The Truth About Australian Cobberdogs

There's a saying that goes something like this: "Give credit where credit is due." So that is what I am doing.

It is January 2026 as I write this, the month when I officially announced my retirement forever from breeding the world famous RUTLANDS Australian Cobberdogs. I've been completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of congratulatory messages on FB and IG and on private Messages.  So, it's time that I give credit where credit is due.
This is actually what happened.

Way back in about 1989 My daughter Angela came home from her visit to an Open Day held by what was then known as the Royal Guide Dogs Centre in Melbourne Australia. From this point on, I'll call my daughter "Mel" because it's the name most of you will remember her by. It stands for her second given name at birth which was Mellodie. Her husband Len had an unpleasant experience with a previous 'Angela' so together they changed her name!

Mel came back visibly excited from her visit to the Open Day, She enthused that she was convinced that Wally Conran had terminated his breeding experiment with the Guide Dogs far too soon. She had met some of his Labradoodles, and yes, a lot of them were too big and they shed and moulted, and yes, they were a bit over the top with excitable natures, but she sensed something in their eyes that impressed her.

Mel told me that this thing could be so huge, that it would be a worldwide sensation. And she was right!

MEL shared her vision with me.  And I'm so glad that she did! You will be glad too, when you read what really happened.

​On Mel's hunch, we both set up our own Breeding and Research Centres in Melbourne. Hers was called 'Tegan Park' and mine was called 'Rutlands', in memory of the last German Shepherd Dog I ever bred after Rutland developed Anal Furunculosis, a hereditary condition. There were no DNA tests in those days. 

 I was determined that Rutland's suffering and shortness of life would not be wasted. So, I named my Breeding and Research Centre after him, and my Kennel Prefix too, so that he would never be forgotten.

Rutland at ten months old, sitting behind his mother, Maedel. A female I bred who was the companion of Mel. Maedel almost died when she contracted a paralysis tick in Coffs Harbour in Australia.

​Rutland was her only singleton puppy.

Mel found a gentleman called Ron Evans. Ron's passion was hunting and breeding his waterfowl hunting dogs. He'd been crossing Poodles and Labradors for years and he never realised what he had done! He'd even bred with some of his dogs, what Wally Conran was calling his own 'double doodles' later on to be called 'multi generation'.
Mel and I both purchased two females each from Ron, so we had a flying start and before long both Mel's and my puppies were in hot demand. Our puppies had made a name for themselves in Australia and across the world. 

This was one of the last public pictures taken of Sultan. After he retired from working, he was kept as a family pet by the Blums.  But we don't know how long he lived, it has not become publicly known.

Some of the sashes from the inaugural Australian Labradoodle Show that was held in Malibu where Mel and I officiated as judges.

​The Australian Labradoodle at one time had a very bright future. I didn't want the same thing to happen to the ACD and this is why I signed the contract with the MDBA.

Sometimes Mel and I worked together. But over time, philosophical differences made this impossible, so we each continued in our own separate ways. There was a lot of strife with Labradoodles at that time and because there was no place to register them, people were cashing in on the fact that people in general didn't really know what a 'proper' Labradoodle looked like. A heap of people started to cross any old thing in their back yard with a Poodle, or a crossed Poodle with something else, and called the progeny Labradoodles, or simply 'doodles'. Mel and I ended up differentiating our own by calling them, 'Australian Labradoodles'. It worked for a while until the wrong-doers caught on and then started calling their own puppies the same as well!

It was soon after this, that various Labradoodle registries/societies began to crop up.  But there was no unity in goals or perspectives, and the name 'Labradoodle' got corrupted.  Eventually it was a huge mess. So many Associations and Registries all claiming to breed the same thing, but each one with different rules and even different breed standards.
The so-called Australian Labradoodle became a hodge-podge of dogs, many different to others in looks and nature and it ruined many years of hard work and sacrifice.  It broke Mel's and my hearts to see this happen.

Two early Australian Labradoodles.

Then tragedy struck. Mel became very ill, so ill in fact that she sold her dogs or gave them away to good homes and completely stopped breeding any dogs at all for a period of ten years.  I lost touch with her during this time, but I struggled to keep her vision alive. Because I didn't know where my daughter was, I continued to develop what I knew her vision was. I introduced new breeds and different bloodlines, always with her vision in mind. But because it was my own doing, a new name was required.  By the time I found her, living on a quiet island, off the coast of Australia, my new breed had been accepted by the MDBA now the current sole registry globally for the breed, 

In 2011 I approached the MDBA seeking to have the 'authentic Australian Labradoodle' accepted as a pure breed in development. I had to submit years of my data and the reasons I did everything that I did everything, which took me months to prepare. Seven months later permission was granted but with the proviso that the word 'Labradoodle' did not appear anywhere in the name of the breed. 
The MDBA told me later that they also considered all the bad press (shocking lies) talked about me on the internet but that the Board's decision was unanimous. Common sense prevailed! I also learned that the MDBA lost valuable sponsors simply because the MDBA agreed to have anything to do with me!  For this reason, everyone who has a registered Australian Cobberdog owes the MDBA a great debt of honour.

The rest is known history. After a two-hour long phone call with Mel, she tearfully told me how much she missed breeding dogs, but that she couldn't afford to start up again.  By this time, breeding Cobberdogs were very expensive. What would you do if your only daughter was in such a situation and you were able to help? I thought so! And it's exactly what I did. I gifted Mel with a young proven breeding female and several doses of frozen semen from proven stud dogs, to give her a start again.

Beverley Rutland-Manners January 2026

Mel retired from breeding dogs and sold her business, her property, her dogs and her Tegans Kennel Prefix a year or two ago.
​
So dear friends, that's how it all happened.  Without Mel's vision from the very start, the Australian Cobberdog breed would never have happened.

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