oodles of poodles
Choosing a dog has never been so confusing! As Ant splashes £2,000 on a pair of Maltipoos, meet the mutts whose owners are crossbreed crazy . . .
THEY’rE cute, cuddly and have adorable names. No wonder TV presenter Ant McPartlin has adopted two Maltipoos — a cross between a Maltese terrier and a miniature poodle. Milo and Bumble cost Ant, 43, a reported £1,000 each.
Thanks to a growing celebrity fanbase and breeders experimenting with ever-crazier combinations, poodle crossbreeds are eight times more prevalent today than a decade ago — with ‘poos’ and ‘doodles’ everywhere.
So who came up with the first ‘Franken-fido’? Why are they so expensive? And has our passion for poodle crosses gone too far?
Crossbreed pick ’n’ mix
TO DATE, there are around 30 poodle crossbreeds in the UK. The most popular is the labradoodle, first bred in the late Eighties from a Labrador retriever and a poodle, followed by the cockapoo (a Cocker Spaniel-poodle mix).
Maltipoos, Yorkipoos (Yorkshire terrier-poodle), schnoodles (schnauzer-poodle) and pomapoos (Pomeranian-poodle) became popular in the early 2000s and recently there’s been a boom in cavapoos (Cavalier King Charles spaniel-poodle) and bassetoodles (a basset hound-poodle).
Over the past decade, however, breeders have experimented with even more unusual crossbreeds — such as the Saint Berdoodle (a Saint Bernard-poodle), great danoodle (Great Dane and a poodle) and doodleman pinscher (Doberman pinscher-poodle).
There is, in theory, no limit to the number of poodle crosses, as long as the parents are able to mate (in most cases, the larger of the two must be the female so it can carry the pup).
You can get the Irish wolfdoodle (Irish wolfhound-poodle), boodle (an English bulldog crossed with a poodle), and dalmadoodle (Dalmatian-poodle), all striking in appearance.
‘It seems that anything goes,’ says Barb Turnbull of the Doodle Trust rescue charity. ‘People are crossing anything and everything with a poodle to create cute pups.’
Experts agree that if a poodle cross mates with another identical cross, or one of its parent breeds, the offspring will be the same breed as the cross.
But, if a cross mates with a different purebreed — or another type of hybrid dog — then three or even four-way mixes are possible: such as the cavapoochon, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel-poodlebichon frise cross.
Wally’s wonder-dog
BrEEDEr Wally Conron started the craze for poodle crosses in 1988 while working at the royal Guide Dog Association Of Australia.
Asked to come up with a suitable dog for a short-sighted wife and a husband allergic to animal hair, he bred a Labrador (a reliable guide dog) with a poodle (which doesn’t shed its hair) and called the offspring a ‘labradoodle’.
‘All of a sudden, people wanted this wonder dog,’ Wally, 85, has previously explained. ‘Not in my wildest dream did I imagine all this would happen.’ Since then, he said, people have exploited the crossbreed concept to make money, leading to ‘horrific’ breeding practices and ‘unhealthy’ dogs.
Wally blames himself for opening ‘Pandora’s box’ and creating the pet world’s ‘Frankenstein’.
A-list accessories . . .
DESPITE Wally’s regrets, the poodle crossbreeds are the musthave pet among the A-list elite.
Singer rihanna dotes on her maltipoo, Oliver; Katy Perry’s cavapoo, Butters, is the ultimate red carpet accessory; while actress Jennifer Aniston, model Christie Brinkley and actor Orlando Bloom are devoted labradoodle owners. Singer Demi Lovato’s maltipoo, Batman, has its own Instagram account with 88,600 followers.
. . . and internet stars
AUSTrALIAN labradoodle reagan has 452,000 followers on Instagram, American sheepadoodle (a sheepdog-poodle cross) Zammy boasts 132,000 and Liverpudlian cockapoo Marley, who is a parttime model, has 45,600 Insta-fans.
But animal welfare experts fear the exposure is increasing demand among owners who care less about their pets than their online ‘likes’.
Cash on the nose
POODLE crosses cost between £800 and £5,000 — equivalent to many purebred pedigrees. At the top end is the whoodle, a wheaten terrier-poodle cross, which can cost £5,000, then the pugapoo, a pug-poodle cross, which can set you back as much as £4,000.
A ‘poo or ‘doodle can cost between £15 and £45 a month to insure (a Yorkshire terrier costs around £10 a month), totalling up to £540 a year.
One of the family
POODLE crosses are often marketed at families. ‘They’re intelligent, boisterous and tend to have good temperaments, making them easy to train,’ explains Marc Abraham of charity Pup Aid, which aims to combat puppy farming.
Poodles are said to be the second-
most intelligent dog, after border collies, while the typical mix breeds are affectionate (Maltese), sociable (Labradors) and playful (Schnauzers). The belief that they’re non-shedding is a myth. ‘A 100 per cent poodle will not shed as much as many other breeds, but as soon as you cross it with another breed you lose that advantage — possibly totally,’ explains Beverley Cuddy, editor of Dogs Today magazine.
Genetic timebomb
MANY believe crossbreeding eliminates genetic defects, but experts are doubtful. ‘Take a Labrador with hip problems and cross it with a poodle with bad eyesight, and you’ll end up with a labradoodle that can’t walk properly and can’t see,’ says Marc Abraham, who regularly sees poodle crosses at his Brighton surgery.
Barb Turnbull of the Doodle Trust says another problem occurs when breeders mate miniature or toy poodles with larger breeds. ‘There is no shortcut to miniaturising a breed,’ she adds. ‘Crossing a large breed with a small breed creates skeletal problems and the resulting puppies will probably end up crippled.’
Other issues include dogs with brains too big for their skulls, and large puppies which have to be born by Caesarean.
Pet neuroses
CROSSBREEDING hunters (such as a Beagle or Springer Spaniel) with playful poodles, is a recipe for trouble. Vet Katherine Hunter says: ‘They are often anxious, reactive to noise and prone to biting if scared. That makes treating them tricky. They often have to be sedated for simple procedures such as nail trims.’
Check the paperwork
DEMAND has resulted in puppy farms — often in Wales or Eastern Europe — where pups are pumped out in their thousands.
Many suffer from parasites, kidney problems and respiratory disorders. The Kennel Club says one in five bought via the internet dies before it is six months old.
A recent Bill — soon to become law — makes third-party selling illegal.
‘Always demand the health certificates and ask to see the puppy interacting with its mother before buying it,’ advises Marc Abraham of Pup Aid.