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Founded by
Beverley Manners of Rutland Manor and Angela
Cunningham of Tegan Park and incorporated
in Melbourne Australia, on 14th June 2000
Incorporation # A0039798P.
A
database of pedigrees was built and members
began to join the Association. Both Angela
and Beverley were struggling to learn the
Computer and Internet, and progress was
slow.
A
combination of the loss of the entire
database in a major computer crash, and
difficulty in raising enough interest in the
community to form a committee quorum, saw
the LAA collapse and it went into recession
late in 2000 for a period of approximately
two years.
Angela
Cunningham of Tegan Park was no longer
interested in the LAA, but In
2003 because Beverley Manners, was still
Secretary and Public Officer of the
Labradoodle Association of Australia,
Australian Federal Law required her to
either revive it or close it down.
Because the past Treasurer was not able to
be found, legal closure was not possible, so
she set about reviving the Association via
an intense emailing and advertising
campaign, which was successful.
 When
the LAA was once again up and running,
Beverley became discouraged with what she
perceived as corruption and hypocracy in its
running, and so she resigned and set her
sights on forming an International
Association, with a transparent database and
ethical conduct.
International Labradoodle Association
(ILA)
founded by Beverley
Manners in 2004.
In an
effort to protect the developing Australian Labradoodle from the scourge of over
popularity and its imminent deterioration
Beverley Manners founded
what she hoped would be a transparent global
association which would provide protection
across the world, both for the breed, its
fanciers and the general public.
Assisted by
Peter Schreijver of Apparition Labradoodles
in Holland, and some willing helpers who
later faded away, she founded the
International Labradoodle Association
(ILA) and formed a committee
with Board members in Hawaii, Nth America,
Holland, the UK and Australia. As ILA
President she introduced world firsts
for non registered dog breeds with mandatory
health testing for breeding stock, mandatory
desexing of pet puppies, and DNA
identifying of parent dogs across the
world.
Hundreds of New Breeders Spring Up Overnight
Between 2003 and 2004 the
Australian Labradoodle had become famous and
extremely popular across the world and 380
new 'breeders' suddenly appeared in North
America alone. Some of these were
serious breeders who imported Australian
breeding stock to keep the breed on the
right track, but many others cashed in on
the boom by breeding Labradors to Poodles
and claiming their puppies would be the same
as the developed breed. Some, were
even selling puppies who were indiscriminate
cross breds, as 'Labradoodles' and the
reputation of the true breed was in
jeopardy.
Rutland
Manor's Pedigree Database Donated to the
ILA
Beverley
provided the basis of the ILA (now IALA) dog
database with the donation of several
hundred pedigrees and photos from Rutland
Manor's archives. She was the ILA's president until
its second term when she became
disillusioned with the struggles for power
within its ranks, and what she considered to
be dishonest practice amongst those in
power.
In 2004,
the entire board of the ILA including
some of its current board members,
walked out without notice, leaving no access
to website, database, or financial
records and redirected all emails to
Beverley's private email address. She
struggled to keep faith with the public
whose money had been entrusted to the ILA
and set up a new committee, with the help of
a conscientious and dedicated breeder, Patty
Barnes of Log Cabin Labradoodles breeder in Maine USA, who
together with her husband, did their best to
manage the membership queries and database.
But once again, politics had threatened the
furure of the breed, and disheartened, once
the ILA was on its feet again, Beverley resigned her presidency and
membership towards the end of 2005.
Once again,
political discord discouraged Beverley and
she resigned from the ILA. It later
merged with the LAA and another new group,
ALA and became known as IALA.
Early Breed Problems
During
the early years of its development the
Labradoodle was mainly a very large dog.
Most were over 26 inches high, and anything
under 20 inches was considered to be a
Miniature!
Too
many had a 'hard headed' hyper active temperament
and both Tegan Park and Rutland Manor Rescue
Services were kept busy taking in Labradoodles which were turned in by families who were unable to handle these large, dominant, - and very smart dogs. Most were able to be re-homed after rehabilitation and training, although unfortunately many were too habitual with their behaviors
to integrate into a family situation.
