The Goldendoodle is our most reliable performer. They do not enter — they arrive. There is a soft jog, a head bob, the loose-jointed bonhomie of a dog who has never been told no and would not believe you if you did. Standards fill the frame like a friendly weather system. Miniatures, who weigh thirty pounds when wet, are nevertheless convinced they are the same dog as their parents and act accordingly.
What sells them, on screen, is the face. The Goldendoodle has been bred — accidentally, since these are early days for the breed — into a kind of permanent gentle surprise. Eyebrows up. Ears alert. Mouth slightly open as though about to say something kind. Viewers send them bones at a rate that does not quite track with the breed's actual rarity in our submissions. Goldendoodles overperform. It is the face.
If a Goldendoodle is on stage and a noise occurs somewhere off-camera, you will see one ear adjust. Not the head. Just the ear. The rest of the dog continues to be charming at you. They are competent multitaskers, in the doggish sense — capable of taking in new information and being delightful simultaneously, with neither suffering.
Goldendoodles are easy. This is both the truth and a warning.
They are easy temperamentally — friendly with everyone, low aggression, low prey drive, eager to please. They are easy to train, in the sense that they pick up commands quickly. They are not easy to exhaust, which is where new owners get into trouble: a young Goldendoodle without enough daily activity becomes a creative problem-solver, and Goldendoodle creativity tends to express itself in your shoes.
Energy. Higher than a typical Golden, lower than a typical Poodle. Plan for an hour of activity a day. They love water and most of them swim well. A Goldendoodle who has not had a swim in two weeks may give you a particular look. Honour it.
Coat. The same coin-flip as the Bernedoodle. F1 sheds variably, F1b sheds less but costs more. If your sofa is white, plan accordingly. Brushing twice a week is the minimum to avoid mats.
Trainability. Excellent through eight months, infuriating through eighteen, excellent again thereafter. The Goldendoodle adolescent is the strongest known disproof of the Golden Retriever's reputation for placid obedience.
Health. Hip dysplasia. Cataracts later in life. The usual large-breed concerns. The Poodle side brings longer life expectancy — a well-bred Standard commonly reaches fourteen, a Miniature sixteen.
If your household has the time and the daily walk in it, a Goldendoodle will be one of the most uncomplicated and joyful relationships of your adult life.
The Goldendoodle is younger than the Bernedoodle — first deliberately bred in the late 1990s — but it has had a much faster cultural rise. Senator Mitt Romney's family Goldendoodle, Tilly, sat in on the 2012 presidential campaign. Usain Bolt has one. The actress Anne Hathaway has photographed hers more often than several of her co-stars.
There is also a small subgenre of Goldendoodle social media in which the dog has been groomed into a teddy-bear silhouette — round face, short legs, fluffy coat — and posted in increasingly elaborate domestic tableaux. We have opinions about this. The dogs do not seem to mind.
Upload a photo. Your dog appears on the live stage. Viewers around the world send bones. Pick "Goldendoodle" in the breed picker.
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