The history of the breed

The history of the breed

Labra­do­odle is undo­ub­te­dly a remar­ka­ble dog. His story began in Austra­lia in 1988. One woman, whose eyesi­ght dete­rio­ra­ted, began seeking an assi­stance dog. Howe­ver, it was sup­po­sed to be a dog that did not cause aller­gic reac­tions of her hus­band. The reason why the woman chose Hawaii instead of Austra­lia where he lived, was obvious. In Austra­lia, there are very strict quaran­tine rules, much stric­ter than for Hawaii. So a dog tra­ve­ling from Austra­lia to Hawaii would not need to go thro­ugh the quarantine.

In response to the woman’s requ­est, aro­und thirty sam­ples of poodle’s hair and saliva have been sent to the labo­ra­tory in Hawaii. Those sam­ples were exa­mi­ned in order to check the con­tents of aller­gens. Unfor­tu­na­tely, none of them have suc­cess­fully pas­sed the test, which meant that none of these dogs would be appro­priate for a woman’s hus­band, who was aller­gic.
After some time, Wally Con­ron sug­ge­sted the mana­ge­ment of an Austra­lian Asso­cia­tion of Wor­king Dog, to cross Labra­dor with Poodle. This is how the first lit­ter was born. The lit­ter con­si­sted of three pup­pies and Wally cal­led them “Labra­do­odle.” Again the sam­ples of hair and saliva were sent to the labo­ra­tory. One of the pup­pies pas­sed the tests suc­cess­fully. The dog named Sul­tan went to Hawaii to spend the rest of his life along­side his mistress, as a wor­king dog. From what I know – at the age of 10 he was still wor­king as an assi­stance dog. After this suc­cess W. Con­ron cros­sed Labra­do­odle with Labra­do­odle and named its offspring “Double Doodles.” Then he cros­sed the “double Doodle” with “double Doodle,” and named their offspring “Tri Doodles.” These in turn were the pre­cur­sors of today’s multi-generational Austra­lian Labra­do­odles.
When Wally reti­red, Kate Scho­ef­fel — vet from Austra­lia who was with him in con­stant con­tact, star­ted her pro­gram, in which she cros­sed Labra­dors and minia­ture Poodles.
A few years later, new bre­eders deli­gh­ted with the look of the dogs star­ted “mas­sive pro­duc­tion” not con­cen­tra­ting of what is the best the breed has to offer – hypo aller­gic poten­tial as well as the service dog abi­li­ties. After some time, howe­ver, new bre­eders appe­ared. They had a vision and an orga­ni­zed plan. Those are the ones who devo­ted all their lives to cre­ate a Multi-generation Austra­lian Labra­do­odle, which is reco­gni­zed today. In 1989, in Austra­lia, in Dar­num, Vic­to­ria, Rutland Manor Bre­eding and Rese­arch Cen­ter was cre­ated. It is led today by Bever­ley Man­ners. Her dogs: Labra­dors, Poodles and Labra­do­odle of 3rd gene­ra­tion, were the only dogs, on which such strict health tests were car­ried out. At the same time in Seaspray, Vic­to­ria Tegan Park Bre­eding and Rese­arch Cen­ter was foun­ded. It was owned by Angela Cun­nin­gham (dau­gh­ter of Bever­ley). Tegan Park, also tre­ated the mat­ter of health testing with a great cau­tion, using for repro­duc­tion only dogs that have pas­sed tests to detect gene­tic diseases. Both foun­ders — the Rutland Manor and Tegan Park, wor­ked on their pro­grams sepa­ra­tely, howe­ver their goals were iden­ti­cal. They spent years of stu­dies to fur­ther deve­lop the breed and archi­val reports were ana­ly­zed con­stan­tly. In their pro­grams they used a variety of com­bi­na­tions: retur­ning to Labra­dor, poodle, Labra­do­odles cros­sed with Labra­do­odles, and the results of these asso­cia­tions were care­fully ana­ly­zed every 12 mon­ths. Over the years of selec­tions two foun­ders mana­ged to eli­mi­nate the shed­ding coat. As a result of these actions mul­ti­ge­ne­ra­tio­nal Austra­lian Labra­do­odles, rarely shed or do not shed at all.
Tegan Park reti­red in 2008. Bever­ley Man­ners of Rutland Manor con­ti­nues her work today.
Years of con­scious selec­tion of the two cen­ters have led to what we reco­gnize today as a mul­ti­ge­ne­ra­tio­nal Austra­lian Labra­do­odle — Austra­lian wor­king dog. Not shed­ding, hypo­al­ler­ge­nic with a great tem­pe­ra­ment. A dog that is per­fect for the role of assi­stant or guide dog.
Some time ago Bever­ley told me a very touching story, of a girl suf­fe­ring from epi­lepsy, who rece­ived a Labra­do­odle from Bever­ley. The girl cal­led her dog “my Guar­dian Angel” — her guar­dian angel is inten­ded to alert her of an une­xpec­ted attack of epi­lepsy. Ever since he appe­ared in their family, the parents are much cal­mer as they know they leave their dau­gh­ter in “good paws”.
Stay­ing in touch with one of the rese­arch cen­ters which I visi­ted and staid for a month — Rutland Manor, I am ple­ased to con­ti­nue the pro­gram and cre­ate a history of an Austra­lian Labra­do­odle in Poland. I believe that here, this marve­lous breed will work mirac­les as well.