The
most common experience shared was that the breeder
had not told the family how large their cute little
puppy would grow. Many were also told that
their dog would be allergy friendly 'because it was
a Labradoodle'. Sadly, this was all too often not the case and there were frequent tearful goodbyes as the family drove away leaving their dog behind, to an uncertain future at the Rescues.
But in spite of this,
there were also some beautiful dogs being bred,
which was enough to encourage
continuing research and trial and error selective matings by
both Breeding and
Research Centers. Progress was slow, but consistent and promising.
There
are some first generation Labradoodle breeders
who claim that it is impossible for a multi
generation breeder to guarantee that a puppy
will not shed. If the breeder is
experienced and 'knows their oats' it
is not only possible, but very easy to
distinguish the future shedders from the
reliable future non shedders. But do
your homework with your breeder to see if
they have done their homework too!
CAUTION!
Because some first crossed (F1) Labradoodles (Labrador
to Poodle) can be non shedding, inexperienced or
unscrupulous breeders still sometimes claim that all of their
puppies are non shedding or allergy friendly, and
this has led to sad stories, with many families having
to give up the dog they have grown to love, because it
causes their allergies to react.
In
Australia, some of the early generation Labradoodles
were great dogs, but the main problem was their
unpredictability as to coat temperament and size.
Basically, you had to wait for a puppy to grow up to
know what you really had. A common problem in these
early generations was a 'hard headed' attitude, willful and sometimes hyperactive, which, when combined
with high intelligence, made for a difficult dog to
manage in the typical family situation.
Some
strains did have sweet natures and these were
concentrated on by breeders who bred for temperament as
well as other desirable features.
Some
pet shops and lots of backyard 'breeders' in Australia
still offer puppies of unknown background as "Labradoodles"
and this is now prevalent in other countries as
well, especially the United States where the Labradoodle's explosion of popularity amongst such a
large population has been an inducement for breeding
practices lacking in integrity. 2007
sees Rutland Manor
introducing a new initiative in an effort to provide
more alternatives for those seeking their new family
member. See ASD notes below.
As
the popularity of the Labradoodle grew as a family
dog there arose a need for a much smaller Labradoodle to
be bred and the Miniature Poodle was introduced to
reduce size, along with other carefully chosen pure bred
dogs.
Research
carried out at Rutland Manor found that by using
Miniature Poodles over Labrador Retrievers the size in
the offspring for at least three generations was
unpredictable, with some of the puppies being smaller
than either parent, but others in the same litter being
as large or larger than either parent at maturity. The
use of Toy and Miniature Poodles tended to alter the
temperament and small 'yappy' dogs would often result.
When
the smallest Labradoodles were bred to other
similar sized Labradoodles the progress was in some ways
slower, but more dependable. The infusion of American or
English Cocker Spaniel further stabilized the smaller
size over time.
The programs which used the latter method, have resulted
in reliably smaller dogs across
the litter, of b whilst the offspring of the former
method are still producing what has become known as our
'Medium' sized Labradoodle of between
seventeen and twenty inches in height.
There
is no such thing as a 'hypo-allergenic' dog in our
opinion. But our carefully bred ASD Australian Labradoodles have been
developed to have the most allergy friendly coats
possible in a dog.
Re - Inventing The Wheel
The
first Australian Labradoodles were exported to America in 1998.
American families fell in love with them in a big way, just as
had happened previously in Australia. Within two years more than four hundred
new 'breeders' had jumped onto the bandwagon in the United
States, to cash in on the word 'Labradoodle'. Most bred
Labradors to Poodles, and other crosses, but claimed their dogs
were the same as the developed breed. By 2007 this
number had more than trebled.
One USA breeder and high
profile board member of the ILA went public in 2006 stating she had been
breeding Labradoodle to Labradoodle for eight generations - an
impossibility !
It seemed everyone had to
breed Labradoodles!
The concern of the Breeding and
Research Centers Rutland Manor and Tegan Park was that people were
so confused that they thought every Labradoodle was the same
kind of dog. It was thought inevitable that someone would
lose their life or become very ill from allergic reaction to a
dog they believed had the same allergy friendly qualities as the
genuine Australian Labradoodle. Something had to be
done!
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