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If you’re looking to adopt a dog, then pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee, and relax because you’re going to want to read this article.

In the next few minutes, we’re going to look at three crucial elements that you MUST consider before you adopt a dog. First, we’re going to talk about the differences between adopting a purebred or a mutt. Next, we’re going to discuss factors that have to be considered when deciding on the size of the dog. Finally, we’re going to finish up by talking about the pros and cons of adopting a puppy or an adult dog.

First, let’s start by talking about purebreds and mutts. If a dog is considered a mutt, it doesn’t necessarily mean the dog isn’t purebred.  It just means the dog has no papers or documentation of breed. If you are interested in entering your dog into shows and competitions, a purebred is the best choice. However, purebred dogs are in high demand, and are often very costly.  Usually the breeder will also pre-screen potential owners, so even though you see a puppy you want, it’s not set in stone that you will get it. It can take several tries before you are selected.

Next, let’s talk about size.  There are several factors that are important.  The size of your home is one of them.  Larger dogs need more space to roam.  You’ll also want to decide if you want a dog that is super playful or gentle and mild.  That will depend on you, and how active you are.  The same general responsibilities exist with a larger dog, except they are intensified.  For example, they’ll require more food.  They will take longer to groom, and they will be harder to clean up after.  In short, caring for a larger dog is much more work than caring for a lap dog.

Finally, let’s talk about the differences between adopting a puppy and an adult dog. With a puppy, you’ll be able to guide it’s growth and mold it’s behavior to your liking.  Adult dogs, however, have set behaviors.  While it’s true that you can teach an old dog new tricks, it’s not a very easy thing to do.  Puppies, on the other hand, are easily adaptable, and with a little training you can get them to behave the way you want.  Another thing to consider is appearance.  With an older dog, what you see is what you get.  Puppies change greatly as they develop. There is something to be said about adopting an older dog.  Most times, you’ll get an appreciative old gal or fella who will shower you with undying love. 

These are the three critical elements you MUST consider before you adopt a dog. First decide if you want a purebred or a mutt, then consider size.  All that’s left to consider after that is whether you want a feisty young pup or a loyal older companion.

Keep these three tips in mind, and you’ll make the right decision and bring home a dog that you and your family can enjoy for years to come!

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Many dog owners would like to know how often they should feed their dogs and you are not an exception. A puppy in its first six weeks must be fed milk five to seven times a day. The puppy will alert you, its owner, through sound.

As the puppy grows older and moves beyond six weeks, the frequency drops. Once the dog reaches four weeks old, it can start taking some solid food. Your puppies introduction to solid food is cautionary though as you will have to only feed him twice a day on solid. The reason for this is to watch out if the dog develops diarrhea and if it does, discontinue the new feeding regimen.

This is due to trial and error. However, your dog’s eating of solid food should increase to two to three times daily once the dog reaches eight weeks. However, if the dog is still hungry, then provide it with some extra food. This however varies with different breeds.

You must avoid feeding your dog too many times in this age group. Between the third and sixth month, the puppy will be teething. Consequently, restrict the feeding to twice only but it must be balanced lest the dog develop deficiency based symptoms.

From six months to one year, strive using puppy food that is commercially available. However, once the dog reaches a year, adult food may be given more and more. From this time on, its food may comprise of only adult food.

However, when the dog becomes an elder dog, restrict the frequency of feeding since the movements of such adult dogs are much reduced. However, the pregnant animal may be fed an extra time depending on the willingness of the animal. As always, never compromise on the quality of food you give your dog.

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We get a lot of phone calls from people looking for a “mini” doodle.  The problem?  Goldendoodles don’t come in size categories.  Because the Goldendoodle dog is a hybrid,  each individual puppy in any given litter will be a different size.  It doesn’t even matter what size the parent dogs are.  To date,  we’ve never seen a doodle puppy become the same exact size as either parent.  They have always been larger or smaller.

