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| © Purple Collar Pet Photography A poll of 30,000 Telegraph readers voted the Labradoodle their favorite dog breed in 2015 - Moment RF |
By Jamie Johnson, The Telegraph
The man who created the ‘labradoodle’ says inventing the breed is his
“life’s regret” because they are either “crazy” or plagued by health
problems.
Wally Conron, an Australian dog breeder, first cross-bred a Labrador
and a Poodle for a blind woman whose husband was allergic to dog hair,
but says it “opened up a Pandora’s box and released a Frankenstein's
monster.”
Today, breeders are not adhering to good practice and
producing dogs with health problems, he says, while a “bandwagon” effect
means that some are trying to cross inappropriate breeds in an effort
to create their own ‘designer dogs’.
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| © Ragnar Schmuck / Getty Jeremy Clarkson, Graham Norton and Tiger Woods all own Labradoodles |
Speaking to the Australia Broadcast Network, he says that producing
the labradoodle is his "life's regret" and he hasn't "got a clue" why
people are still breeding them today.
Born in 1989, Sultan was the world’s first labradoodle, created by Mr
Conron because it was hypoallergenic and had a good temperament.
He had received a letter from a woman in Hawaii who needed a guide dog that would not exacerbate her husband’s allergies.
As breeding manager at the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia, Mr Conron took three years to perfect the crossover.
He described the labradoodle as "a dog with the working ability of the Labrador and the coat of the poodle".
The breed shot to popularity soon after.
“I could not visualise the publicity that a crossbred dog would get,” said Mr Conron.
“Cars
would stop and people would get out of the car and say to me, 'excuse
me what sort of dog is that?' I'd say 'it's a labradoodle!''
Previously he described the name as a “gimmick” because at the time “everyone wanted purebreds.”
And then the celebrities piled in.
Jeremy Clarkson named his Dodger, Graham Norton is a doting father to Bailey, and Tiger Woods takes Yogi out golfing.
A poll of 30,000 Telegraph readers voted the Labradoodle their favorite dog breed in 2015, with more than 1,000 more votes than greyhounds, in second place.
Boosted
by the publicity, certain breeders around the world wanted to keep up
with the demand for the designer dog, and that’s when the problems
began.
“I realised the reason for these unethical, ruthless people was to breed these dogs and sell them for big bucks,” he said.
In accelerating breeding, good practice was not always observed and
the health of the breed has been undermined, says Mr Conron.
“I
opened a Pandora's box and released a Frankenstein's monster. When I'm
out and I see these labradoodles I can't help myself, I go over them in
my mind.
“I find that the biggest majority are either crazy or
have a hereditary problem. I do see some nice labradoodles but they're
few and far between,” he added.
He has said before that: “instead
of breeding out the problems, they’re breeding them in. For every
perfect one, you’re going to find a lot of crazy ones.”
Further
adding to his worries are the “unscrupulous breeders crossing poodles
with inappropriate dogs simply so they can say they were the first to do
it,” he says.
“I just heard about someone who wanted to cross a
poodle with a rottweiler. How could anyone do that?” He told the
Associated Press.
“Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine all of this would happen.”
