Tegan Labradoodles Australian Companion dogs

As revised 2007 [Angela Rutland-Manners with consideration ]

Temperament and Soundness are the two KEY elements in a good family companion; they must not be sacrificed for any reason.

I hope in the future this Wonderful Breed will be given a proper permanent name of AUSTRALIAN COMPANION DOG [ACD]
General Appearance.

A compact dog of substance, Should not appear cloddy or heavy nor overly fine.. A galloping dog which gives the impression of light footed athleticism, and joyful bearing. Medium boning, graceful in movement and with vivacious expression. distinctive feature of this breed is their Coat, It should be non shedding, be of even length over body, on legs neck, tail and head, Their unique traits of intuitive nature and the seeking of human eye contact should be easily discernible at a glance.

SIZES
Height: 14 to 23 inches at wither. Weight: 7kg to 30kg (15-65lbs).
There should be no appreciable difference in the general appearance of any of the three sizes except in the size difference.

Standard : Height: 20inches to not exceeding 23 inches at wither.

Weight: 23kg to 30kg (50-65lbs). (2.2 lbs = 1 kg)

The ideal size for the female is 20" but not exceeding 21" and the male is 21" but not exceeding 23 ".

Medium :Height: 17 inches and under 20 inches at wither.

Weight: 13kg to 20kg (30-45lbs). (2.2 lbs = 1 kg)

The ideal size for the female is 17" but not exceeding 19 inches and the male is 18"and under 20".

Miniature : Height: 14 inches and under 17 inches at wither.

Weight: 7kg to 13kg (15-25lbs). (2.2 lbs = 1 kg)

The ideal size for the female is 14" but not exceeding 16 inches and the male is 15" and under 17".

Left: Medium and Standard

To the right Miniature and standard

Inter breeding sizes is a common practice to maintain true type throughout the size range.

Temperament Extremely clever, sociable, comical, joyful, energetic when free and soft and quiet when handled. They should approach people in a happy friendly manner, keen and easy to train. They should display an intuition about their family members or handler’s current emotional state or needs. This ability to “know” is what has made the Australian Labradoodle an excellent dog for individuals with special needs. Confident, joyful, vivacious, clown-like, sociable and friendly. energetic when free and soft and quiet when handled. Totally non aggressive, extremely intuitive. They should approach people in a happy friendly manner, keen and easy to train. They should display an intuition about their family members or handler’s current emotional state or needs. This ability to “know” is what has made the Australian Labradoodle an excellent dog for individuals with special needs.

Purpose bred and well suited for special work such as Therapy Dog, Assistance Dog, Hearing or Seizure Alert Dog, Guide Dog.

