They say a good person is one who can own up to their mistakes and that’s exactly what the inventor of the Labradoodle has done.
Australian man Wally Conron has referred to his creation of the Labradoodle as “Frankenstein’s monster”. He told the ABC that the doggos are “either crazy or have hereditary problems”. A tad shocking considering poodle-cross breeds are a common choice amongst dog-lovers, especially those who can’t handle hair.
Conron originally bred the first Labrador and poodle cross in 1989 for a blind woman whose spouse was allergic to dog hair. He’d intended on creating an allergy-friendly guide dog, a choice he now deeply regrets.
Conron, a former breeding manager with the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia, feels as though by producing the first litter of this crossbreed he inspired the creation of other poodle-cross creations. And now he fears people are over-breeding.
Poodle-cross pooches might be incredibly popular now, but Conron told the ABC that the leftover puppies from his original litter weren’t easy to give away. He turned to the guide dog association’s PR team to encourage people to adopt them.
He said he realised what he’d done “within a matter of days”.
“When I’m out and I see these Labradoodles I can’t help myself, I go over them in my mind,” he said.
Which has me wondering: do problematic breed-buyers ever feel a similar pang of guilt? Have the human parents of pugs, bulldogs and French bulldogs simply chosen to glaze over the information about how it’s probs not a good idea to support the production of these breeds?
Vets themselves have even dubbed these dogs “anatomical disasters”. One vet anonymously wrote to the Guardian: “every structure that should make up the nose [of brachycephalic dogs] has been squashed flat.”
It’s safe to assume that most people at least perform a quick Google search before purchasing a breed. Is this just a case of wilful ignorance? The only thing I’m wilfully ignoring is the fact that one human year doesn’t actually equal 7 dog years.
Yes, Conron the labradoodle maker made a mistake, but at least he’s owned up to it – can we really say the same about buyers of boujee breeds?