Hellobee Boards

how exciting! my coworker has a goldendoodle and she's goofy and awesome. everyone has different priorities and capacities, and if you truly believe you can do it, then go for it. the cautious side of me would ask if you would consider getting an older dog, one that doesn't require as much attention as a puppy. also, i would absolutely hire a dog walker to help out.

also, and i hesitate to say this because every family is different, my friend got a second dog, a puppy, right before she had a baby. a few years later, they put the second dog up for adoption because they were never able to fully incorporate the dog into their lives the way they wanted to and give it the attention it deserved.

I've met many and have a few friends/family who have golden doodles. They are super sweet, but can be really bat shit hyper and destructive--I mean more so than your garden variety lab/golden type of dog, who I'd expect to have a lot of energy.
That said, in my neighborhood there lives one of the calmest dogs I've ever met, she is from a place called Barleycroft Golden Doodles (I think they're in PA?). The woman breeds specifically for a calm temperament. I remembered their name because I've always been so wowed by this particular girl

I have a mini. She is a really good dog but very hyper! She is six and people are shocked to find out she's over 2.

We don't have kids yet but she is very good with them! She is a space invader and gets in their faces but handles it well when they say no and push her away. We have four doodles in our family they are all really good dogs with one or two bad habits that are most likely our faults.

I do! We have a medium size Golden Doodle. He's 50 pounds of love and sweetness. He's just the best dog. I've had poodles before who I loved with all my heart but my doodle just has the best temperament. He's super sweet, patient, gentle with my DD, cuddly and loving. He's very smart and was easy to train. It took less than 48 hours to train him how to ring a bell to go outside. He doesn't shed and doesn't slobber. Just all around, the best dog ever.

I'll be honest first and say I own a Golden and always will.

My experience with doodles is that they're either awesome, or stupid/crazy hyper and take all the wrong traits of either breed. I just hate how much you pay for one hoping for the best of both breeds and it's really a crapshoot.

We did a crap ton of work with our guy and he is an unreal dog and even with his temperament I wouldn't go near the idea of a puppy again with a kid under 5 in the house.

My parents had a Golden Doodle who recently passed away, and will be getting their 2nd one on Sunday. They are the sweetest dogs! Love them so much!! Very easy to train, and great with kids! My son played/harassed their dog, and their dog would play gently or just deal with my son's antics.

We have a doodle. He's actually a black goldendoodle...he's my avatar pic He's a great dog. He's really calm with our crazy 2.5 year old son, but he doesn't really interact with him. He's patient and lets our son climb around him, but gives lots of warning growls if he doesn't like something. He would rather our son leav him alone most days I think, BUT I feel like he's starting to warm up to him more and see him as more of a person these days. He has always been pretty protective of him (he wouldn't let my parents' dogs near me and my son as a baby), but it's not the cute boy and his dog relationship I dreamed of. FWIW, our son isn't super attached to him either, but I've noticed more of a relationship forming. He was BFFs with the boy I nannied before our son was born and it was the sweetest thing ever. They loved seeing each other every day and I think they were both pretty sad when we moved away. Overall, hes really great with all kids.

I'm sure we could have trained our doodle more than we did, but he does have some behavioral issues. He has pretty bad separation anxiety and freaks out when we leave and come home. He runs around the house crying when we coming home and jumps on me and tries to hold me in one place sometimes when we leave. We say the poodle anxieties mixed poorly with the loyal golden qualities. He's always had the anxiety and at nearly 7 years old I don't think it's going away. He also barks A LOT. It was awful when we lived in an apartment. Every noise was a barking fit. We are in a house on a dead end street and anytime a car drives by or a neighbor comes home he flips out barking. He has a super deep and loud bark, so it is really annoying. We've tried everything short of a shock collar and it hasn't done anything. One nice thing is that he never barks loudly when our son is sleeping. He does really quiet barks, but he seems to know when naptime is and won't bark. We also struggle with him stealing food from the counter and any place he can find food. I had Christmas stocking stuffers hidden in our closet and we came home on Xmas eve to find he had eaten ALL of it and threw it back up. It's really, really annoying because I can't leave anything on the counters when I leave because he will find it at eat it. I think part of it is his stress/anxiety when we leave.

Our dog is super laid back and doesn't really require daily walks. He likes to nap all day and is around 55 pounds. I think we got pretty lucky in the health department because he has never had weight issues and has a good energy level. He's insanely smart. Like way too smart for his own good! He did have some gastrointestinal issues when we first brought him home and it took forever to find a food that wouldn't make him crap his brains out all night long, but he got over that and now can eat anything without getting sick. His coat is a lot of work. He gets dreadlock type knots easily, especially in his legs from laying down and it's hard for me to keep up with brushing with a toddler. We like his fur on the longer side and only shave him 3 times a year (I usually do it myself in the backyard). We keep him long all winter because we live in a frigid area. He does shed, but it's more like clumps of fur left around. Not at all like straight lab fur. Our cat definitely sheds more. My DH says he can't imagine having any other breed in the future. So even though he drives us crazy we couldn't imagine having another dog or breed.

My SIL has one. He's very sweet, but he's high energy, barks all the time, and is pretty mischievous. He does ok around my daughter. He knocks her down by accident and jumps. I think that's just puppy behavior. I personally wouldn't get a puppy while having small children. There just isn't enough time to properly train them. My big dog was sooo high energy until he was 5. I can't imagine having a young him and my toddler. He's 11 now.

@MissLace: Aw good for you! My assistant has two and they are the best dogs EVER. One day we will get one. Please adopt!!!!! Good luck and congrats on your second baby!

@MissLace: it definitely depends on the individual dog. My goldendoodle has a lot of energy and loves going on walks and hikes but he's not crazy. He is very well behaved at home We make sure he has appropriate toys at home but honestly, he just sleeps a lot during the day. The only behavioral "problem" he has is he is a food thief. Also when he was a puppy he loved eating dirty underwear but he grew out of that.

I don't have a goldendoodle but I'll chime in about having two dogs... we adopted our second before ever having kids, and one thing that never occurred to us was how much more it would cost us. I'm sure you've already thought about doubling your food and vet costs - but going out of town became a huge hassle. If we drive, we can take the dogs, but finding lodging that allows dogs is much more difficult and it sort of interferes with our enjoyment of the trip when we have to worry about the dogs in an unfamiliar place (peeing on things, barking at new sounds, somehow running off and not knowing where they are...). If we kennel the dogs, it adds up so quickly ($35-50 per dog per night in our area), and we haven't had a lot of luck finding people to stay in our house and watch the dogs there but that would cost almost as much anyway. When we had just one dog, we have plenty of friends with dogs who would be willing to keep our one dog for a few days. It feels like much more of a burden to ask them to take on two dogs in addition to their own. We aren't even big travelers but the costs add up quickly for even a handful of weekend trips per year. It sounds like you are pretty set on a second dog but I wanted to give you something else to think about. Good luck!

No doodle, but we got a puppy when LO was 18 months. The first year was actually fine and even...easy, but once I was pregnant and the 2nd baby came along, it kinda blows balls. Good thing she's kinda cute. Sometimes.

@Silva: haha this is totally me now with a 2 year old and a newborn. I find myself yelling at our dog so much more and getting annoyed with her about everything