I imagine it would be difficult giving a medical review on a mixed breed, especially F1s, since the traits they could get vary a lot more than purebreeds. For example, my first gen labradoodle was unfortunate to get long skinny legs and a massive body, which rendered him unable to even stand for long periods despite keeping him as healthy as possible; yet other labradoodles are built much better from what I've seen of them. Do you agree this to be the case?
Labradoodles are funny. There’s the F1 Labradoodles, where one parent was a Labrador and one was a poodle, or there’s the multi-generation Labradoodles, including the ‘Australian Labradoodle’ which does contain both Labrador and poodle, but may also contain things like Cocker Spaniel and Curly Coated Retrievers.
Please note the disclaimer that theseposts are about the breed from a veterinary viewpoint as seenin clinical practice and isnot intended as a personal insult against your favorite breed. Thisis general advice for what is common, often with a scientificconsensus but sometimes based on personal experiences, and is not aguarantee of what an individual animal is going to encounter in their life. That said, I have quite a lot of experience with Australian Labradoodles from one very large puppy farm, both farm dogs and adopted pets.
It’s also worth realizing that Labradoodles can come in different sizes, just like the parent poodle breed can. They vary in coat type and color, with fleece coats and trendier colors attracting higher prices.
Hip and Elbow Dysplasia are present in both parent breeds, and all breeding labradoodles should be screened. Unfortunately due to limited genetic diversity in certain populations, this isn’t necessarily predictive of the result in the puppies.
Ectopic Cilia became increasingly common in the puppies I saw. This condition causes extra eyelashes to grow on the inside of the eyelid, rubbing against the eyeball. This requires delicate surgery to remove the aberrant hair follicle, otherwise the dog is left with an eyelash permanently rubbing against its eye, causing ulcers and pain.
Floppy ears plus non-shedding coat equals a strong predisposition for ear infections, especially yeast infections. For all the fancy talk breeders do about ‘designing the breed for health’ you’d think they could select for hairless ears.
The breed, especially the individuals I saw, had some interesting genetic pedigrees, and this most certainly reduced their genetic diversity. As expected, this is gradually increasing auto-immune conditions.
Hypothyroidism is usually caused by auto-immune process attacking the thyroid gland, and this is more common that average in multi-generation labradoodles.
Addisons Disease, is thought to have a similar disease process, and it’s common in both parent breeds. While it’s usually a purebred dog condition, it is a distinctly Labradoodle disease and should be considered in any dog with vague symptoms.
Now, permit me a rant about genetics.
I can’t speak for every labradoodle breeding establishment, but keeping a ‘closed’ studbook of less than 100 dogs will lead to inbreeding. Refusing to remove dogs that throw problem puppies from the gene pool and simply giving them a new partner will allow those problem genes to propagate in your population. The fact that you took two originally different breeds and repeatedly crossed the offspring back to themselves provides you no benefit to genetic diversity or hybrid vigor, you don’t get to ride that train when you’re actively undermining any benefits it gave you.
So don’t believe these dogs are ‘better’ than a purebred, because they could be equally as inbred, if not more.