Development & Infusion

Please follow this link to a website that Arrowhead’s research and development chief has created especially for you. australiancobberdog.com is a visual and written guide to helping you understand all about the development of these dogs from the earliest reference of the Labradoodle in 1955, until the present advent of the modern Australian Cobberdog. Enjoy your stay on both sites and remember we are happy to answer questions as you study.

Below is some of the information that is published on australianconbberdog.com

Out of the mists of time there has been arising a new and mysterious breed of dog. This special dog has many admirers all over the world. This site is an initiative to record the development and progress of the breed from its earliest beginnings until present.

This page is dedicated to helping people who are diligently researching the history of the Australian Cobberdog development and infusions, and may have become confused by so many different terms, such as F1 Labradoodles, F1B Labradoodles, Multi-generation Labradoodles, Australian Labradoodles, Australian Cobberdogs, Soft Coated Labradoodles, Cobberdogs, Heterosis, Infusions, Back-crosses, Out-cross…ect.

Labradoodles, sometimes called the American Labradoodle are primarily a hybrid dog, by mating a Standard Poodle to a Labrador Retriever, They are great dogs, often goofy, playful, and generally enjoy very good health due to heterosis, or hybrid vigor. Often breeders then back-cross the F1(Lab-Poodle hybrid) Labradoodle back to Poodle in an effort to gain a more hypoallergenic coat, the offspring of this mating is classified as F1B Labradoodles. These too are nice dogs, as they usually have an allergy friendly coat, and are highly trainable like the Poodle. There are some breeders who are taking the Labradoodle past the F1 and F1B stages and breeding Labradoodles to Labradoodles, and using the term multi-generation Labradoodles. This breeding practice will result in more consistency in the offspring, such as coat, size and temperament, the resulting offspring will become increasingly homogeneous, which can eventually result, (if never out-crossed with another breed) to serious genetic illnesses, due to recessive negative genes coming together.

Australian Labradoodles have genetic links to Australia, but many of the lines have Labradoodles bred in North America integrated into them. They are called Australian Labradoodles because the breeders in Australia did not want their dogs to be mistaken for the many Lab/Poodle crosses being bred world wide, especially in North America. The Australian Labradoodle is a developing dog breed, not yet purebred. Several breeders in Australia created the Australian Labradoodle, its original purpose is to be an assistant and companion dog, which they do excel in very well. This developing breed is said to have up to twenty-two different breeds or hybrids but is composed of primarily Labrador and Poodle genetics, with later infusions of the Irish Water Spaniel, Curly-Coated Retriever, the English and American Cocker Spaniel, and in 2004 the Irish Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier, these infusions were carried out to gain qualities the founders thought to be missing, they also greatly diversified the gene pool, this in turn will promote health in the Australian Labradoodle, which so many of our pure breeds lack, due to extensive line and inbreeding, in order to obtain certain traits that are considered desirable by the breeder.

The Australian Labradoodle is now being developed as two different breeds, the Australian Labradoodle Association of America mandates the Australian Labradoodle as a three breed dog, which consists of Poodle, Labrador, and Cocker Spaniel genetics. This mandate is in contradiction with the co-founder and developer of the Australian Labradoodle – Beverly Manners. As was stated earlier, in 2004 the Irish line Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier was infused by Beverly Manners –Rutland Manor in Australia. Two Irish Wheaten Terriers, were infused, Brandy, an Australian Champion, with UK imported lines in his pedigree was used over a wool coated miniature, Rutlands Lil Misty, and Patrick was used over a wool coated standard, Rutlands Funnie Bunnie. To date there has only been one other approved Irish Wheaten infusion into the Australian Cobberdog by a Canadian breeder also working on the development of the Australian Cobberdog. This was the beginning of division in the Australian Labradoodle breed development. After the Irish Wheaten Terrier infusions were carried out Rutland Manor has disassociated from the International Australian Labradoodle Association, which Beverly Manners founded, and has since trademarked her dogs as ASD Australian Labradoodles (Australian Service Dog). In 2009 the Australian Labradoodle Founders Alliance was set up to register the ASD Australian Labradoodle, but was soon disbanded. Then in 2012, the breed was accepted as a “breed in development” under the new moniker, ‘Australian Cobberdog’ by the Master Dog Breeders and Associates in Australia. The split away from the Australian Labradoodle has restricted the available genetics for the Australian Cobberdog and will most likely prove to speed up the process of developing the specie into a consistent pure type, like other purebred dogs.

Since 2009 breeders unconcerned with the politics of status and recognition in the ‘doodle verse’ have continued to breed various types of working Labradoodles. They occasionally outcross their Labradoodles with Irish Wheatens, the resulting offspring are called Cobberdogs (these early hybrids were first called Soft Coated Labrdoodles). The Cobberdog is a landrace working dog. The breeders are concerned more with its therapeutic qualities, than type, showiness, pedigree, or association.

The number of Clubs and Associations that have been set up and dismantled in the name of developing these beautiful creatures is a subject for a different article. The breeders who breed these dogs are intensively creative and independent, it is very difficult to unite and work toward common goals as defined by the various associations, the result is a variety of “new breeds” springing forth, some of which may stand the test of time and become homogeneous enough to be considered purebred. The associations and some of the breeders committed to the success of these dogs maintain comprehensive databases of genetic information such as ancestry, temperament, health and color and coat type.

History rarely repeats, but many things have similarities to the past. The most prominent ancestor of the Labrador Retriever is the St. John’s water dog, (a breed that became extinct in the 1980s) this breed was responsible for spawning many types of retrievers that are still in existence today – Labrador Retriever, Curly-Coated Retriever, Flat-Coated Retriever, Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Golden Retriever, Newfoundland, and Landseer dogs. This type of outcome seems to be happening with the Labradoodle, the original progenitor hybrid in which the highly desirable qualities first showed up. From the earliest known Labradoodle in the 1950s, we are now almost seventy years into its development, so it is understandable that there have been many branches grow from the original hybrid, and part of the purpose of this site is that, even if the Labradoodle is some day extinct, we remember and appreciate the great value the early ancestor of the Australian Labradoodle and Australian Cobberdog contributed to us.