An Australian man who created the world’s first labradoodle says he regrets creating the popular hybrid breed — claiming in a recent interview the majority are “either crazy or have hereditary problems.”
Wally Conron bred the first labradoodle — a cross between a poodle and Labrador retriever — in 1989 for a blind woman who couldn’t have a guide dog because her husband was allergic to dog hair, Conron told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday.
Fast-forward three decades and the labradoodle has become one of the most popular mixed-breed dogs in the world — a fact that doesn’t sit so well with the man who made them.
“I opened a Pandora’s box and released a Frankenstein’s monster,” said Conron, a former breeding manager with the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia.
Conron said he fears people are over-breeding the dog, creating versions of their own including groodles (a mixture of golden retrievers and poodles) and spoodles (a cross between a spaniel and a poodle).
“I find that the biggest majority are either crazy or have a hereditary problem,” he said. “I do see some damn nice labradoodles but they’re few and far between.”
Conron spent three years trialing more than 30 poodles as guide dogs because their hair is hypoallergenic — but he found they didn’t have the right temperament like Labradors.
So he combined the pair and created a litter of labradoodles.
The blind woman got the world’s first labradoodle guide dog, named Sultan, but Conron was left with the rest of the litter and couldn’t find anyone who wanted them.
Out of frustration, he went to the guide dog association’s PR team, who told the media. The rest is history.
“I realized what I had done within a matter of days,” Conron told ABC, saying his biggest fear was cowboy breeders trying to make a quick buck on the designer breed.
“When I’m out and I see these labradoodles, I can’t help myself, I go over them in my mind.”