When asking a breeder if they have any “miniature” Goldendoodles,  you must first understand what constitutes a Miniature sized dog.  If you visit any kennel club website and read specifics about miniature sized dogs,  you will come away knowing that a canine is decidedly considered a Miniature providing both parents weigh no more than 15-25 pounds; their ancestors weighed no more than 15-25 pounds each and all of the offspring in the entire litter will, as adult dogs, weigh no more than 15-25 pounds each.  Then, and only then, will a Goldendoodle be considered a true Miniature Goldendoodle dog.   When a Golden Retriever is bred even with a Toy Poodle,  not all of the offspring will turn out to be under twenty five pounds as adults.

How do we know this?

In 2005, we deliberately used a Toy Poodle male sire to our female, purebred Golden Retriever dam.  It was a natural breeding as I held down the rear of my female Golden Retriever so that my Toy Poodle sire could mount her naturally.  I also had to sit with both dogs, waiting for them to naturally untie so that when the female Golden Retriever stood up,  she did not injury the much smaller male Toy Poodle.  In the natural world,  this pairing more than likely would have never occurred for the simple reason,  a Toy Poodle would find it quite difficult to naturally mount such a large dog on his own.  But with human assistance,  this type of pairing is very easy with a successful, willing and ready little sire.

So what happened?

When the puppies were born,  we did lose one of them.  The largest doodle was stillborn for whatever reason.  Many things can go wrong within the uterus beyond anyone’s control.  Our Golden Retriever dam was 48 pounds and extremely healthy. There was no reason that we could determine visually that the puppy should be born stillborn.  The remainder of the puppies were very small.  Like tiny mice.  My main concern was that the mother would accidentally lay on puppies so small, so a constant vigil was important.  As the puppies grew, we were not sure just what their size would turn out to be.  One can only guessimate given such a huge size difference between the parent dogs.  We kept two of the Goldendoodles in the litter and as of this date,  12-12-09,  the little male that we kept weighs approx.  15 pounds and has much longer legs than the female we had kept, who weighs approx. 18 pounds.  She has much shorter, stockier legs.   Out of the five Goldendoodle puppies born from this mixture,  one worked out for a family who had older children; two of them came back to us after having placed them with families who had kids and they had to be rehomed with families who had absolutely no children.  The dogs were not aggressive toward children,  they just had no tolerance for the antics of children.   My own children are grown,  so the two that we kept didn’t have this issue to worry about.  However,  neither are stranger friendly.  The other doodle we haven’t heard anything from the owners in New Jersey, so I have no idea how that one has worked out for their family.  Unless we receive feedback from those who purchase,  we do not know how the doodle has turned out.

So what’s the over all perception of a Miniature Goldendoodle? 

If a buyer has small children,  my personal opinion is to not purchase any Goldendoodle that is 25 pounds or under.  For some reason the small Goldendoodle has a tendency to pick up the quirky temperament of the Toy Poodle, in an exaggerated manner that may not be suitable for young children.  Yes, they are cuddly.  Yes they are cute.  Yes, everyone wants one.  But not everyone has had successful adoptions of doodles this small when small children were a part of the family.   Because we know that small Goldendoodles do not work out for young children,  we no longer create them any smaller than 25 pounds.  As a breeder of thirteen years,  our desire is to achieve Goldendoodles with an outgoing personality and family oriented temperament. This doesn’t happen most of the time with little Goldendoodles.

Why do breeders call Goldendoodles Miniatures?

As a breeder who has made it our  deliberate business to know every single thing there is to know about a Goldendoodle dog,  not only do we create these dogs,  but with each litter,  we also research many other aspects to this hybrid that most breeders fail to notice.  Since 1999,  I’ve made it my business to photograph, research and document the coat changes;  the coat type;  shedding phases; sizes; temperament and the over all bodily structure of these dogs.  They are certainly fascinating from a breeder’s perspective and for the most part,  fantastic dogs from buyers’ perspective.   I have yet to understand why any breeder would post inside of their dog advertisements,  their articles and their websites that they breed “Miniature” Goldendoodles.   Perhaps they do not mean they actually breed Miniature sized dogs,  but that one of the parent dogs is a Miniature sized Poodle?  It is beyond my understanding what exactly they are claiming because they certainly will not provide a buyer a size guarantee.  It has been a fact that some breeders have made the claim they breed for miniature sized Goldendoodles and then when a customer complains that their doodle turned out to be a fifty pound dog at one year of age,  they tell them…oopsy daisy..too bad!  What will the buyer do after they’ve become attached to the now pony sized Goldendoodle?  Give it back?  I don’t think so.  Good luck in getting your money refunded as well.  As a breeder,  even we do not refund just because a Goldendoodle turned out to be smaller or larger than anticipated.  These dogs are hybrids,  so it is quite difficult to tell what size a puppy will turn out to be as an adult dog.  A breeder should never call their Goldendoodles a “miniature” sized dog simply because one of the parent dogs was a miniature sized Poodle or a Toy Poodle.  The only way a breeder can rightfully call their Goldendoodle litter “miniature” doodles is if both parent dogs are no more than 25 pounds each;  the grandparent dogs are no more than 25 pounds each and their ancestors are no more than 25 pounds.  The dogs themselves would have to have an entire lineage of ancestors that weigh no more than 25 pounds.  The maximum weight (genetic weight) for a dog considered by kennel standards to be a true miniature sized dog.

