The picture above is Abby when she arrived at her new home.

Below is Abby in our backyard.


Click on the picture above to see a larger view.

Labradoodles are not yet officially recognized as an AKC dog breed.  They were originally bred in Australia for the purpose of creating a dog that can be used to assist humans as Labrador Retrievers are often trained to do.  The Labradoodle has a different coat than a Lab (due to the Poodle heritage) and is not as apt to cause allergic reactions for people who are allergic to dogs.  Pretty clever, those Aussies!

There was an interesting article about Labradoodles in the April 30, 2003 issue of Fortune Magazine (unfortunately the complete article is no longer viewable unless you're a Fortune subscriber....bummer!)  If you're interested in reading about some of the wonderful things that Retrievers do as "Assistance Dogs" see the Canine Companions site at:    http://www.caninecompanions.org/ .  

We got Abby from a very nice breeder and if you're interested in getting a Labradoodle send me an e-mail and I will forward it to her.  Labradoodles are very hard to come by and she had three of Abby's brothers and a sister available for adoption on June 14, 2003.  

.....but I digress...back to Abby.   She was just 9 weeks old when she joined our family.  When we weighed her she weighed 18 lbs.  I met her  Mom who was a little smaller than me.  Her Dad (a big Standard Poodle) is approx. 100 lbs.!   Abby's paws are pretty big so it will be fun to see how big she gets.

Her teeth are extremely sharp!  I know that from experience as she seems to have an affinity for chewing on my extremities.  

Abby already has her own Frisbee and I'm confident that she will be catching it before long.  The order of business is to get her to fetch and return it.  She has the fetch part down but is still working on the return part.  Her coordination isn't quite up to Frisbee competition snuff yet.  I'll teach her everything I know and we're hoping Abby will be the first Frisbee Labradoodle.  Maybe she'll be catching a Frisbee in time to enter the competition we're hosting in Middletown, NJ on September 13, 2003.  Now that's something to shoot for!   Come to the compteition and see if she is ready to compete...and cheer us both on!   

Click here to see more AbbyDoodle Pictures.