Miriam Fields-Babineau - Doodle Dogs For Dummies

Being sensitive also means you shouldn’t flood your dog with a situation in which he’s insecure. Flooding means pushing your dog into something that’s frightening to him in order to teach him it’s no longer frightening. For example, your Doodle may be afraid of other dogs they don’t know. Flooding them would be to put them in a room with a bunch of other dogs and let them work it out to the point where they’re playing with all the dogs instead of cowering in a corner. With Doodles, that’s the wrong approach. They’ll be so overwhelmed that they will cower in a corner and then be afraid of that situation moving forward. Instead, meeting one dog at a time, in a relaxed environment, will give your Doodle time to adjust in their own way.

Regardless of which TV dog trainer you’ve watched, keep in mind that success doesn’t happen in 30 to 60 minutes. When the TV dog trainer puts a new dog in with a group of dogs and claims that’s the best way for them to learn manners, don’t believe it. That’s flooding, and it can backfire big time, resulting in a dog being injured and/or traumatized. Training takes time and patience, as well as understanding the dog well enough to read their signals. There are no overnight cures for inappropriate behavior.

Sometimes a sensitive Doodle can be mistaken as fearful or having been abused. Lack of confidence can often appear similar to a dog who has had these emotions or experiences, but it doesn’t actually mean they’re accurate. It merely takes more time for an adult Doodle to warm up to a new environment, people, or other animals — especially if the individuals are outgoing and come at the Doodle, which can be intimidating.

Sensitivity can often make the training process challenging. It may take a while to figure out how to motivate a Doodle when they would rather just watch the world go by and try to remain unnoticed. But every dog is motivated by something. And when you’ve discovered this key — the one thing that they’ll do anything to get — even a sensitive Doodle will gradually come out of their shell and discover a whole world of wonder, learning how to better understand their people and home. As this process progresses, your sensitive Doodle will become more confident and accepting of new situations.

Because Doodles have a tendency to be super-sensitive, Doodle breeders should expose developing puppies to an array of sounds and experiences. Early socialization is very important. Exposure to people of all genders, ages, and attitudes will prevent the maturing Doodle pup from becoming intimidated later in life.

And, as your Doodle passes through several important behavior development periods, you should continue to offer them varied experiences and exposure to people of all races, genders, and ages. A confident Doodle is much easier to live with than one who is easily intimidated or overly sensitive.

Between 2 to 4 months of age is an important family bonding time. This is when your Doodle will develop a sense of belonging to your family. But while this occurs, be sure to socialize them as much as possible. Let them meet other people and dogs in your community. Take them in your car to places that they’ll enjoy, such as a park, doggy daycare, or the house of a friend who also has a dog. This is especially important if you rarely have visitors or go anywhere. Try to become more social, at least for the next couple months as your puppy’s behavior patterns are forming.

Doodles are highly intelligent. You can thank their Poodle parent for much of this. But many Doodle combinations with purebred dogs can enhance this attribute even more — examples include Goldendoodles and Bernedoodles. In these instances, both parents are already highly intelligent. Mixing them can bring two different types of intelligence together, creating a highly intuitive dog. Some Doodles, such as the Sheepadoodle or Pekapoo, may not be as quick to understand new concepts, but they’re certainly an improvement over their non-Poodle parent’s intellect.

An intuitive dog figures things out very quickly. Often, you just need as few as two repetitions to achieve understanding of a concept. This can occur either purposefully, such as during a training session, or inadvertently, in everyday routine. Here are a few examples:

Learning which door to go to when going outside to potty

Learning the feeding schedule

Learning what time of day one of the family members returns home from work or school

Learning who will allow him to jump on them

Learning who takes them for walks

Because Doodles are so intuitive, obedience training can be very enjoyable, because you may not have to break down exercises into as many small increments as you might with many purebred dogs. They naturally follow your body language and quickly understand your vocal tones and words. Because they’re also highly sensitive, they can read your emotions, too, which is part of their being so intuitive.

Because of their intuitiveness, owners of Doodles sometimes believe they don’t need to do anything to educate their dogs — the dogs seem to quickly pick up on the daily routines, housetraining rules, and which couch is theirs. But all dogs need an education — there’s more to life than lounging around the house. And Doodles are rarely couch potatoes — at least not until they’re seniors.

As a professional trainer, I find that many Doodles have the right temperament, intelligence, and intuition to be excellent performance dogs. These three traits are required to remain motivated to perform under somewhat stressful and distraction-filled situations. Their intuition helps them remain one step ahead, because they know the pattern, the subliminal communication signals of their human teammates, and how to keep everybody entertained. Doodles spread joy everywhere they go!

If you’ve got a Doodle, you’re sure to experience their high energy levels. This is especially true if you’ve got a Double Doodle (the offspring of a Doodle and a Poodle, or the offspring of two Doodles). The Poodle genes are very strong, and a curlier coat isn’t the only trait you’ll experience. A Standard-size Doodle will have super-high energy levels, be more reactive to their environment, and be more mischievous. All the more reason to keep them occupied!

The Doodle tendency to be hyperactive also makes some common behavior problems — such as jumping up on people or other dogs — more challenging to stop. No doubt about it, Doodles love to jump. Jumping up is one of the more difficult issues that you’ll face when you have a Doodle. So, as intelligent, intuitive, and motivated as Doodles are to learn, you may need to be very consistent and persistent to teach your Doodle not to jump on you. Do not offer any means of reward for the behavior (see Chapter 12).

Young Doodles have tons of energy. You need to commit to ensuring that your dog has plenty of exercise and brain stimulation. Training daily is helpful, but it’s not enough. Your Doodle needs to run and play. Only other young dogs will fulfill this need. Or, if you’re a runner and you’re willing to gradually build up your Doodle’s stamina to your level, you’ve got a great running partner!

Because Doodles are actually mixed breeds (though intentionally mixed), many are healthier and have a longer life span. But you never know where the genes will fall, so there are no guarantees.