	Movement First impression should be of a dog whose feet seem to hardly touch the ground. Light, lithe, graceful, athletic. When trotting, should have the appearance of ‘going somewhere’ with energy and effortless drive and purpose. Looking like they are dancing. When galloping, they should appear to float almost above the ground. Light and airy, flowing and free moving with a complete absence of apparent effort. Slight one tracking is acceptable. Moving to and from should be straight and true.
A; Moderate to long reach of Neck B; Point of wither to point of hip Level top line C; Moderately Sloping Croup D; Moderately angulated Shoulder, good length to Elbow E; Length point of shoulder to point of buttock F; Good Depth point wither to slightly below elbow G; Height point of wither to ground inline with last toe, height slightly shorter than length H; Moderate angulation with good length from point of stifle to hock J; Short straight strong hock.	Body Height to length ratio should be as ten is to twelve, being slightly longer in leg than deep in body, but still looking compact. Level top line, strong over loins and slightly sloping croup and with sloping shoulders flowing into firm elbows and front legs straight to the ground. Straight upright shoulders are a fault as are straight stifles. Stifles should have medium angulation and be long, with short strong hocks parallel and straight to the ground. Cow hocks are a fault as are toes turning either inwards or outwards. They are a galloping dog, so flanks should rise to a medium tuck up, from a deep brisket and well sprung but not barrelled ribs. Front A; Point of Shoulder to Point of shoulder in proportion not wide not narrow B; Brisket or slightly below elbows C; Straight front shoulder to ground Rear A; Slightly sloping good length of croup B; Point of hip to ground straight C; Short straight hock D; Brisket below elbow E; Ribs well rounder but not barrelled
A; Length from Ocuput to tip of nose B; Length from top of eye to tip of nose C; Length/Depth from lip to bottom of jaw/chin D; Corner of eye to Tip of Nose to Corner of eye symmetrical triangle E; top of eye level or slightly below set of ear	Head Moderately broad with well-defined eyebrows. Stop should be moderate with eyes set well apart. The head should be of moderate width; developed but without exaggeration. length from nose to eyes should be slightly longer than length from eyes to ocuput. . The head should be clean-cut and free from fleshy cheeks. The whole head must be in proportion to the size of the dog. Skull should be slightly rounded but not domed. Forehead medium breadth, muzzle not snipey, but should have depth and breadth. Weak underjaw is a fault. The head should flow naturally into a strong slightly curved and muscular neck and not appear to be ‘stuck on’. Long narrow or 'Poodley' head is a fault.
	Ears Set slightly above eye level and should lay flat against head in proportion with the skull. Leather should be of medium thickness, and leather should not hang below the lower lip line. Well furnished, with fringing beyond the tip of the ear leather. Excessive hair in the ear canal is highly undesirable With the plush coat it is difficult to see by photo the ear set, bottom left the dog is shaved short and you can see better the high placement allowing good under ear ventilation.
	Eyes Wide set, large and expressive, oval to slightly round, seeking human eye contact. Eye colors can be darkest brown, a transparent honey color, or shades of hazel. Protruding eyes, sunken or watery eyes are a fault. (note that puppies may sometimes have tear stained eyes during teething). A feature of the eyes is their very long eyelashes.
	Nose Large square and fleshy in appearance. Brown dogs (Chocolate or Cafe ) must have 'rose' or liver colored noses Black or Silver dogs must have black noses Caramel and Caramel Cream dogs must have 'rose' or liver colored noses Cream or Chalk dogs may have Black, Blue dogs should have bluish black noses Gold or Red dogs should have black noses
	Teeth Must be a scissor bite. Upper teeth to just overlap the bottom teeth. Undershot mouths (where the lower teeth extend beyond the upper teeth) are a fault. Overshot mouths (where the upper teeth extend beyond the lower teeth) are a fault. Crowded teeth in the adult dog are a fault especially in Miniatures.
	Tail The tail should follow the topline in repose or when in motion. It may be carried gaily, but should not curl completely over the back. Tip of tail should not touch the back nor curl upon itself.
	Feet The feet are of medium size, round with well-arched toes having strong and thick pads. The feet should not turn in or out. Nail Colour should be dark Front dewclaws may be removed or left on. Australian Labradoodle do not have hind dewclaws
Black Pigment Rose Pigment	Pigment There are two colours of pigment in the Australian Labradoodle. Raven, Blue, Silver, Red, Gold and Sable must have Black pigment. Predominately dark dogs must have black pigment, ie: Black and White Pied, Black, silver or blue Phantom, Agouti, Sable. All Shades of brown, and all shades of Caramel must have rose [Liver] Pigment. Must be strong in all colours. Missing pigment around the eyes, or spots or patches of white or pink on the nose, (butterfly nose) eye rims, lips or pads are serious faults. Rose [also called Liver] pigment should not be confused with weak pigment. It must always be accompanied by translucent eyes with rosy liver rims.

Coat
As The Australian Labradoodle enters its last stages of development vast changes have occurred in the coat and coat texture. The end result of the Recognized Pure Australian Labradoodle will result in only two coat types the Wavy Fleece and the Spiral Fleece. At present the wool coat is still prevalent see coats and colours for more detail.

The Australian Labradoodle coat must not shed, or have any doggy odour. is allergy friendly to the vast majority of persons with dog related allergies. Any coat length is acceptable but preferable not past 4 inches in length. The coat should be even over the entire body.

Any coat length is acceptable but preferable not past 4 inches in length. It should be wavy or forming spirals. not be too thick or dense, nor should it be fluffy or fuzzy. It should be a single coat. Opens up easily to the skin. It should not appear thick and dense or tightly curled. Any sign of an undercoat is a serious fault. The coat should not appear overly groomed, Trimming of the face, feet under ears and jaw and slightly around the neck into the lay of shoulder is acceptable. Any appearance of sun bleaching is acceptable.

Fleece Wavy have a distinctly soft light fleecy ‘feel’ like no other dog coat. It should be a single coat, with a complete absence of fluffy undercoat. Ideally it should not be too thick, nor fuzzy, but should hang in loose loopy swirls similar To that of the early generation Australian Angora goat. Length is around four to six inches, on body, tail, head and face and on the legs. A ‘change’ of coat is permissible from puppy to adult and due to hormonal changes in entire females. This should not shed itself out, but needs to be stripped out with grooming.

Fleece Spiral [ Replaces the Wool Coat] is denser than the Wavy Fleece and has all the above requirements with the addition that it should have well defined staples that fall down in individual spirals in the same fashion as a Texan Angora goat. The Spiral Fleece coat will successfully cord .

Flat Coat No longer acceptable in the breed

Hair/Coat No Longer acceptable in the breed.

Our Goal now is to stabilize the Wavy Fleece coat so that it will become completely shed free, but for now there is still a slight chance they will shed, most can be identified at a young age but sometimes they will surprise us with an ever so slight coat loss at maturity. To date very few allergy suffers have had a problem with the slight shedding but our goal is to be 100% shed free.

