is in her early 70’s, she was in the business world long enough to understand about marketing and outreach. She has a very good website – well designed, informative, and stocked with photos and stories about not only show ring successes but also about dogs she has placed in pet homes. She also maintains an active FB presence. She is retired from the business world and mostly retired from breeding – she keeps 1 or 2 dogs out campaigning with a professional handler, but in general has a good bit of free time to effectively manage her web and FB presence. She is also very good about fielding inquiries from people and is now mentoring younger breeders as they develop their programs.
Yes, the guy I actually got my dog from does not have a web site, nor does he have much of a FB presence. Although he is a breeder, he is also a professional handler so is on the road pretty much all the time going to shows. He focuses on the client dogs so much that he doesn’t have much time to promote his own and tends to get his puppies placed strictly by word of mouth through contacts he makes in the dog show world. He also operates a groom shop and is usually there on his rare off days from the dog shows, and has placed puppies and older dogs that way, too. But he was never in the corporate business world and I think not only doesn’t really “get it” about marketing, etc., but also never developed the “techie” skills to develop/manage a web site or FB page. And, as I mentioned earlier, I did have to chase him for a few weeks to finalize arrangement to get my dog. He responded fairly quickly to my first inquiry but then was out dog showing the next few weeks and very slammed with higher priorities (such as tending to paying clients, LOL). It was a hectic time of year for him but it all worked out in the end.
I was away from the dog show scene for probably 30 years and went to a few local shows about three years ago (haven’t been to any since because of life and Covid). I did not notice an overabundance of “old-timers” at the shows I went to, but I only watched a few breed classes and then several groups. There were certainly some gray-haired breeder/owner/handlers toddling around the rings - esp. in the breed rings - but most of the exhibitors seemed to be in the 30-50 age group.
I hate to think that the art and sport of breeding purebred dogs is waning. It used to be that it was often a “family” endeavor, and many of the younger breeders/exhibitors had been raised in the sport. A lot of them came up through the AKC junior handler program, but I don’t know how that system is doing these days. S1969 is more plugged into the conformation shows than I am, so perhaps she can weigh in on that aspect.
lots of scammers out there subtly requesting deposits and then full payment before buyers even see the puppies or have a meeting with breeder. Then the buyer gets ghosted after sending money.
I was surprised so many people fall for this. But a puppy purchase is an emotional purchase, which makes it so much easier to scam people. It must work frequently because so many are doing it. Buyer Beware!!
What I don’t get is why so many people are outraged that a purebred puppy from a good breeding program might cost a few thousand $$$, but then don’t hesitate to pay that amount for a puppy from a BYB or a puppy mill. And often times, will pay that amount for a mixed breed (including Doodles of any variety). Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot on that line of reasoning.
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