I wish we had a tag that said, “doodles, amirite?”

[cmotorsportsministries]

Lady hands over her doodle. Dog has about 1/2” on it and it looks really good, the face and everything look good. First time with me. I ask all sorts of question to try and determine what she wants. And then I’m hot with this line.

“Well, her paperwork said she’s a short haired, so she’ll never really get longer than this.”

Okay. I’m asking all sorts of questions. Has she been groomed before? (Yes) how old is she? (3) and her hair never gets longer???

“Oh, we adopted her from the shelter. But the papers say she’s short haired.”

Y’all……..

 

[ozd]

@cmotorsportsministries The math ain’t mathing.

 

[cmotorsportsministries]

@ozd I THINK (I think?) she must have been shaved down at the shelter? So her hair is still only a half inch grown out. She says she’s had the dog for about a month. I was like, “honey, you’ve got a big storm coming.”

 

[stsdm]

@cmotorsportsministries When we adopted our doodle from the shelter they had him completely shaved down. I think that’s what a lot of shelters do to keep it manageable and also probably bc they showed up matted

 

[dutchvw]

@stsdm Shelter worker here. You have no idea how many poodle mixes/doodles I've had to shave down due to SEVERE (sores and broken skin) matting. We don't have the resources to care for coats like that, and we have a groomer who volunteers once a week. Most shelters don't even have that. Thank you for adopting we're doing the best we can

 

[viri]

@dutchvw God bless you shelter workers and all the volounteers.

 

[dutchvw]

@viri Thank you very much. It's definitely difficult work but I love what I do

 

[nezsruiz]

@stsdm Volunteered at my local shelter for years and it’s literally 99% because they come in absolutely horribly matted. Some of them come in so bad that they’ve basically started to cord themselves, but not in a good way.

 

[yaphasheba]

@stsdm One of my dogs was a low-shedding mix (not sure if doodle, never got her tested), and I also adopted her completely shaved for the same reason - when she was found, she was horribly matted. I had no idea what she would look like when her fur grew out when I adopted her.

 

[mlb45]

@stsdm It’s 100% matting. If someone is dropping their dogs off at a shelter, or abandoning them to be picked up by animal control, you know damn well they aren’t taking care of that coat.

 

[lillydivine]

@cmotorsportsministries That poor dog…. I can only imagine the mats in it’s future. Doodles can be short hairs if you keep on top of the maintenance.

 

[ozd]

@cmotorsportsministries Some people that work at shelters completely misinform potential owners too.

 

[knicole97]

@ozd Tell me about it. I once went to pick up a Springer Spaniel with pups. It was a GSP and the pups were half pitbull.

 

[kat1941]

@knicole97 Ya id nope outta that.

 

[knicole97]

@kat1941 I didn’t. It was exhausting!

 

[tomcat4260]

@ozd Not intentionally. Doodles are relatively new and shelter workers have hundreds of animals of different species and breeds/mixes they're responsible for. What about the breeders that intentionally misinform the buyers? Saying they're "hypoallergenic" "non-shedding" "only need to be brushed [anything other than daily]". Don't shit on overworked, underpaid, burned out shelter workers when you should be shitting on the breeders.

 

[wonderfullife123]

@tomcat4260 This. 100%. I think people need to understand that when they adopt from a shelter, they're adopting the dog, not the breed! I ADORE my wheaten terrier mix (who turned out to be 100% great pyrenees ). I call her my "sweetie wheatie." (In my defense, she was completely shaved and I figured the wheaten gene might be recessive....)

 

[alexisfaith27]

@wonderfullife123 Lol love this!

 

[thankfullness]

@tomcat4260 Maybe not all of them, but I had a shelter worker tell me with her full chest a pitbull could do herding work. This was after they released the dog I was coming to adopt to a rescue. The collie I wanted. But I could just adopt one of the many bully mixes they had because "it's all in how you train them". I work with a local shelter here that has amazing employees and volunteers but some of them are very much telling people the wrong things. And doodles have been around for at least 20 years. They aren't new by any means.

 

[tippymoondawg]

@thankfullness

but I had a shelter worker tell me with her full chest a pitbull could do herding work.

Off topic but this makes me think of back in the 90's, when the AKC started their herding test/trial program. AKC herding program was open to dogs in the herding group and (and a few others).

There were, however, people who wanted to be allowed to trial any dog in herding.

One was a guy with APBT/Am Staffs (dual registered) in CA. He was actually a very good, innovative trainer and came up with some interesting methods to teach his dogs how to perform the actions.

This guy did demonstrations to showcase why his pits should be allowed to trial. It was kind of weird "mechanical herding". He would give a constant stream of commands guiding his dog's every step. His dogs were extremely well mannered and highly obedient. They didn't chase or hurt the sheep but they also didn't seem to acknowledge that the sheep were there. The stock in the demo videos were quiet, placid, dog broke ones and so it all looked fine, until, for example, a few split off and started off to the gate. A dog with herding instinct would immediately swing out to regain balance, no commands needed, but instead this guy spent several minutes of moving his dog like a RC car in order to do a half-assed gather.

It was a painful demonstration of faux herding.

Anyway, with that in mind, the shape of the chest doesn't matter if there's no instinct.