Wavy Fleece

Spiral Fleece

Original Wool

Coats have been the number one interest behind general health and soundness. It is the Allergy friendly properties of the AL that makes them such a unique and special breed of dog.

Over the years the changes have been both exiting and bemusing, In the early days before other selected breeds were showing there influence we had basically only two coat types, "Wooly and Scruffy/hair coat" then more and more "In-between" coats started to consistently emerge as the genes started to mutate and other breed types were introduced. Not giving it much forward thought I started to call them "Borderline" coats as they were on the borderline of either Wooly or hair, I loved them and put all my passion into seeing if I could consistently reproduce it and before long everyone knew the coats to be wool, Borderline or wavy/flat coat [I also affectionately called them "dud" coat] These descriptions started to stick as the Labradoodle became known and bred around the world, Something had to be done about it :-) At the time I had several Angora Fleeces and the dogs loved to snooze on them while in the house some times it was hard to distinguish where the dogs coat and the fleece stopped and started and the name FLEECE was born, I put the idea up on my old original web site labradoodle.com for public opinion and other suggestions of what to name the borderline coat, almost unanimously fleece was loved as it so beautifully describes the wonderful qualities of the Australian Labradoodle coat.

Then it was time to work on the Wool coat, I felt that the dense interwoven springy curl was way to difficult to maintain and when clipped looked and felt no different to a Poodle coat. The Australian Labradoodle could be so much better [I hoped] My hopes are coming into fruition as each generation is producing a superb coat that is not like the traditional wool yet it still has a slight woolly texture with the luxuriant look and feel of the fleece, So what to call this new coat? well for now I call it a Spiral wool as the "staple" is clearly defined and crinkly but hangs downward in the direction of growth [opposite to a "sprung" wool] It is still dense but much improved.

Step two is to reduce the density without loosing the gorgeous spiral, This is now being achieved and at last we have 2 simple coat types Wavy Fleece and Spiral fleece, Much education is still needed by breeders who are not sure what coat is what and are calling everything curly a Spiral this is not correct most are still old wool coats and until the breeders learn more the future and stability of the superb true spiral is in jeopardy.

Note 2007. The ASD Australian Labradoodle has progressed well beyond the coat variations found in many other Labradoodles. Fleece coats may be either spiral curly or wavy, but hair coats combination coats or shedding coats are now extremely rare

Colours

Black, Blue, Silver, Chalk, Cream, Apricot Cream, Caramel, Caramel Cream* Caramel Ice* Gold*, Red, Chocolate, Cafe , Parchment, Blue, Lavender, Phantom, Agouti, Pie and Sable.

*Caramel Cream are all shades of cream to pale gold with a Rose Nose. Until 2007 these dogs had no distinguishing name of there own.

*Caramel Ice is a Chalk coat with Rose [Liver] Pigment Until 2007 these dogs had no distinguishing name of there own.

* Gold is also called Apricot by some breeders.

There are 3 groups of colours that belong to the Australian Labradoodle.

SHADED: is the the group that have a blend of tones to make the colour you see. Silver, Apricot Cream, Cafe` , Lavender, Gold , Parchment, Phantom, Agouti Merle, and Sable are included in this group.

SOLID: is the group that are an even solid colour all over. [sun bleaching is not penalized not grouped into the Shaded section] Raven [Black] Chocolate, Caramel Ice, Chalk, Red are included in this group

PARTY: is the group that have white on the face and or body, Pied - Patches of any above colour and patches of white over the whole body. Parti- is a shaded or solid dog with white markings on the face, feet and chest, or just on the face or just on the face and feet.

NOTE: It is normal that all colours may show bleaching and discoloration over the top coat, referred to as sunning, this is quite expected and acceptable. The Australian Labradoodle is an active dog and often a service dog that enjoys the outdoors. Sunning or weather bleaching must not be penalized.

Undesirable traits and Faults:

Any sign of aggression a disqualification or dominance to be heavily penalized

Fearful, timid, yappy or highly-strung temperaments

Harsh hair, or any sign of undercoat. ,A coat, which sheds (note: some coat instability during hormonal changes with fertile bitches)

Short or overly thick neck, Possum type or Teapot handle tails, A long narrow or block head, Long Back

Protruding or sunken eyes, Watery or tearful eyes, Cow-hock, Toeing in or out

Over or undershot or pincer mouth, Crowding teeth, Colour, albinism is a disqualification, Over or under sized is a major fault

Monorchid or inverted vulva

SPECIAL ATTENTION must be directed to soundness in the breed, any sign of lameness is a disqualification.

NOTE: Males should have two apparently normal testacies fully descended into the scrotum. Female should have an apparently normal formed vulva.