If each individual puppy will turn out to be different sizes and only one parent dog is 25 pounds or under,  the breeder should not make the statement that their litter of doodle puppies are miniature sized dogs.  The statement alone confuses people who are seeking a small Goldendoodle and it also deceives the buyer into believing their dog will become no larger than 25 pounds as an adult.  To date,  I have never understood why someone would believe that any dog…doodle or not…larger than 25 pounds is a “miniature” sized dog.  How is a 35-40 pound dog a miniature sized dog?  It isn’t.  So please do not be fooled by advertisements that proclaim there are miniature Goldendoodles available for sale.  Unless the breeder will provide you a size guarantee in writing and that they will accept the dog back should the dog become larger than 25 pounds at one year of age (genetic weight), then I would say that more than likely your simply buying a notion your doodle will stay small and taking the chance that it will not be.  If you reside in a condo situation or an apartment situation and there are size restrictions, then this can be a problem for the buyer.

So what’s the solution? Can a breeder determine what size a Goldendoodle dog will be?

The answer is a conditional yes.  If a Goldendoodle breeder is experienced and they are using the same two parent dogs who have produced doodle pups that remained 25 pounds or less as adults and they know from past experience what size all of the puppies turned out to be as an adult,  then chances are the same thing will happen again.  Maybe.  You have to take into consideration the entire lineage that comes along the genetic strand of DNA.  Does the breeder also know what sizes the ancestors were as adult dogs?  Unless the breeder owns the entire lineage of ancestors,  a pedigree will not supply this information to the breeder.  9 times out of 10,  second litters will turn out to be very much like the first if the same parent dogs are used again.  However,  that 1 percent still remains iffy.  As a breeder who began our Goldendoodle program in 1999,  it has been my experience that the larger the doodle at 8 weeks of age,  the larger adult dog it will be and vice versa.

Conclusion

In order to know whether or not a Goldendoodle will stay around 25-28 pounds as an adult,  the doodle would have to weigh between 2-4 pounds at eight weeks of age and no more.  The best way to know what size a Goldendoodle dog will be as an adult is to purchase one when they are six months of age,  if size is your number one priority.  The closer a Goldendoodle is to one year of age,  the easier it is to know what size it will be as an adult.  All Goldendoodles are fully mature at one year of age.It is absurd at best that breeders deceive the general public with false hopes when it comes to size in the world of Goldendoodles.  It is deceptive advertising practice or it is complete ignorance on the breeders’ part.  I haven’t yet decided which direction some of these breeders lean.  It does a huge disservice to the general public at large for doodle breeders to make false claims.  In my personal opinion,  if a breeder is going to make a claim that they are creating Goldendoodles in specific size categories such as toy, miniature, standard,  then the breeder needs to pony up and sign a size warranty contract with the buyer.  Otherwise,  state the facts as they are.  Goldendoodles come in all sizes in any given litter regardless of the size of the parent dogs…….but they do not come in specific size categories and as such,  should never be advertised in size categories. 

Dee Gerrish has been a private, professional breeder for 13 years as of Jan. 2008; She was a respite and foster care provider in Mannheim, Germany and won many community awards for her dedicated service. Dee has written very popular Goldendoodle articles that are listed across the internet.

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