Australian Cobberdog

The Australian Cobberdog is a dog crossbreed developed in Australia by the Rutland Manor Breeding and Research Center and Tegan Park Labradoodle Breeding & Research Centres. The mix was created as a continuation of Wally Conron's efforts to create a definable and carefully researched labradoodle. This effort was also in response to the increase in demand for labradoodles which had led to breeders referring to any combination of Labrador Retrievers and Poodles as labradoodles without temperament or hypoallergenic criteria. The inconsistency of standards for labradoodles led to the distinction of Australian Labradoodle and the further distinction of Cobberdog attributed to a purebred dog breed with more strict standards for breeding, temperament, and appearance. The Australian Cobberdog was bred to be an ideal candidate for being therapy and service dogs. Up until the creation of the Australian Cobberdog, no breed had been developed with the sole objective of having the ideal characteristics to serve as therapy and assistance dogs. This is in part because therapy and assistance dogs are relatively modern. Australian Labradoodles, as prescribed by the Australian Labradoodle Association of America, are derived from three breeds of previously purebred dog breeds. Cobberdogs are meanwhile derived from a combination of at least eight existing breeds in order to achieve the desired temperament. The large pool for the development of the Australian Cobberdog led to the breed's disassociation with the Australian Labradoodle; this caused the involved research centres to approach the obscure private company Master Dog Breeders and Associates. With a name change and the finalisation of the breed's DNA sequence, the standards for physical and temperamental attributes were established and the Cobberdog was made the only pure breed of labradoodle. Cobberdog breeders make the assertion that the Australian Cobberdog was an attempt to reach the originally intended goals of the Labradoodle. Prior to the explosion of the popularity of Labradoodles, they were carefully bred in an attempt to perfect the temperament and be hypoallergenic. After the popularity of Labradoodles began less careful selection and a lack of breed standards led to the modern, unrecognized crossbreed. Cobberdogs, as researchers state, are the product of continuing with the original goals of the Labradoodle project: a gentle, hypoallergenic dog with a calm demeanor and a tendency to comfort the people around them.