The Roodle is a cross between a Poodle and a Rottweiler. They are the successful creation of a breeder from Melbourne, Australia. Fred Freeman has successfully bred 3 litters of Roodles, some going as far afield as Hawaii.
Roodles have the crinkly coat of a poodle, but larger. They are quite stocky, and fairly big, with long floppy ears. Mr Freeman describes the dogs as having the intelligence of a Rottweiler, yet docile and easy to train. His Roodles are also non aggressive, do not moult, don't smell, and are low on the allergy scale.
The idea of creating a non allergic dog was what started the original breeder of theLabradoodle, Wally Conran. Wally was the Manager of the Royal Guide Dog Association in Australia at the time. Someone needing a guide dog who was non allergenic contacted the Guide Dog Association, and Wally successfully crossed a Labrador with a poodle that fitted this purpose.
So, the origins of the Labradoodle were quite in keeping with the way many of what are now considered pure bred dogs were created. That is, they were created with a specific purpose in mind.
But the popularity of the Labradoodle has created a new set of problems. Namely, many unscrupulous people, some with no experience breeding dogs, and others with none, or little, experience breeding Labradoodles or other similar crosses, jumped on the bandwagon. Demand meant that these dogs were expensive, supply was short, and this attracted many into this new field.
But breeding dogs, especially across different breeds, is not simple. In Wally Conran's original efforts, not all Labradoodles were low in allergy. And when it comes to trying to come up with new mixes, a lack of knowledge can produce disastrous results. For instance, breeding two dogs with similar genetic weaknesses can lead to the new litters born with an increased chance of the health problems associated with those breeds.
Other factors include disposition. If people are expecting certain traits based on what decent breeders have produced, and they pay a lot of money for a dog that turns our to be completely different, those dogs may well end up being abandoned.
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