Groodle puppies with a twist!
Graeme adopted his first Groodle “Ginger” late in 2020. She was one of 8 Groodle puppies in Perth WA. Graeme was attracted to her initially because she had a wavy rather than curly coat. The usual Poodle look was not something he found appealing.
He also fell in love with her brown nose and green eyes :).
They love water
The first thing we noticed about Ginger was that she loved water! Ginger would even try to have a bath in her water bowl. So we always have a big container full of water in her yard so she can take a dip whenever she wants 🙂
It’s not surprising in a Golden Retriever Poodle mix. Poodle means “water dog” in French. And the Golden Retriever was also bred to like water so it wouldn’t hesitate to fetch downed ducks out of lakes!
Groodles are gentle and safe with kids
Ginger grew and grew (and grew!) into a large but very gentle dog. She is wonderful with small children and little dogs alike.
When she was 1 year old she caught a wild duckling in our farm dam. We raced down to her to try and save it. When Graeme asked her to open her mouth, there was the little duckling peeping away totally unscathed! This surprised us. If it had been one of our Schnauzers that had got to it, it would be in lots of little pieces within seconds.
Ginger doesn’t shed
I know some Groodles take after their Golden Retriever parent and can shed a bit. But Ginger doesn’t. To top it off she has a self-cleaning coat!
You’d think that being cream in colour, she would be hard to keep clean. And the fact she loves water means she is often covered in mud. But what we have noticed is that within an hour or so, once she naturally dries off, all the dirt falls out of her coat and she is clean again :).
What we don’t like about Groodles
Despite all her advantages, Ginger is not the perfect dog. Which is why Graeme set out to combine her genes with the Schnauzer to get closer to the ideal canine companion.
- Standard Groodles are too big! – You might enjoy big dogs, but we found her size had a few disadvantages. One was her tail was just the right height to wipe wine glasses off the coffee table! The other was we didn’t have a large enough bath to wash her at home so always have to take her to a pet supply store. Larger dogs need more food, do more poo and require larger doses of medication. So we set out to drop the size a bit by infusing Miniature Schnauzer into the Poodle/Golden Retriever mix.
- Groodles are at risk of gastric torsion – Gastric torsion (bloat) is a sudden and life-threatening condition where the stomach becomes twisted and full of gas. Both parent breeds of the Groodle – the Golden Retrieve and more particularly the Poodle – are 10 x more likely to suffer from this disease than most other breeds. The Miniature Schnauzer is not prone to bloat so it’s infusion into the mix helps ameliorate the risk significantly.
- Groodles are a bit…. dull – While very intelligent (the parent breeds – Golden Retriever and Poodle – are the among the most intelligent breeds in the world) life with a Groodle can be rather boring. They are sweet, reliable but very predictable. If you like a dog with a bit of cheekiness in its personality, you cannot beat a Miniature Schnauzer. If you love a dog that will talk to you and “answer back” sometimes, the straight Golden Doodle doesn’t cut it. So in crossing the 3 breeds we have set out to infuse a wee bit of naughty into their temperament so life with a Grauzer will be more interesting than that with a straight Groodle 🙂