Do Goldendoodles shed?

Do Goldendoodles shed?

They can, because a Goldendoodle crosses a breed that sheds a good deal with one that hardly sheds. However you spell the name, Goldendoodle or golden doodle, there's no official breed description that says how much one should shed.

The difference starts with how their hair grows. Every hair grows, rests and is then shed, and in a coat that keeps growing, like a Poodle's, the growing stage can last for years, which is why the hair keeps getting longer. Dogs whose hair grows for shorter spells shed more often.

A Golden has a good undercoat beneath the outer coat. Breeds with that kind of coat, many retrievers among them, often go through two heavy sheds a year, in late spring and late fall, when much of the undercoat comes out in clumps. A Goldendoodle draws its coat genes from both sides of that divide.

How do the odds change from F1 to F1B and later generations?

They move toward the Poodle each time a generation is bred back to one, and the gene to watch is the one behind furnishings, the long mustache and eyebrow hair a Goldendoodle is meant to have. Low-shedding breeds such as the Poodle carry two copies of the furnishings form, and heavy shedders lack it.

The rest follows from simple rules. A mama or papa with two copies passes the furnishings form to all of its puppies, a parent with one copy passes it to about half, and a dog without it has none to pass on. Assuming the Poodle carries two copies and the Golden none, as each breed usually does, the odds of a puppy getting two copies look like this.

• F1, a Golden bred to a Poodle. Every puppy has a single copy, so none has two.
• F1B, an F1 bred back to a Poodle. About half the puppies have two copies and the rest a single copy.
• F1 bred to F1. About a quarter have two copies, about half a single copy, and about a quarter have no copy and lack furnishings altogether.
• Later generations. Goldendoodles bred to Goldendoodles follow whatever their mama and papa carry. When both carry two copies, so does every puppy, and a parent with a single copy brings single-copy puppies back into the mix.

Odds like these are only as good as the guess about each parent, and a DNA test for furnishings replaces the guess with a result. The generation letters themselves are explained in what an F1B Goldendoodle is.

Can an F1B Goldendoodle still shed?

Yes. On the odds above every F1B puppy grows furnishings, yet about half carry a single copy, while low-shedding breeds carry two. Nobody knows exactly how much a single-copy puppy will shed, and shedding is tied to more than one gene, which is one more reason a furnished puppy isn't automatically a low shedder.

A Poodle papa with his breed's usual two copies passes the furnishings form to every puppy, so in an F1B pairing the variation comes from the mama, and her coat deserves as close a look as his. Whether a coat comes in wavy or curly depends on a different gene, which our Goldendoodle grooming guide walks through.

Why does a low-shedding coat still need so much brushing?

Because hair that keeps growing has to be kept up by hand. Long, silky and curly coats need brushing every day to stay free of tangles and mats, most of all around the ears, in the armpits and down the backs of the legs.

For a Poodle-type coat, brush every other day or so, because a coat allowed to tangle and mat may have to be shaved off completely. A slicker brush suits a curly coat and a comb or stiff bristle brush suits a retriever's coat, so the right brush for a Goldendoodle depends on which coat it grew. Whatever you use, part the hair and brush all the way down to the skin.

Low shedding still isn't the same as no shedding. Shedding is a normal part of how hair grows, and you can manage it but can't stop it completely.

Is a low-shedding Goldendoodle better for allergies?

Not in a way you can count on. The proteins behind a dog allergy come from a dog's saliva, dander and urine, fur length doesn't change how allergic a dog makes you, and a coat can gather pollen and mold on top of that. In homes with dogs sold as hypoallergenic, the level of the main dog allergen was about the same as in homes with other breeds. Single dogs can differ, but no breed is reliably better, even the ones that shed less fur.

When researchers sampled dogs' coats and the dust and air of their homes, coats from breeds sold as hypoallergenic, the Poodle and the Labradoodle among them, held more of the main allergen than coats from other dogs, and the levels in the air were about the same.

If anyone at home has a dog allergy, talk with an allergist before you choose a puppy. Things that help people live with a dog include a bedroom the dog stays out of, hard floors, HEPA vacuums and air cleaners, and allergy shots, which over time can make a person less allergic to dogs. For some people with mild dog allergies, brushing the dog every day may bring allergens in the air down enough to share a home with one.

How do we breed our F1B Goldendoodles?

We raise our Goldendoodles as F1B Minis. Each F1B litter comes from a Goldendoodle mama, its papa is a Miniature Poodle, and we expect the puppies to reach 19 to 22 lbs when grown. Their colors follow our Poodles, so expect apricot or red, and once in a while a white one.

Nobody can promise how much a particular puppy will shed, and the clearest preview we can offer is the grown dogs behind it. On every puppy's listing you'll find links to the mama and papa, so you can study their coats in their photographs. How big a Mini gets has a guide of its own, Mini Goldendoodle size and coat, and so does lifespan and price.

Every puppy available now is on our F1B Goldendoodle page, and when you're ready, the application is the first step.